I received a good question the other day, regarding God, His will, and how much of this world around us He uses to accomplish His divine purpose. By coincidence, it’s also a topic that we’ve discussed a few times in our Young Adult class on Sunday mornings. We’re studying Job, and you’re invited to study with us.
Anyway, here’s the question I was texted not long ago:
“What do you think of the phrase “everything happens for a reason”? I’m not a huge fan of it. It doesn’t sound scriptural upon first hearing it.”
My response was this:
Yeah I’m not fond of it myself.
I can pick up a quarter and flip it in the air. It may land on heads, or it may land on tails. What difference does it make? None. There are circumstances where it may matter, but if I do it right now………there. It makes no difference. It landed on heads. So what.
My problem with the phrase is with the hugeness of the word “everything.”
My going to poop does not (necessarily!) fit into the grand scheme of God’s plan for man’s redemption any more than me flipping a coin here at my desk. And yet, I know brethren who insist that everything, even something as seemingly insignificant as a coin toss, is used by God to work His will. To me, that’s borderline Calvinism, and there is nothing in the Bible to give that impression.
For example, Jesus sent His disciples off to find a house for them to dwell in for their Passover meal (the last one before He died). Off they went and they found a place. There was nothing special about it. It was just a house of a man willing to host them. It had no great significance, nor was any assigned to it by the Bible writers. The significance was in what happened there, but what happened could have happened in any number of Jerusalem houses.
The problem with the “everything happens for a reason” mantra is it is unprovable as much as it is undeniable, which means arguing about it goes nowhere. A person who believes it can just say “well, you don’t know: That coin flip MAY be used by God in some future time according to His will!” Likewise, a person who doesn’t believe can’t prove that the coin flip WON’T be used by God at some future time.
I suppose the safest way to phrase it would be “anything could happen for a reason.” The Bible certainly teaches that principle: God has used seemingly mundane or unimportant persons, places, and things, to accomplish His amazing will. Who would have thought that a nobody PERSON, like a fisherman from Galillee, would be the man to preach the first Gospel sermon, and lead 3,000 souls to salvation (Acts 2)? Who would have thought that the little, unimportant PLACE like Bethlehem (called “little among the thousands in the region” by the prophet in Micah 5:2) would cradle the Savior of humanity? What is a cross, but a couple of boards nailed together, a THING on which the Romans killed their criminals, nothing more. And yet, once, two-thousand years ago, something earth-changing happened on one of those crosses. God uses anything He wants to do His will.
I know why people like to say “everything happens for a reason”: They say it because they’ve experienced some great tragedy in their lives and they are trying to make sense of it, trying to rationalize it, and are trying to feel better by saying “this must have a purpose.” The sad truth is…sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes bad things happen because bad people do bad things, or because bad influences affect good people in bad ways, or just because we live in a fallen world and sin is all around us, hurting us. Sometimes your dog just dies. Is there a reason? Sure: You ran over it. Why? Because you weren’t paying attention. Why? Because you were hurrying to get to work on time. Why? Because you were late. Why? Because you slept in. Why? Because you chose to stay up late the night before. On it goes. There’s always a reason. The nature of the universe as designed by God is built on the idea of Cause-and-Effect. But there isn’t always a grand Divine “reason” for the bad thing happening. Sometimes it just…does.
Paul talks about being content in Philippians 4. He describes it as being okay with whatever happens in life, whether it is good or bad, because in the end, if we are with God, things will be okay. That doesn’t mean the bad that happens was caused by God (necessarily). It just means the man of God can be okay with the bad that happens, because, with God, you know you’re going to be okay. You’ll be okay in spite of the bad thing, not (necessarily) because of it. I have to keep adding the qualifier “necessarily” because sometimes you are okay because of a bad thing. That’s the point of Romans 5; that’s where “patience, experience, and hope” (Romans 5:3-5) come into play. On the other hand, sometimes you’re okay in spite of bad things happening…or even in spite of good things happening. That’s where contentment comes in (Philippians 4:11-12).
But that doesn’t mean “everything there is, or has been, or will be” is being used by God to accomplish His will. Sometimes you just flip a coin and it lands on heads, and nothing at all matters as a result of it.
By the way, I didn’t even flip a coin. I don’t even have a coin. That’s the whole point: The coin doesn’t matter…unless He wants it to. That’s up to Him.
~Matthew