'Everything Happens for a Reason'

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that saying, I'd be a whole lot richer. I hear it on TV shows, in song lyrics, in movies, and in countless everday conversations I'm either having or over-hearing. I've even heard it in many church services or Bible studies and read it in several books.

The saying, "Everything happens for a reason" is wrong. False. Not true.

This terminology is not in the Bible, contrary to what so many Christians (and non-Christians) erroneously think.

If you mean, by using this phrase , which most people do, that everything has a divine purpose, that God caused such and such to happen to teach you a lesson or bless you eventually in some yet-to-be revealed way, or that everything was caused by God Himself (either by primary or secondary cause, which most people phrase as, "God allowed such and such to happen"), then I have to disagree.

However, I do believe nothing happens by accident. Even things we've come to call "accidents" don't happen by accident. For example, accidental pregnancies. You may not have wanted to get pregnant, but if you had sex, then you really didn't get pregnant on accident. So, in that case, yes, you got pregnant for a reason...the reason being: you had sex. Another example: car accidents. These aren't really "accidents" either. These happen for any number of reasons: someone was drunk and swerved into oncoming traffic, someone was talking on the cell phone while changing the radio station and eating french fries and ran into the stopped car in front of them, someone was turned around trying to reach something in the back seat and ran a red light...you get the idea.

In this sense, I can agree that everything does happen for a reason. However, I cannot agree that God is the author of everything that happens. This kind of thinking goes against the principal teachings of the Bible and the character of God as revealed in the Bible.

I often wonder if "everything happens for a reason" is such a popular saying because of the supposed comfort and absolution it gives us. But it affords us a false comfort if anything, thinking that God is in control and will somehow, someday reveal to us His divine plan and how it is in our best interests. Likewise, it's a false absolution because we are never truly absolved from personal responsibility. But people tend to want to think, God's in control, so what could I really have done? I didn't cause this. I'm not to blame. Everything happens for a reason.

Don't misunderstand me. Bad things happen. Sometimes even things we don't directly cause (unless you consider Adam's original sin, by which we have been affected). But God didn't cause them. They didn't happen for a reason. Unless you consider the reason being A) Sin or B) Sinful people or C) Satan who is out to destroy you.

Another common false statement many people make is "God won't give you more than you can handle." This is no where in the Bible. What IS in the Bible is this: God won't allow you to be tempted beyond what you can resist. And in case you're thinking that God is the one tempting you, the Book of James clears that up. According to James 1:13, we shouldn't say that God is tempting us, because God cannot be tempted with evil neither does he tempt any man. Evil happens when we are enticed and dragged away by our own lust. Bad things aren't from God. The Bible tells us that all GOOD gifts come down from our Father in Heaven. One good gift God gives us: a way of escape when temptations and bad situations arise.

So, instead of saying, "everything happens for a reason," I'd rather say, "Everything happens for a season." No matter what life or the devil or other people throw my way and no matter what situations I myself create, I can find victory over the situation through Jesus Christ. I don't have to stay in the circumstance, but can find the way out which God has graciously provided for me.