I often hear people say "Everything happens for a reason." Have you said it yourself? Is it true or not? Have you really thought it through? This 'amusing' explores the pros and cons of that statement.
says, "Everything happens for a reason. If not for the injury, I never would have..." and so on. Does his "because of" prove the injury occurred so whatever happened could happen?
I could argue that yes, everything does happen for a reason. The baseball player was injured because the outfielder that ran into him wasn't looking where he was going. That's a reason. But is that what these people mean? I don't think so. They try to read in some divine purpose for everything that happens. But is that a true belief?
Fatalism is the belief system that says everything that happens, happens because it is meant to happen. Fatalism says that no matter how hard you try, you can't change what is going to happen because it's all planned in advance. This belief system goes way back into ancient pagan history. It's very prevalent in society today. "There's nothing that can be that isn't the way it's meant to be."
I don't subscribe to that belief because, frankly, it is not true. The Bible says it isn't and that's enough for me. Life itself often proves that this belief is not true as well. The Bible teaches cause and effect. Life teaches cause and effect. Something always causes something else to happen. That's the opposite of fatalism. It's reality. Fatalism takes due responsibility away from people and that's why it's so popular. Cause and effect holds responsible those who 'cause' the effect, whether good or bad. God rewards and will reward those who cause good things to happen, and holds responsible and will hold responsible those who cause bad things to happen.
Some things happen due to divine cause, but not everything, and God is not the author of evil. Trying to keep a positive attitude about everything that happens is not a bad thing, don't get me wrong. But to say something happened for a divine purpose when it didn't is denial, escapism or just plain ignorance. The next time you are tempted to say everything happens for a [divine] reason, hold on a second and think about it. Pray about it. No matter what happens, seek and stay close to Him and when necessary, He can turn lemons into lemonade because He cares for you.