by mr maple 
My mom looks for Reasons the way some people look for spare change on the ground. She always has an eye out for them, an ear cocked to hear the faintest whisper of a consequence or a lesson. Most are simple illustrations of basic character: an irritating person placed in my life is meant to teach me patience; a flat tire following an unrelated, stingy financial decision is a reminder to be more generous; an unexpected piece of good news is an example of God's consistent goodness. Some links are easy to see and understand. Others are not.
I grew up listening to these narratives, and the concept of Reasons has always influenced my thinking. But as I grew older, reason began to challenge the Reasons. I began to wonder if such rationalizations were merely the innate coping mechanisms by which all people learn to make sense of an otherwise haphazard world, how we maintain hope in the face of difficult situations.
It started with the big questions. Were people really poor because they were lazy? Was HIV really God's punishment to homosexuals? Was evolution really at odds with Christianity? And of course, the biggest of them all: is there a Reason for suffering?
For nearly each of these questions, I found the answer to be, "Perhaps, but not always. Perhaps, but not necessarily." My mom and I would go through endless cycles of arguments, many of them heated and bitter. Sometimes I held on to prove a point, but sometimes I fought out of sheer stubbornness and pride. I was challenging the Reasons because I began to doubt that there were any.
to be continued.
Comments (55)
Because you touch yerself at night
I think God has reasons for every event, but they are far too big and may not even be related to us personally - did the people suffering from widespread famine in the time of Joseph realize the reason for their suffering was for God to set up Israel for the next stage in redemptive history? Certainly not. I believe even flat tires have reasons, but to attribute them to ourselves or to guess at what God is doing with every little instance is ridiculous.
No, there are not reasons for everything. God does not cause everything to happen. While He has that power, he does not control everything.
I have always been a firm believer of "there is a reason for everything". I suppose it's a way to teach us life lessons for everything. God gave us free will, they right to choose. I suppose in all that is said every decision, every choice that we make will either make us or break us.
@Delmege@xanga - May I ask how you reached that conclusion?
Leave the reasoning up to god and just live.
@MC_Shann@xanga - Well the whole point of coming to this Earth of course. What is your take on the question of purpose? Why are we here? I've never been entirely sure on what others believe in that question.
@Delmege@xanga - My world view is Christian. Ultimately Mans purpose it to glorify God and to fully enjoy Him forever.
But as for your statement above, I was actually wondering how you reached the conclusion that God is not in control or cause everything to happen. It's quite a statement. How did you arrive at it?
There's a reason behind everything that happens. Just possibly not a greater reason that people like to believe.
Just because God has all power does not mean that he causes everything to happen. He does not cause us to sin. He does not cause us to choose wrong. Some things are simpy consequences of actions. If I run over something, my tire might have problems whether I know about what I drove over or not. If someone mugs me right after I was helping the homeless is the reason that I shouldn't have been helping the homeless?
We need to be careful in being sure we know what God wants us to learn from the things in our life. We are told that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Some things that may seem at first glance unrelated may not be. Also, some things just might not have anything to do with us.
It started to rain the other day right as I made a bad joke. Was this a sign that I shouldn't make jokes that aren't funny to other people? Or might have just been coincidence that it rained at the same time. \
Thinking that things happen only for your benefit is pride.
And no I don't think there is a reason for everything that happens. I do think there is a cause for everything though.
@MC_Shann@xanga - Does God cause you to sin? Does he cause others to sin? If someone walks up to a child for no reason and shoots her, did God cause it? God gave us free will which means he doesn't cause everything to happen or we wouldn't have free will.
there has to be a reason for everything... or else hope would be lost when something bad happens and reliance on God knowing He's got some idea concerning it would just be nothing more than... something depressing and I for one have to believe that God is in charge of all things whether He allows them to occur or whether He Himself orchestrates whatever thing we go through...
hope is listed as one of those three that remain...
@shards_of_beauty@xanga - I agree.
Of course there is a reason behind everything that happens.
The real question is whether or not the reason is meaningful.
@Pensamientos - I choose my words a little more carefully. Ultimately I make my appeal in the story of Joseph. When he states "What you have meant for evil, God meant for good." But be rest assured that it was God who ordained that those events come to pass.
We also have to remember that we don't live in a perfect world, this world wasn't even made to be perfect. Pain is a necessary part of being a human being, it's part of our ability to make decisions between good and evil. Pain and suffering are also very short term in comparison to the eternal life we will eventually spend with God. We all must die eventually to spend that life with God though.
Sometimes there is no really good reason even though it can be pretty obvious. Let's look at the horror of genocide. There is no real reason for it and yet nationalism, racism, fighting over land... can lead to some pretty insane and evil human choices.
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I don't think there's a reason behind everything that happens. If I were to flip a coin 100 times, and had you call it in the air, I don't think each "correct" or "incorrect" result would each have it's own individual meaning. I believe some things are inconsequential, while others are orchestrated by God. The problem is, I don't think we can always tell the difference at the time, so we have to continually seek God.
God does not orchestrate evil. He is not the author of moral evil. Yet He promises to take the evil that is done and use it for good. Romans 8 says "and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him." God does not cause evil to bring about His purposes, but He'll use evil to accomplish them.
@MC_Shann@xanga - Lol. Your world view is Christian? I'm sorry, but that's one of the broadest statements a person can make. That's why I asked. I'm not trying to be rude, but I didn't want to start talking about things that I didn't know any bit about your beliefs on. Any single large religion is going to have vast amount of variances within in. Catholic to Protestant to Orthodox and all the very specific things under each.
I reached the conclusion based on my belief in free agency. I will state what I believe, I'm not saying its fact, in case you don't like my wording. The whole point of coming to this Earth is so that we can choose. We choose our own paths and make our own decisions. Now I'm not saying God is not omniscient. But knowing is different from causing. If God were causing everything to happen, I believe that negates the whole purpose of free agency. Things are caused by others' use of their free agency. Not everything that happens is a direct effect of God's will. He didn't make that man kill your neighbor, and he didn't intercede because that would be restricting the murderer's agency. That was not Christ's plan, but the plan of the devil.
I hope I explained that well enough.
@Pensamientos - I agree with you.
As we try to discern reasons for things, we always have to keep in mind that God is God and we are not, and therefore His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Here are some truths about the operation of God in the world.
1. God is working all things for His glory (and all things includes bad things...not that God is the author of evil or can sin or do evil, but He does ordain evil and allows evil):
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36.
2. God is working all things (including bad things) that His Son might have the preeminence.
And he [the Lord Jesus Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Colossians 1:17-18.
3. God is working all things (including bad things) for the good of those who are in Christ.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:28-30.
"Perhaps, but not always. Perhaps, but not necessarily."
I agree. Some of it is God allowing us to make freewill choices and some of it is the natural course of a world in which sin dwells.
no
I used to drive myself crazy with the big "why" questions. But then I began to realize that there some things I will never know or understand. In those times, I have to remember that God is good, and trust that His intentions are always good. It's easier said than done, and it's something I'm still learning to do.