Everything Happens...

"Everything happens for a reason." We commonly hear this after a disaster or a disappointment or a tragedy. It is a true statement: severe weather, faulty expectations, and unforeseeable circumstances can wreak havoc with our desired reality. Yet, often I understand people of faith using the statement to imply a divine master plan that resulted in someone's untimely death or loss. They suggest the words will bring us comfort in knowing that we do not know everything as the/an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient power does. (I find no comfort in that!) Our free will means nothing in the presence of that interpretation. In a recent example in Newtown, PA, as children, ages 6 and 7, and their educators were slaughtered by a sick, young man's free will, their deaths happened for the reason of bullets penetrating their organs and brains. In the same moments, the free wills and prepared actions of teachers saved lives. In another recent example on the eastern shores of New York and New Jersey, people lost their homes, businesses, pets, and lives to Hurricane Sandy. These people did not deserve those losses and the storm was not a punishment for bad behavior. When such things happen, we must acknowledge the nonsensical and honor the courageous. Everything does happen for a reason--let's make sure the everythings we are making happen have healthy reasons, filled with good intent and loving expectations.