Have you ever found yourself, in the midst of unimaginable grief, pain, heartache or despair, wondering how you are going to make it through another day? Wondering where your next breath is going to come from? Your world has crumbled beneath you and you are left feeling shattered, empty, and hopeless.
Then, with all good intentions, a friend or family member comes and drops the infamous "everything happens for a reason" line. You kindly smile and nod; that's all you can do to keep yourself from becoming irate.
We're all guilty of it, but it needs to stop.
There is no possible reason imaginable for what is happening tragedy-wise.
The more you stew about a possible reason for your pain and suffering, the angrier you become. You try desperately to make sense of a situation that won't ever make sense. You reach for answers, but none come.
You can spend years searching for answers or trying to find reasons that could bring an end to the pain. Most think that if they can find the cause, they can treat the condition. But honestly, there is often no reason for why tragedy has occurred.
Sometimes, bad things happen for no reason other than that we are human beings having a human experience. Pain, heartache, grief, loss, disease, and death are inevitable parts of the human experience.
We assume that life is supposed to be easy and when things don't go our way, we feel like we have been wronged. Human beings seem to have an innate sense of entitlement. We think that we are owed a pain-free existence.
But the truth is that human beings are not exempt from the human experience. Struggle is an innate part of that human experience. None of us are exceptions to this rule. We all struggle. We all suffer. We all experience pain, heartache, and loss. Sometimes, there's just no reason other than we are human and pain is a part of the process.
People often ask questions in terms of God's plan like: "How could this possibly be God's will?"
God's will is not the path we walk, but rather how we walk the path.
His will is never for someone to have cancer. It is never for an innocent child to be brutally murdered. It is not for a teenage girl to be raped. God's will is not chronic pain, illness, disability, or death.
God's will is not an event that happens to us; it's how we respond to what happens.
God's will for us is to walk with Him through the cancer, through the abuse, through the death, through the illness. God's will is for us to draw close to him in the midst of pain. God's will for us to use our painful life events to carry his message of hope, grace, forgiveness, and mercy.
God's plan was never for pain to be part of the human experience. His plan was for us to live in peace and harmony with Him. The human experience became painful when sin entered the world. Our own free will weaved threads of tragedy, loss, heartache, and pain into the human experience.
God is not responsible for our pain. We are not responsible for our pain. What happened in the Garden of Eden is responsible for the human condition, which results in pain and suffering. God is not causing us to hurt. He is hurting with us. What we do with our hurt is what matters. How we handle tragedy is what brings purpose into our plan.
Very seldom is there ever a justifiable reason for the bad things that happen in life. Tragic loss is not laced with inherent specs of good. We have to create the good. We have to choose to respond in a way that brings good into an impossible situation. We have to choose to give purpose and meaning to our suffering.
Not everything happens for a reason. But in everything that happens, there can be a reason to bring hope and healing to others. God can use our pain for greater good if we choose to let Him in.