“Everything happens for a reason.”
Ahhh, this is a phrase we’ve all grown up hearing. When something bad happens… “Everything happens for a reason.” It’s almost like a crutch that we lean on, to give us some sort of hope in times of turmoil. We don’t only hear this in bad times though, we are also told this in the good times! When we celebrate healing, when someone ends up in a relationship they’ve worked hard for, or when plans work together seamlessly… “Oh, everything happens for a reason!” After a while, you can either become numb to the idea or stop and TRULY consider if you believe it or not. One day a few years ago, I chose the latter option! I sat down and thought about the question of, “DOES everything really happen for a reason?” And my conclusion was……….
YES!
In my opinion (many others disagree, and that’s fine and dandy), everything does happen for a reason… even down to me waking up in the middle of the night because I have to sneeze, and remembering an essay that’s due by noon the next day. I believe everything I feel, witness, see, hear, and experience has an effect on my life or someone else’s. I think that God uses these events to push us towards His will for us! Every person we meet and have a relationship with, I believe that that’s part of His plan for us.
A lot of people will say that I’m wrong and naive for thinking this way, and that’s okay! I’m not offended, and I hope that this post doesn’t offend them in any way. But in the past (and especially recently), I’ve been through some situations that confirmed my belief that “everything happens for a reason” even further.
So, pop a squat, grab some popcorn, and I’ll tell you my story.
Ever since I’ve taken on that philosophy, I’ve turned to it during good times and bad times for comfort. But guess what? SURPRISE! It has actually proven itself to be true in most cases. When something bad has happened, I’ve relied on it happening for a reason to get through the circumstance. Almost every time, I have seen the reason behind the bad situation happening, which makes me believe my philosophy even more. When I couldn’t take my driver’s test until a month after my birthday during my sophomore year (baby problem, but a major hurdle during that month), I realized it was good because they had recently hired a very young DMV worker who gave me my test. This was good, because she didn’t make me parallel park, back in, or anything! I even ran a stop sign AND treated a red light like a stop sign, and I still made a 94 on the test (which is a little nerve-wracking that there are others on the road who may NOT have learned from their mistakes… uh oh). But without that month of preparation, and her being hired, there’s a chance I could have not passed the test. Or even worse, I could have passed but not learned to drive a little better before, and I may not even be here! WHO KNOWS? I do know that not being able to get an appointment until a month later was very beneficial (to me) though, looking back on it.
My senior year, I got to be the president of our Drama Club. It wasn’t until later that I realized I wouldn’t be able to dual-enroll at Emmanuel in the classes I needed because of my position. I needed to be on the high school campus during the times I needed the classes, therefore, I did not dual-enroll. I was upset about this, because I was planning to knock out a few credits before I got to UNG, to make it easier on myself in the long run! Because of this little predicament, I had to take math on Virtual School, and I had to be in an English class that was offered at the high school. By taking Virtual School, I got to get closer with one of my favorite teachers by being in her room every day, and I learned how to manage my time well BEFORE I got to college! (Let’s all just take a moment of silence for my could-have-been GPA this semester, if I were to not learn that lesson before.) By taking the English class at the school, I got even closer with THAT teacher, I gained two very close friendships, and I had an all around relaxing senior year… which was much needed!
There were so many small situations like this that ended up showing their worth to me, and though they may seem insignificant to you, it really opened my eyes up to the fact that God really does work things out for our own good.
There’s only one problem.
Until I got to college, “for our own good” had a different meaning to me. In high school, I thought this meant that God would work things out to what would make us the happiest. But since college has started, I’ve learned that though He is working things out for what’s best for us, it may not necessarily be what makes us the happiest. I’ve had to learn this the hard way… multiple times (because I’m a hard-headed little fireball sometimes).
If you remember my “ANOTHER Message Received” post, you remember the story of how I heard God in such a huge way, the biggest way so far in my life. That is still true. But, I put off changing my major for a while… Not because I was questioning anything, it was honestly because I wasn’t exactly sure how and had a lot going on, so I was going to wait until the end of the semester! Well, while I was procrastinating, I felt a little something tugging on my heart. I didn’t feel like I needed to completely rule out occupational therapy, and by changing my major to Business Management, I basically would be. The easiest thing to do would be to just stick with my Biology major, push through, and stay on track. The second easiest thing to do would be to still change to Business, because I had told this huge, elaborate story about how I was spoken to, so HOW could I possibly change that plan?! I decided to pray about it, stay idle for a little while, and make a move whenever I felt was right. After a few weeks, God opened up another option to me that we hadn’t thought of. They are now offering the pre-OT program along with the Psychology major, and to be a Psychology major, you have to have a minor… and a possible minor is business. This was the major that fit the needs I was looking for, and this is what I’m feeling led to do - as of this week, at least!
So, why would God speak to me at church that one Tuesday, if that wasn’t where I would be a couple of months later? Only God knows right now, and He may be the only one that ever knows. It could be because I needed to hear from Him like that, because I never have before. It could be because He wanted me to stop and question what I REALLY wanted to do with my life. It could be so many reasons, and I don’t know it exactly. But, God does!
There’s reasons behind everything. Behind hearing God’s voice, behind the reasons for relationships and friendships ending, behind conversations you have with people… everything. Just the other day, I was questioning this belief. I think I mentioned that earlier! Things have been going pretty rough in certain areas of my life, and I was wondering if everything really did have a purpose. If it did have a purpose, why were some things not working out how they were planned to (in my life)? Why couldn’t I get things right from my end of situations? This was a huge struggle in the past few weeks, and then I went to church last Sunday. The preacher was talking about how hard situations will come up in your life, and sometimes you just have to take the consequences, learn from them, and move on. He also said that certain problems come up because God knows it is what you need. Then, he brought this verse up onto the screen:
“...or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.”
-2 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)
This resonated with me. We are giving situations for reasons, and they may not always make us feel all warm and fuzzy and giggly. Bad situations have purpose, too, I’ve just never had to go through many tough things until this past semester.
Interestingly enough, two nights later, a friend of mine asked me what I thought about everything happening for a reason. I had to really dig deep into what I believed to prove why I believed that, and in the end… it boiled down to God. I believe that God knows what situations we need in our lives at the exact moment He gives it to us; therefore, I am thankful for the good days and the bad days. I can rest in the peace that God has me wrapped in His arms, and He knew the mistakes I would make against Him before I even made them - yet, He still died for me. It’s an amazing love that He has for us. Whenever I think about how merciful He is to me, I drown in His grace. Though life throws the curviest curve balls ever at us... We can always fall into His arms, which are forever open to catch us.
