Everything Happens for a Reason?

More and more in my ministry I hear people in the midst of terrible situations respond to their tragedy by saying, "Well, I guess everything happens for a reason..." They are trying of course to make sense of their often horrible situations, and if this notion provides comfort, I am happy for them.

However theologically it makes my skin crawl. It is to say that God has somehow, in his infinite wisdom, inflicted some 4yr old with leukemia; or that some 23yr old's suicide is mysteriously part of some divine plan...

Theologically the problems are profound. Let’s begin with the easy one: it implies that God wills evil, suffering and tragedy, which is of course an attack on God's good and loving nature. And I am truly amazed I hear this so often. I know if a minister ever said that to me after a personal tragedy—i.e. that God has His own reason for my beloved to die horribly—I would personally be turned right off of God.

Secondly, it is a direct challenge to our free will. If everything is pre-ordained by God in some sort of intricate plan, this of course annihilates any notion of human freedom. We are then merely puppets controlled by some mysterious script.

But the intriguing question is WHY. Why has this spiritual cliche become so attractive, and what does this say about us as a culture?

My gut instinct tells me two things:

1) This is a spiritual expression of a saccharine Oprah feel-good spirituality; a spirituality more about feeling good than actually knowing the good and responding too it. It’s a spirituality of Angels, affirmation and empowerment—the spiritual heir of the pop-psyche self-esteem movement of the 90's

It’s Christianity Lite, or Christianity without the cross.

But we will never achieve a deep and robust faith unless we have the courage to peer into the abyss of chaos, emptiness, and suffering. I’m speaking of the proximity to nihilism that must accompany any authentic and probing faith.

2) We live in a time when 'nothing is bad'; evil can be explained away by theories and philosophies, or else medicated away. For instance, guilt is commonly seen as an unhealthy psychological malady rather than a sign of a healthy conscience.

However the truth at the heart of the Christian tradition is that evil is real, and exists in its moral and natural forms. We also know that it is fundamentally mysterious—we know not why God permits it.

The challenge for Christian ministry is to help others cope without evading our basic existential tension: that evil is real and that meaninglessness and suffering is part of the human condition, while at the same affirming our being within the dominion of a Loving Creator.

The key mediator for Christians is the cross of Christ; the affirmation of God’s solidarity with all human suffering, and God’s first-hand knowledge of our pain; after all, Jesus on the cross asks, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Loving God and Father;

We know not why our lives are at times mysteriously touched by tragedy. But we ask that you help us know that whatever travail comes our way, that your love and mercy is always mysteriously present.

Amen.