"I think if we could make sense of everything then there would be no yearning for a place like Heaven."
By Hannah Brenchner
A few weeks ago, I wrote a letter to the Monday Club about what it looks like to walk with someone in the midst of a hard season.
I made a suggestion that saying “everything happens for a reason” to someone who is going through the messy is oftentimes not the best thing to say.
I got an email back from a reader asking me, “Why not? Don’t you believe everything does happen for a reason with God?”
And, to be quite honest, that question really stumped me. I’ve sat with it for at least two months.
I’ve gone back and forth.
I’ve read articles.
I’ve prayed and asked.
I’ve asked friends for their opinions.
I don’t know that I fully have an answer but I am willing to tell you what I learned in the search for the meaning behind this phrase: everything happens for a reason. Insert question mark.
A bandaid.
In my own life, I used that phrase as a bandaid for a really long time.
It’s a way for me to say: I’m uncomfortable and I want to be able to make sense of this.
It’s a way for me to say: I don’t really know where God is in this but we’ll know the meaning of all of this one day.
Step one: Someone is going through something horrific.
Step two: I don’t know how to process their pain...
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