It Happens for a Reason? Bullsh**

North West Territories  

Do you believe the natural universe operates under a grand scheme for your personal wellbeing and benefit?  

Not me, I don’t believe that there is an omnipresent Being who creates situations in our life for some unknown purpose to be revealed at a later date.  It feels like narcissism.  Why would a particular person’s life be so important that a deity would intervene?  With billions of people on earth, how does this work?    

In fact, it is drives me mad when I hear the expression, "it happen for a reason."  That expression does not make sense to me.  Of course, most often than not, this reference is faith based. Making this is a tricky subject because it is complicated to have a practical discussion based on reasoning when faith or religions are taken into consideration.  That said, this blog post is for contemplation only and not a commentary on religion.   

If we look at life through the lens of  "Natural Law” life would make sense.  After all, we could not get more organic than the human being.  We human beings are not separate from the natural order of the universe.  And furthermore, we fortunately have the ability to reason.   Therefore, we should be consistently questioning our worldview. 

Still, I believe all logic is thrown out the window when using the term “it happen for a reason”.  It is in my opinion used as a coping mechanism that results in a detachment from responsibility.  When we say "things happen for a reason" we are really saying we are not in control of the event.  Thus, we are transferring our responsibility to an omnipresent Being who we believe has a plan for our life.

Questions for Contemplation

•   Why would  an omnipresent Being create a specific situation in life, be it good or bad, with the motive to  be revealed later?  
•   Why would it matter to an omnipresent Being  what happens in an individual’s life?  Would an omnipresent Being care if you got a raise, met your soul mate, and or got fired?  
•  Does the saying “Things happen for a reason” apply to animals?  
•   Are there only certain circumstances where “things happen for a reason”?  How do you distinguish between circumstances where this applies?
•  Are certain people exempt from “things happen for a reason”?
•  Are “things happen for a reason” only for negative events?
•  Why would one person’s life be favoured over another?
• Do you really believe it happens for a reason when someone you love dies, or is injured? What reason???

 A friend once told me, “So much in my like is going wrong at the moment. I must have done something really bad to deserve this.  But it must be for a reason, huh”!  That could not be further from the truth. And it didn't happen for her personal growth, that I am certain. 

The truth is life happens and sometimes bad things happen to good people. It has nothing to do with how one lives their life, or to teach a lesson, or to build stronger character.  Simply put, life happens because of cause and effect.  For every action there exist a resulting reaction.  An earthquake, which results in a major loss of lives should not translate to "it happen for a reason".  The only reason for the tragedy is the earth's plates shifted. 

Next time something happens to you where you are tempted to say “it happen for a reason” look at what happen without attaching judgment to it.  Things happen in the course of life and it is not personal.  Sometimes it's luck and other times it's unlucky.  Lesson here is to always act reasonably and mindfully. Certainly, in life, things occur that can’t be explained at that moment.  Later, after reflection it may become clear to you.  Does that mean it happened for that reason?

Life happens, it doesn't happen to you because of who you are, or as part of a master plan. The only master plan is the one you create for yourself.  Things happen and you give it reason and meaning.