Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

I hear, “everything happens for a reason” a lot these days ~ usually after someone hasn’t done enough to prevent or keep something from happening that shouldn’t have. It helps us feel better about ourselves and more confident in “the forces of the universe” to think that somehow, they have ordained this.

Never do you hear “everything happens for a reason” from someone who has done all that is humanly possible to prevent it from happening and it has happened anyway. After the loss of a child, the death of a spouse, a mauling, a murder, ongoing abuse or in the case of human trafficking, how can anyone say or even think “everything happens for a reason.”

What could possibly be the reason?

Surely, God, you don’t mean for us to use you as an excuse for not doing. We’re meant to do all we can to defeat darkness, despair, hatred and evil so that, even if we fall short of expectations including our own, we are – in the doing –becoming people who don’t need excuses.

Even though we still have questions.