Things Happen for a Reason

Have you ever had something happen to you and you don't understand why? I don't know about you but this has happened to me multiple times in my life. Everything seems to be going well and then all of a sudden you get blindsided by some catastrophic event. Perhaps it is the death of a loved one, an illness, a stay in the hospital that goes longer than you had hoped for, or a violent act against you.

Have you every asked yourself, "What have I learned from these life experiences and what will I do with this new found knowledge?" God has given us "free will" to make choices. When we make choices on our own without God's guidance we sometimes make good choices while other times our choices can turn out to be less than desirable. This is not a new concept as the Bible is full of stories of those who tried to make choices on their own and ended up with not the best of circumstances.

Paul talks about examples from history that are valuable for us to learn from. All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition ~ I Corinthians 10:11 NIV. We don't often stop and think about how history gives us examples and lessons to learn by. In a recent devotion that I read, Bill Crowder wrote the following:

God has given us the Bible, partly to help us learn from the history of His people. Biblical lessons contain both examples and warnings to guard us against our worst inclinations and to lead us into wiser living. The question is whether we will learn from the lessons of the past or repeat the mistakes of those who came before us.

Things that happen to us happen for a reason. It is how we choose to deal with them and what we learn from them that will determine the outcome. God encourages us to walk and talk with him each day and seek His guidance from His Word. The next time something bad happens to you consider taking the time to determine what you will learn from this experience and how you will proceed. This is not an easy task but you may be surprised what you learn about yourself!

Elaine Campbell, MA
Counselor