By: Dee Woolley

Dee Woolley — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 00:41:00 +0000

I have significant questions about the idea that “everything happens for a reason.” Does EHFAR imply that everything that happens is arranged in advance? More specifically, arranged by God in advance? I have a friend who had a bicycle accident and was seriously injured. He was succored by many in the weeks that followed and came closer to God and his associates, deepening his faith and strengthening his testimony along the way. Does this mean God pushed him off his bike? When we say EHFAR, does this thought make us want to know the reason? Does it lead us to ask why, why, why? How well I recall the wonderful young woman in the midst of her second unwed pregnancy. She had heard EHFAR many, many times and concluded that “God must have wanted me to get pregnant because everything happens for a reason.” I suppose it’s possible, but I think it unlikely. If you were to say, “God can turn anything that happens to me for my good,” I would be much more agreeable. There are many things the phrase EHFAR can mean. When someone utters these words, I hope they are thinking of the meanings that are in harmony with a just and loving Heavenly Father, moral agency (a concept important enough to justify war in heaven), and the revealed plan of salvation. I hope when hard things happen to me, as they surely will, that I can ask God what he’d like me to learn, what he’d like me to think, what he’d like me to feel and do, rather than being tormented with why? why? why?

Comments on: Is it true that everything happens for a reason?

By: Dee Woolley