Gramma's Half-Lie!
Mamar's hugs swallowed me up!! Even if we arrived after midnight, she'd fold down the table cloth covering a couple of her prize pies made just for our visit! Who doesn't cherish their Grandmother??! Their gems of wisdom are priceless, too! But, watch out for this popular saying. It sounds so true, but it's half lie and can poison and kill your faith in God!--
"EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON."
When something tragic occurs, we care, so we say...
1. "Everything happens for a reason."
Others care, too, so they say...
2. "It must have been their time."
3. "It was God's will."
4. "It was part of the Plan."
And, just like that, we've painted a grotesque distortion on the face of the kindest, most compassionate person in the universe! We've made the only one Who can heal grief and mend broken hearts into the One responsible for the heartbreak!
1. In the Hayden, Idaho, WalMart, a 2-year-old unzipped his mother's purse, pulled out a handgun, and thinking it a toy, pointed it at his mother, pulled the trigger, and shot her dead!
"Everything happens for a reason" assumes it was God's plan for her to die and leave her children motherless and for the toddler to carry the emotional injury of having slain his mother!
"If this way of thinking is true, then every rape, every murder, every act of child abuse, every war, every terrible storm or earthquake that claims people's lives, every child that dies of starvation---all these are part of God's plan." [Adam Hamilton, Half Truths, p. 22]
That's half lie! The Bible says...
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." [James 1:17, KJV]
Blessings come from God.
Where does suffering come from?
"An enemy hath done this." [Matt. 13:28, KJV]
2. If I drink and drive and someone is killed as a result, it must have been the victim's "time." God wanted me to drive drunk in order to accomplish some greater purpose. I can't be held responsible for my actions; I was only doing what God willed me to do.
That's half lie! The Bible says,
I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live--by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him." [Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Common English Bible]
We have responsibility to make good choices. One church member said it bluntly...
"'Everything happens for a reason,' but sometimes the reason is that we're stupid and make bad decisions!"
There IS a half truth in "Everything happens for a reason."
If you mean God works for us when tragedies occur to make something good come out of them, then Yes, that's true!
"We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan." [Romans 8:28, The Voice]
Even sayings handed down from people we love and respect can be half lie and half truth. I sure don't want to pass on something that could turn people away from Jesus!
Your friend, Dave Smith (Calhoun, Georgia)
