Rector's Reflection—Easter 7 C
May 16, 2010

As mentioned in last week's reflection, this is Part Two of pronouncements that captured my attention during the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast for the National Day of Prayer on May 6th. If you'll remember, the first thought had to do with the illegality of such an event being sponsored by a branch of government. The second pronouncement comes from Deanna Favre's presentation as the keynote speaker. Deanna told us up front that she was a reluctant public speaker... that she left being in the public eye to her husband. Despite her nervousness, however, she told an 'every man/woman' kind of story that held our attention. She spoke of the triumphs and trials that have been a part of her life... the joys and sorrows... the gains and losses. Throughout all of these, there ran the thread of faith in God. She was and is an effective witness to the power of God in one's life.

As Deanna spoke of a particularly difficult period in her life, she made the comment that "everything happens for a reason." Now this is not the first time I have ever heard this remark, and I probably have said it myself, but sitting there in the audience at Lake Terrace Convention Center, I suddenly thought about the subtle implications of "everything happens for a reason."

From a purely ontological or physical standpoint, everything does happen for a reason. A woman in the drive-thru at a McDonald's (and, of course, this is purely hypothetical!) orders a cup of coffee and drives away. Drinking and driving never being a good idea, the coffee spills in her lap and burns her... all of which generates a lawsuit against McDonald's. This injury happened for a reason... actually a whole string of reasons... none of which was McDonald's fault. Or... you get fresh tomatoes from your garden, the reason being that you planted tomato plants.

I know these examples are tongue-in-cheek, but through the years I have come to realize that a simple "everything happens for a reason" holds within it a suggestion that God is involved in whatever that 'everything' is. I have sat with parents who have lost a child and who have said "everything happens for a reason." I have consoled people who have been victims of crimes who have said "everything happens for a reason." And everything DOES happen for a reason. But a whole lot of times, the reason has nothing to do with God or God's will. A choice results in an awful consequence. A disease takes its deadly toll. And sometimes the reason is just plain evil.

For those folks with whom I have met who are in the midst of tragedy or sorrow or pain, there is some comfort in embracing "everything happens for a reason" in order to inject some meaning or sense out of what is non-sensical. But I have also learned that that comfort is temporary, if "everything happens for a reason" even unconsciously puts God in the middle as the reason—and it doesn't take long for the God of comfort to become the God of the trouble.

If there is one thing of which I am certain, it is that the God of love does not set his sons and daughters up for anguish. For the Christian, God is indeed in the middle of everything, but he is there to comfort, to strengthen... to carry us over the rough roads on which, for whatever reasons, we find ourselves. All of us have been faced with things in our lives that have knocked the wind right out of us... that have left us searching for a reason how such a thing could have happened.

As Deanna Favre spoke from the dais, I reviewed some things that have happened to me and to my family through the years—and I have come to realize that knowing the reason would not have made the pain any less or the loss any easier. But in the middle of those things I have always found God, and I know that God's grace and God's embrace are infinitely larger than any man-made reason, and that, yes... God redeems all things.