Before I begin, I exhort you to apply Acts 17:11. Don’t believe me just because I say it. Go find out if what I am saying is true.
The title for today’s writing comes from a statement I heard just this last week that has been on my mind quite a bit. The circumstances of life had brought this person to a position that that they, as we all do from time to time, railed against them. She was referencing the old proverb that “everything happens for a reason”. It is a quote that has many origins. Marilyn Monroe had said it when she said
“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
In some ways, her quote is surprisingly insightful.
It is often a phrase tossed out there with half sincerity when things go wrong in another’s life in order to console them. It is my contention that this phrase that has been too simplified and the lack of biblical literacy in our modern world keeps us from understanding what I think is the real origin of this proverb.