Things Don't Always Happen for a Reason

Things don't always happen for a reason. Sometimes they do. Sometimes I can see God working. Sometimes I can see forces attacking. Sometimes I can see nothing, but later I can look back and see how it all came together – like some sort of behind-the-scenes documentary. But sometimes things just happen. And I don't mean small things. Sometimes life altering things happen and it has nothing to do with Heaven or Hell. When my dad got cancer I heard all sorts of people telling me this was a spiritual battle and we had to fight back with prayer. My dad died almost 12 years ago. It wasn't because God lost, or Satan won, or we didn't pray hard enough, or because God intended my dad to suffer and die. He just had cancer and died. 

That's not to say that God wasn't there all the way. He kept our spirits from shattering. He kept us from falling apart. He put my dad to sleep in a coma for weeks while going through the worst of it. And then he allowed him to wake so we could all say our goodbyes. Even my dad spoke of a general who would come to him at night and ease his pain. God was always there. As a result, my perspective on death completely changed. It's not “the end”. 

Every action movie in Hollywood is about fighting to stay alive. Death is always the worst thing that can happen. We must never stop running or fighting, from the humans to the animals to the insects to the viruses. To live is the most important thing of all. This is ingrained in us because we are of this natural world. But we are also spiritual. And because of that, death is okay. An old busted suitcase doesn't mean that the luggage inside will be thrown away with it. This is what God taught me when my dad left us. 

Everyone in my family (my sisters and my mother) all learned things from this dreadful situation. We all grew, and were shaped and reshaped. Did God take my dad away to teach us lessons? Absolutely not. But He used the situation for our own growth. And because we held on to Him, He showed us where life blooms in the desert.