How many times have you heard someone say, “Things happen for a reason” or “It’s all part of God’s plan”?
What about you?
How many times has something happened, and you’ve said, “I can’t believe that just happened!” or “What a coincidence!”
The truth is, there are no coincidences. Though you may not realize it often, everything happens for a reason!
The concept that nothing happens by chance has been present in many cultures throughout history. It’s also referred to as ‘the doctrine of fate or destiny’, which teaches that everything is preordained by God.
This idea was most recently embraced by the ancient Stoics, who believed that to live a happy life, one must accept the inevitability of whatever happens, whether good or bad.
There are no coincidences, everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance. These sayings can be difficult to believe when you’re going through a tough time in life and don’t understand why something happened or how to process it.
The good news is that, as humans, we have the ability to learn and grow from every experience – whether positive or negative. But this can be harder if you don’t try to understand what lessons can be taken away from it.
We may not know why things occur the way they do right now, but many people feel comforted by the idea that there’s more to their situations than mere chance.
Whether they believed in God, destiny, karma, or fate, people find comfort in the idea that there is a larger meaning to events in their lives and the world around them.
Why does Everything Happens for a Reason?
How many times have you heard the phrase “everything happens for a reason”?
How often do you agree with it?
Do you think that everything in life happens by chance, or are there other factors that determine what happens and when?
When we say that all things happen for a reason, we mean that everything has a purpose behind it.
Let’s suppose you’re in the grocery store and bump into an old friend. It’s not like you planned to see them. You just happened to be in the same place at the same time.
You chat, exchange phone numbers but don’t contact each other again.
A few months later, you need to go for a job interview and ran into the same friend. You then discover that your friend works at that company.
Your friend guides you, recommends you, and you get the job you wanted.
What will you call that?
A coincidence?
A chance?
What is Coincidence, Anyway?
A coincidence is when two events occur that seem connected, but may or may not be related.
A coincidence can be defined as an unlikely event that just happens to occur at the same time as another event.
When you think about it, what you called a ‘chance’ encounter with your old friend really does have a meaning, even if you weren’t aware of it at that time!
You see, all things happen for a reason after all!
In other words, nothing happens by chance.
Is there a Reason for Everything?
Yes! of course, there are reasons for everything.
What if everything happened for a reason?
If you look at past events in your life and the present events in your life, you will find that nothing happens by chance or without reason.
If you reflect on your life, you may notice t hat certain events led to others, which led to where you are today.
All things happen for a reason, and we should embrace what is going on around us instead of trying to get rid of it.
Who knows what might seem like the worst event in your life could turn out to be your favorite event ever because of what it taught you!
Yeah!
Good things happen for a reason too!
Sometimes, people think they don’t deserve good things to happen to them. However, they deserve it just as much as anyone else.
In reality, nobody deserves bad things, and nobody deserves good things. But everyone deserves love and respect.
Whatever good things happen to you also happen for a reason too!
Your destiny has already been planned for you, and no matter what anyone says about your future, it will always unfold as it’s meant to be.
So, when something good happens to someone close to you, take a step back and remember that it isn’t necessarily by chance or purely coincidental because all things happen for a reason.
Nothing happens without a reason, and if something good is happening to you, there must be some underlying meaning behind it!
In Jeremiah 1:5 God says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you”.
God is our creator, and He knows everything about us.
Let me share my personal experience:
One day, I was on my way back from a seminar conducted by my office. I needed to punch out my attendance after the seminar – it was a seven-day seminar.
For the first five days, I walked through the nearest corridor to punch my time out at one of the punching machines attached to the walls.
On the sixth day, for some reason, I felt I should take another route. So, I took the longer way.
As I was walking past the staircase, I saw four middle-aged, tire- looking ladies sitting on the stairs in the heat. They seemed to be from my native place. I walked passed them but then turned back and approached them with a smile, saying, “Hello, is anyone admitted here?”
They were so shocked, and one of them answered, “Yeah. Her daughter is in the operation theater for LSCS.”
I asked for her name, went to the post-operative room, and inquired about the patient. I met her and her cute baby, took pictures of the baby and returned to those ladies.
It was around 4:20 p.m., and she would be transferred to her bed about two hours later.
So, I took them to my changing room so they could rest and refresh themselves under the air conditioner.
One of the ladies talked to someone on the phone. After she disconnected the call, she asked me if I knew the person on the line.
As she told me the name, I was shocked because that person was a dear friend whom I met 16 years ago but lost contact with.
I kept asking about her over the years, but no one seemed to know where she was. I had stopped asking about her last year.
I asked the lady twice in shock, almost unable to believe what I had just heard. I took her number, and we are in contact again.
They were so thankful they had a place to wait comfortably, but I can’t thank them enough for what I found through them!
Now, would you call that a coincidence? Or a chance?
Definitely not. It’s not a coincidence that I took a different route that day. It’s because I had to reconnect with my friend!
There are many incidents in my life that I can’t just brush aside as ‘by chance’ or ‘coincidences’.
I believe that everything happens for a reason. I do not believe in coincidence. Even though, at times, it seems like everything doesn’t happen for a specific purpose, the truth is nothing just simply ‘happens.’ There is always a reason behind it!
In Matthew 10:29-31, Jesus said,
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.
30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Neither you nor I know how many hairs we have on our head, let alone how many fall each day.
So, do you think the God who knows exactly how many hairs we have on our head will let things happen by accident or chance?
No way, by any means!
All things happen for a reason, even though sometimes we do not understand why or when they happened at that time.
Sometimes, what we perceive as an accident may actually be part of God’s plan for our lives, offering opportunities that would never come otherwise.
These moments also help build strength within ourselves and make us realize we’re stronger than we thought.
You can clearly see the grand plan when you read the stories from the Old and New Testament – Stories like Samson, Daniel, David, Joseph, Ruth, Elisha, the calling of Paul for Macedonia, to name a few.
In fact, you will find all divine purposes in every story written in the Bible that proves that nothing ever happened by accident, chance, or coincidence.
What if we are all connected?
I would like to ask the following questions: What if we are all connected? What if there is an unspoken connection between us all? What if we are all interconnected, and everything happening around us affects us?
What if something happening here is because of something that happened over there? What if it wasn’t just chance or coincidence, but has a greater meaning behind it?
And within that meaning, there could be someone out there who wanted to help us, even though they didn’t know they were helping us or even knew they existed at all!
Some people have said that nothing happens by chance, there are no coincidences. But how can this be true when so many cases occur where two things happen simultaneously, and we have no explanation as to why it happened?
Sometimes we don’t know what is going to happen until it does.
Is there a reason for everything?
Yes, of course, everything does happen for a reason. Whether or not you understand that reason right now doesn’t mean it’s not there.
As humans, we often find ourselves asking “Why?” In reality, there really is no answer to that question because it’s hard to see the bigger picture from where you’re standing.
I also believe life is about making connections with people. We make connections with those close to us – family members, friends, co-workers. We also make connections with strangers when we go about our day, making small talk or giving someone directions.
What if some things happen because they are destined to happen?
We may not always know what that meaning is right away, but the more you look, the more you’ll understand why something happened or what led up to it.
You’ll realize just how important each experience was on your path in life, and see that all things happen for a reason.
It’s so easy to lose sight of this idea as we grow older. Oftentimes, it takes looking back at past events to truly understand what happened when something occurred, which leads us back to believing once again that all things happen for a reason.
Whether you believe in fate or free will, destiny or coincidence, one thing remains true: all things happen for a reason!
That being said, if you ask yourself, “Is there a reason for everything?”
That question has been debated throughout human history and likely will continue until humanity ends.
But the truth is, everyone’s version of truth is different, and everyone’s version of fact is also different. Consider that every action you make impacts someone else in some way.
Think about every time someone ignored their intuition and ended up regretting it later. Did they learn their lesson? Do they feel like they’ve finally learned to listen to themselves better than before? Do you think that’s a coincidence, chance, or something else?
What if I told you, it wasn’t a coincidence?
They learned their lesson, or they wouldn’t have felt compelled to learn from those experiences. They would have continued to ignore those gut feelings, which probably led them to the regretful moments in the first place.
All things happen for a reason, though oftentimes we don’t realize exactly what those reasons are. Instead, we try to search for them. And the more you look, the more you’ll find.
Perhaps you saw them once years ago or something similar, but then later found out from a mutual friend that you crossed paths again!
You see something or hear about someone who triggers memories of past events and memories lost to the subconscious mind. They don’t come about by accident or without cause.
We attract what we think about and live our lives accordingly – we control the power within ourselves. And that power comes from God, our creator.
The Bible clearly says that God is in control of everything.
The fact is, an all-knowing God will never leave anything to ‘chance’. So, there is a reason for everything.