I don't believe everything happens for a reason

​A friend asked me last week, "Do you think everything happens for a reason?"

I said, "No, but I believe a reason becomes of everything that happens."

I'm not sure I'd ever stated that belief as confidently as I did there. Probably because I'm not sure I've always believed that's the order. Because it is about order.

If you believe everything happens for a reason, then life is acting on behalf of reason. Reason drives everything that happens.

When you believe that, then you have to believe there is some creator of the reason. And because we have no idea what that creator's reasons might be, and because we often start guessing at them, it's easy to start mistaking ourselves for that creator.

But when we start seeing the reasons that get created from the material of our life experiences, it's more like seeing that creator than being that creator.

I told a friend the other day that the greatest evidence I have of God in my life is the miracles that have become of my darkest days. Did God create a drunk so he'd one day have a tool to bring light to others? Or did God ultimately use the drunk I became to show me the light he can make of anything and any ONE?

A God who creates a drunk to bring reason to the world makes little sense to me.

A God who finds a man who made a drunk of himself, and delivers reason to that man in his lowest moments, well that feels like a miracle to me.

You may be starting this week wondering - why? Why am I here? Why is this happening to me? I want to suggest there's a better question.

Maybe the better question is what. What reason will become of this day? What reason will become of the me who feels like I am no reason at all?

I don't believe you or your life today is a reason; I do believe a beautiful reason is about to be made of your life.

I believe we can bake bread. We can spill flour all over the counter and sweep the excess into the trash as waste. But I don't believe that's how God bakes us. Not one second of our lives gets wasted in the creation of us. God is always saying, I can and will use ALL of you.

I write this article this morning for no reason other than releasing life from me. But I've written enough to know a reason will become of my words.

And a reason will become of the life you pour out today. I know that, too.

Don't get stuck trying to figure out reasons today. Live in the freedom of pouring out life. Live in the confidence that a reason will become of it. Live in the celebration of that miracle.