If we stand back and view life objectively, it sometimes seems like life events are completely random. Who lives to a ripe old age? Who dies young? Why does one person abuse their body and live to an advanced age while another lives a clean, healthy existence but still develops a fatal disease?

Why does a person who treats others with love and respect suffer tragedy after tragedy while a selfish individual wins the lottery?

It’s easy to see how a non-believer can use these examples to support their belief that God does not exist, and that all of life is just a series of chance events.

So, how can we apply logic to these questions? How can we justify a belief in a loving, caring God when these injustices occur?

Perhaps this is another case where we need to step back from our earthly viewpoint and concede that there is still too much about our existence that we don’t understand.

We need to recognize that our judgment and understanding is always tainted by the limits of our five senses and earthly human experiences. Likewise, what we judge to be fair or unfair, what we judge to be right or wrong is based on our personal education and experiences.

We cover the gaps in our understanding by claiming “everything happens for a reason.” In that sense, we are assuming that God has a plan, and orchestrates all events according to his plan. It never occurs to us that “random” just might be part of His plan.

That’s not to say that God doesn’t influence or orchestrate certain events, but perhaps He employs the element of chance to determine who will be the tool He uses.

This idea goes against our understanding of what is “fair” or what is just. It is in conflict with our view of what a loving God would allow.

Once again, we are handicapped by our earthly view. Once again we are judging by earthly, human standards.

Perhaps the cure for our doubts and questions is to accept that our spiritual existence lies so far removed from our human experience that our earthly existence and all the trials of that existence are insignificant in the realm of eternity. And in that, we do have a reference point to anchor our understanding.

In our lifetime, each of us has had some type of pain. Whether it would be a severe cut, a broken bone or a painful illness, we all have a memory of such an event. For most of us, the memory of such an event fades over time. We may remember the event, but we are incapable of re-experiencing the actual pain. And, the more time that passes, the less impact an event has on us. It becomes less and less significant in comparison to the totality of our life.

Now, we may be able to consider that “random” may be a part of God’s plan. With a full understanding of spiritual existence in eternity, God would know what we don’t.

Any and all of our life’s experiences, up to and including physical death are of little consequence in our eternal existence.