Does everything happen for a reason?

Does stuff happen for a reason? I've struggled with this topic most of my life.

     I am convinced that millions of times in our lives things happen, and the things that happen have impact on things that will happen later. No disputing that.  Sure, lots of times, had “thing A” not happened to you, there is no way “thing B” could have happened.  But does that mean “thing A” happened for a reason?  If you believe it does, then you are assuming there is a “God”, a “Great Spirit”, Karma, or whatever you call your particular understanding of a Deity. Apparently you are also assuming that your "higher power" has time and ability to manage every little event in every atom in the universe, all at once, all the time.  Otherwise, things happening  “for a reason” makes no sense, does it?  And, taking the next logical step, then I would have to assume that the higher power would have an ultimate plan, a “big picture”.  Such a higher power would never “wing it” to see what happens next, or play with you and your life like so many rag dolls in a little girl’s doll house, would they? 

     And, if that higher power has control of everything, if you give them credit for everything good that happens in the world, then they made all the bad stuff happen too.  Child Abuse, 9/11, Hitler’s murder of millions of Jews.  You get the picture.  Maybe we just don’t know what the “reason” was for this…yet.

     Or maybe, just maybe, the higher power does not have a hand in every little detail.  Maybe the "God" (or Spirit, or Diety, or whatever you choose to call it) is a "big picture" kinda "God". Do you think the Deity in which you believe doesn’t sweat the small stuff?  Are we on our own for the most part, to make our own decisions, our own future, without interference from a higher power? Do you believe that we were given a conscience, a soul, that is ours to keep or throw away?  If you believe this, I don’t see how it is also possible to think stuff “happens for a reason”.

     When I was a kid, my Dad used to jokingly tell us that we are all pre-destined in life.  He said God has a big book with all of us in it, and the book was written already.  No matter what happens in our lives, Dad would assure us, “It’s IN THE BOOK!!”. He wasn't making fun of God though, it was his way of getting us to think about the concept of predestination, and if it is possible.  Do "things happen for a reason"?  (Dad was always great at teaching us like that......)

I still don’t know about the answers to this question, but, man, for once in my life, I really hope my Old Man was wrong.  I don't wanna be a toy in somebody's big doll house.