Life and Purpose

I was reflecting the other day on whether everything in life has to have purpose and meaning. I can certainly go to the scriptures and run out all the scriptures that say all things work together for the good, that God has a future and a hope for my life, that Jesus came to give me life and that abundantly. But where I have the problem is hearing people describe every event in life as the sovereign hand of God acting to twist the world this way or that to make their life holy and complete. And I wonder whether the things that fill our day are really the hand of God at work, or only just the ins and outs of daily life breaking against us as we make our way. I can certainly see where one could receive a great deal of comfort and assurance into the hand-of-God-at-work view, but most of the confirmation of that tends to be reading meaning back into something that happened to us that had absolutely no meaning or the wrong meaning at the time it happened. I understand where all of these other views of God come from, the ones that liken him to a master clock maker that winds up his creation and lets it run, or the people that question God's sovereign action in everything and tend to see life as generally God's plot lines but without the detail all worked out.

I'm not sure where I weigh in completely on this question, I just know that I never quite feel at ease when someone expounds on how their husband's cancer, or their bankruptcy, or the death of their youngest child was just God at work bringing about a greater good or glory. It always has a hollow ring to it and somehow I don't think that is the way is should be. This musing isn't finished and there will be more to say on it.