Everything happens for a reason?

"Everything happens for a reason?"  

 I heard that most of my life.  

  I didn't even reason the thought.  It was a fact.  Just as the Sun comes up every morning and dark covers the night,  "everything happens for a reason." 

Watching an interview of Paula Deene one evening, the topic of everything happens for a reason came up.   Paula said, "No, she personally does not believe everything happens for a reason."  WHAT?  Whoo.....I'm tilting.  There was no way I could even question this principle.  If I questioned that, it might lead to more questioning.   And what about God?  How could God make sense without believing everything happens for a reason?

In the depth of my spirit I must confess I never truly believed everything happens for a reason. I just couldn't verbalize it.  Didn't want to go to "Hell".   Those of you who grew up in the Bible Belt as I did may relate.  For me,  it makes more sense to believe that no experience is wasted.  It's a lesson to learn from .  That feels real to me.  Now I can make more sense of a child dying young, disease, starvation, poverty and loneliness.  Or how an apartment in NYC can sell for 125 million dollars while we have a record number 1.25 million, K-12 grade children homeless.  

How about you?  Does everything happen for a reason............or not?