well... for me (obviously i can't speak for all believers)... yes, i do believe God is in control of everything. i believe that humans have the gift of freewill to mess things up for themselves.. but that ultimately God still has a plan for my life. If my 19 year old daughter was killed in a car accident, it would suck.. it would hurt.. i would be sad.. i would be mad... i would wonder why God let that happen. I don't believe that people die because they "deserve it"... however, in my Christian belief system, if my daughter is Christian (which she is), i would ultimately rejoice that she had passed on to heaven. The sadness I felt would be over my own loss.. not over her death.
Further, I believe everything happens for a reason. It just might be that her death spurs me on to start a campaign and save another child's life. It might be that somebody I meet online offering me condolences later becomes my best friend. It might be that that online somebody later comes to be a Christian as well. It might be that I'll never know why she died... and I'm ok with that option as well.
I can look back at many sad events in my life that at the time had me shaking my fists and yelling "WHY GOD? WHY?"... but now that they are passed, I can see His handiwork in all of them.
I understand that this is not everybody's belief system... and that not even every Christian will believe as I do... and I am ok with that. It is not my job to personally convince the entire world that there is a God, there is a Savior... It is not my job to judge ANYBODY... that is a huge petpeeve of mine... It is my job to love those that I come in contact with... and I hope that this post was read in the manner it was written... and that it will be answered in the same manner....
