Just FYI, there is NOT a divine reason for everything that happens, unless the divine reason is that all of existence happens within a sacred context in the broad sense. But no, HELL NO, suffering is not part of God's "plan" for anyone's enlightenment.
If there is a divine "plan" for our lives it is concerned with the exercise of freedom, the gaining of wisdom, the learning of compassion, the full flourishing of the soul. Suffering IMPEDES these things and this grieves God.
If we think of God in a personal way or in a more mystical way as an impersonal force - no worthy concept of Ultimate Reality or sovereign moral grounding that moves through history + creation has a "plan" for anyone's harm. Period.
This doesn't mean that God is not present with us in all conditions. I believe that God most assuredly is. However, whatever redemption is to be found in the aftermath of evil + suffering is a human religious, psychological, emotional moral project. Don't blame God for shit.
Above all, please don't EVER, EVER tell someone who has suffered harm or a loss that "God must have a plan" for them. Don't make God a sadist.
Even for conservative Christians who believe that Jesus' suffering and crucifixion was God's plan for salvation, that doesn't translate to anyone else's suffering. If you follow that theological line, God did that ONCE. One and done.
In short, God's "plan" for all of us is freedom, joy, gratitude, fullness of life. We are to pursue deep life as best we can + work hard to make the conditions for that fullness of life possible for ALL people. That is what God requires of us.
The implications of saying that God has a "plan" for anyone's suffering, loss, harm or privation is particularly objectionable because it justifies a spiritual apathy: "I can look away becuase that must be God's plan." BULLSHIT. #theology
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