Was it really God's purpose?

Just some thougths...

Sometimes I think we as youth workers get a little too fast and loose with the lines "it's all part of God's will or plan." We read stories like Joseph's where he says to his brothers, "you didn't sell me into slavery, it was God's purpose for all that to happen to me." Really?

I guess I can see God's purpose in that, thousands to millions of lives ultimately saved from starvation. But what I have a problem doing is then transfering that ideology to our day and age.

I just got back from camp where I met a girl who was having a really hard time understanding the how and why of God's plan in the physical abuse her father gave her and her family a couple of years ago. God caused the events in Joseph's life, maybe. God caused the events in this young girl's life, I don't think so.

I can't believe that it is God's intention to cause bad things to happen. God can use bad things as well as good things to work out His plan, but does He cause them happen in the first place?

God has a plan, and can make it happen. But everything that I read in the Bible says that God's plans for me are for good. I don't have any really good answers, but I think it would be a good thing if I and others were a bit more careful with what we attribute to God.