Does everything in our lives happen in order to get us to an end result?

The following question and answer are from my friend Justin Brewer's personal blog [I sent him a message letting him know I'd be addressing this here before writing this post]:

Q: I know there is one BIG regret that I wished I would have done different. Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?

A: This is a tricky question to answer. Yes everything happens for a reason. It is just as simple as action and reaction, when there is a choice made our situation often changes with it. Do I believe that everything is predetermined and everything happens to get us to an end result? No. Our path is made day by day, decision by decision. The beauty of this is even when we make mistakes or something turns out terrible God can uses this for a purpose to make us better people. So yes things happen for a reason unfortunately that reason is as simple as the laws of physics and not "magical" in any way!

I'd have to give a somewhat different answer than Justin gave because I DO believe that everything is predetermined and everything happens to get us to an end result.

God's sovereign, predestining, providential control extends from those things that are seemingly accidental or insignificant (Prov 16:33; Matt 10:29-30) to encompass His grand plans for history to be realized in Christ (1 Cor 15:20-28; Eph 1:11b); yet not so as to make God the author or approver of sin (1 Cor 14:33; Jas 1:13; 1 John 1:5), nor to destroy the free moral agency and accountability of intelligent creatures (Gen 50:20; Isa 10:5-7, 12; Acts 4:24-28).

In a believer's life everything happens ultimately for our good and God's glory, as we are conformed into the image of Christ by our blessings, our trials, and even our failures, which drive us back to our need for His grace (Rom 8:29-32).