My best answer is to recommend a book to you called “Why Does God Permit Evil” by Dom Brunno Webb.
) of the book and I will post it here if you like.If you lose your job, house, or a dear one, if you had a car crash, someone robbed you, a friend turned his back on you - what would it have to do with YOUR free will?
My best answer is to recommend a book to you called “Why Does God Permit Evil” by Dom Brunno Webb.
I think it is the best book around that makes sense out of our suffering. It looks at the overall economy of salvation.
If we trust that God is in control and He knows what He’s on about then the saying everything happens for a reason makes sense.
If we remember that not one hair falls from our head without His persmission then we can trust that everything does happen for a reason.
A priest giving a homily on the Beautitudes spoke of the poverty of answers. This is a true poverty in this day and age when we want God to answer to us instead of the other way around. We have to be content that God is the One in charge. There in lies humility and so our participation in God’s own humility.
The only thing we should be concerned with is our part of the plan, to love Him and our neighbor in whatever form that will take, each day that He gives us.
If you are interested I have made a summary (not a very good one by okay enough I guess
- the question implies, or could imply, that we are the centre of creation 
How are we going to understand why things happen, if we think that we are the reason for them ? ISTM that to think the universe exists for us, may lead to unbelief - because we don’t know much about the rest of the universe; so if it did exist for us, it would be meaningless.
There is no chance. There is, however, Divine Providence and free will.
Maybe it’s how you react to these events that involves your free will. The opportunity to do good is the “reason”.
The lack of them. When you look at the evil around us, the seemngly unnecessary pain inflicted on innocent people, then we are inclined to question either the existence of God or the fact that He is Love.About the “poverty of answers” - what did the priest mean: that there was a lack of them, or that they were in some sense impoverished ? Or both ?
Well, on a purely scientific basis, the statement is true. It’s the whole cause-and-effect thing. Nothing happens without a cause (a “reason”).
The principle of cause-and-effect is the basis of St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Unmoved Mover” proof of the existence of God. The Church acknowledges that nothing (except God) happens without a cause (a “reason”).
Not only to do good, but also to learn something. A friend betrayed me long time ago. It was a very painful experience for me. But it made me think and realize that there is one friend I have that never would turn His back on me, even though I have betrayed him a hundred times. And that is Jesus - it was pretty much a beginning of my conversion. So yes, there was a reason for this friend of mine to come into my life and come out of my life again - a real blessing in disguise. I have had many like that since that time.