Namaste, Marcus.
We often say--and think we're the wiser for it--that if one ignores one's problems then they'll keep on resurfacing in different ways until one finally deals with them. But then I'm sure same same people who say this stuff will often try and give you their advice here, their opinions (I have not read the other replies to this thread yet, btw)... the truth is, you cannot consider matters like this one, the meaning of why things happen, you cannot consider these matters in isolation from one another.. if you manage to content yourself with an answer to this equation, then another equation somewhere else in your paradigm will manifest discontinuity.. it is commonplace to ask question like you're asking here and hope for helpful answers, for answers that will make you feel better.. and, the truth is, sometimes you will receive answers that make you feel better.. sometimes an answer will seem to fit with your paradigm, it will seem to make sense, but of course the accuracy of your entire paradigm in the first place is still not being considered...
I could try to impart my wisdom to you by giving you a carefully-crafted nugget that you wouldn't fully understand, through which I would intent to 'nudge' you in the right direction.. if these nuggets are crafted well enough then it's possible they can have the desired effects.. but I think it's always important to only ever give them nuggests
on top of the basic, essential premise I am outlining here.. and since I don't think you grasp this premise yet, I'm going to dispense with the nuggets for now.. all I can really tell you Marcus is that you're doing the right thing, questioning in this vein about the meaning of why things happen, and you shouldn't quit.. and realize that the truth you seek, it has to do with those great mysteries of life, those things most people never think about and don't ever come close to understanding.. you have to realize the immediacy of it, you have to accept the suffering of ignorance in order to acknowledge the ignorance, to recognize it, for you cannot seek to overcome that which you do not perceive.. it is a matter of priorities...
The problem is not that people have questions and doubts about the great mysteries of life, but just the opposite, that people are closed-minded to such thoughts. The problem is not that the standard person almost always has more pressing concerns than the great mysteries of life, but that questioning them about their prioritization in this regard will almost always reveal their prioritization is based on premature conclusions. The problem is that while on one hand the standard person justifies their priorities in life with admittedly speculative logic, on the other hand the refinement of said logic almost always fails to rank highly on their list of priorities. Or in other words questions in life deemed to have slim likelihood of ever being successfully answered, such as the great mysteries of life, these questions typically do not get pursued, for realistically there is only so much time in a day and nobody can possibly give their attention to every single potential learning opportunity that comes along. And this would be just fine, except that the question of determining what exactly is the degree of likelihood a given question could ever be successfully answered, this question, having to do with the great mystery of the human mind's capacity, is itself typically viewed as a question that has a slim likelihood of ever being successfully answered! So the average person has settled into a compromise position that appears logical with a bent towards practicality, but that is actually founded on excuses, covering up contradiction and circular logic, for the sake of remaining in safety and comfort rather than confronting the overwhelming dilemma of existential uncertainty head-on.