Religion and such

Does God cause things to happen or does he let things happen? Is it to "teach us lessons?" Or maybe shit just happens? Maybe there are just bad people and bad things in the world? Does God sit up there with puppet strings? *sigh* Just pondering the larger questions in life after an argument with my mom over whether God fixed the DVR just in time for a football game. Stupid, stupid. Like I need to argue or be upset over such a trivial topic...especially at my dad's birthday dinner. GOOOOO TIMING!