Isn't it interesting how when things are going poorly Christians often say their faith is improved?

I was talking to a man named Nick, who worked in animation for Disney for 25 years until he got laid off 2 years ago. Since then, life has been difficult for him. He has 5 kids, and a large mortgage that the job he found after being laid off doesn't manage to support. He is living off rapidly dwindling resources which he managed to save while working at Disney.

Today, he told me that he believes that this is all part of God's plan; that there is a lesson to be learned here.
While I believe that this is a nice approach to adversity in general; that rather than getting angry, to try to learn from it and be resilient, I have trouble with the idea that his faith grew as a result.
It just seems more likely that the loss of his job had to do with technology than with God.
If bad things happening proves that God exists, and good things happening proves that God exists, then the notion of proof has little meaning.
It would be like taking a medicine and saying "If this makes me better, it is a good medicine; if I get worse, it is a good medicine".
I like the idea of approaching his job loss as he does, but it seems dishonest to use a bad situation as evidence that God loves you. Any thoughts on this?

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