I don't believe in any of that stuff. The universe doesn't have a plan; things happen, sometimes they turn out in your favour, sometimes they don't.
We create purpose, it doesn't exist on it's own. The horizontal branch on that tree in the backyard isn't strong just so that you can hang a swing on it. It's strong for it's own reason, we just take advantage of it for our own benefit.
I give karma some credit, your mental state colours your perception of reality, being good and keeping relaxed makes everything appear easier and allows you to enjoy things that you wouldn't normally enjoy and cope with things that would usually trouble you much more.
But theirs no magic going on there. If the universe punished bad people on it's own, we wouldn't need police.
NOTE: The universe is deterministic, but that's different. The outcome is predicable, but not intentional. We can use maths to know that a certain asteroid will hit a certain planet, and that asteroid was always going to hit that planet; but their was never any goal involved, it's just the way things worked out.