Here is a letter sent to me about a woman struggling with faith, and one of her major questions is a deep, dread-type question: The shocking injustices some experience.

Gary Haugen spoke at the service at Willow on the International Justice
Mission.  He discussed the sex trafficking, as well as many other
injustices going on around the world.  He would tell a story of some
injustice occurring in the world and then say, “How are these people
supposed to believe?”  Gary then described some of the work that IJM
did… and, I believe, his idea was to show that there is hope….and
that God created us to fight the injustice.

However, I have heard the arguments about free will and that God is
merciful and just and of this sounds good in theory.  But the question
I need answered is this one: “How is that woman supposed to believe
that there is a God that is good and just—a God that she can trust? 
How?  How is that woman supposed to trust?”  She was stripped of that
ability.

Our questions for today: What are your experiences with such abusive situations? Have you seen such women (re)learn to trust God? How did they do so? What can you say to this “seeker”?

You can’t tell me you can go on … after being raped or sold into prostitution … where you see evil at it’s finest, where you see power being abused to its greatest extent …  Question: How is someone like that ever supposed to believe/trust in anyone or anything, let alone, God?  Not just state a belief. In her very core, in the middle of the night, when no one is around, when she is all by herself. I cannot believe that someone like that could trust … and it’s not for lack of trying and praying … because God knows I want to believe. I fell a bit like Charles Templeton. I would like to believe….but…

The book that John Ortberg wrote about faith and doubt – describes his own doubts….but he was not in a brothel serving men 30 x a day.  Imagine being stripped of all dignity.  When I put myself in that woman’s shoes, I cannot believe.   I would feel nothing, as the only possible coping mechanism; the pain would be too great.