Healing the Wounds of Trauma

Lesson 1 IF GOD LOVES US, WHY DO WE SUFFER?

1. The story of Pastor Ben In the city of Los Gatos lives a pastor named Ben. He never knew his father. Until he was three, he was raised by his mom. Then she died and he had to go live with his aunt. Her husband was cruel to Ben. He beat Ben often and didn’t give him enough to eat. Ben went to school and made friends. When he was in middle school, one of his friends invited him to his church. Ben believed that Jesus had died for him, so he became a Christian. After high school he went to Bible school. When he was just twenty-three, he became the pastor of a small church. He got married and had two sons. Over the years, gangs began to take control of his neighborhood in Los Gatos. Rival gangs had huge fights nearly every week. Ben saw innocent people being shot—children, women, passers-by. Several of the young girls in his church had been gang raped. Other families were robbed at gunpoint. Los Gatos had become a war zone. Ben was at the church one day preparing for an evening service when he got the dreaded call: come to the emergency room! His five- year-old son Johnson had been hit by a stray bullet. By the time Ben got to the hospital, it was too late. The doctors were not able to save little Johnson’s life. Ben still believes in the Bible, but he keeps asking why God has let him and his community suffer. He is angry with God and feels that God has deserted him. Sometimes he thinks that maybe God is not strong enough to stop these things from happening. When he thinks of God as his Father, he can’t imagine a loving father. In his experience, he only knew a father who was absent and an uncle who beat him cruelly.

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If God Loves Us, Why Do We Suffer?