When Faith Fails by Dominic Done

Author:Dominic Done
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2019-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Why Is the World So Broken?

Lament is the voice of that pain . . . for the mountain of suffering of humanity and creation itself.

Lament is the voice of faith struggling to live with unanswered questions and unexplained suffering.

—CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT

My wound is an unanswered question. The wounds of all humanity are unanswered questions.

—NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF

WE SAT TOGETHER IN a circle as a group of women from ages ten to twenty-two began to share their stories. I was in Kampala, Uganda, along with a small group of pastors from Portland, to visit and encourage ministries that our church supports. One of these ministries is a safe house for women who need refuge and healing from sexual brokenness. In partnership with Bob Goff and his organization Love Does, we built the house to provide protection, education, counseling, and hope.

We listened as they shared. Their stories were devastating.

One young woman stood up. Slowly, in a gentle whisper, she began to describe her tragic past. She grew up in poverty. She spent years living on the streets, doing her best to survive. She was forced into prostitution. She was raped by a family member. And then, tragically, one of her parents died.

When she reached that part of the story, she paused, looking around the room. Her eyes looked hollow, like an empty well. And then, from some unspoken place inside her, the dam burst.

She began sobbing. And so did we. The other women immediately gathered around her, praying for her, speaking kind words over her, affirming her, loving her. She looked up and told us all how thankful she was for the home, her new friends, and a God who loved her so much. It was a moment both heartbreaking and yet full of unspeakable hope.

A few days later we drove north to the city of Gulu, in northern Uganda. Gulu has a tragic past and is still reeling from the devastation and chaos of war. Signs of trauma are everywhere. Beginning in the late 1980s through 2006, a violent, cult-like militia called the LRA, led by Joseph Kony, sprang up and ravaged the city. Homes were obliterated, people were murdered, 1.9 million were displaced from their homes, and thirty thousand children were kidnapped.

Thirty thousand.

The number is staggering. These are young, innocent lives violently robbed of childhood and forced to become soldiers.

In recent years, Kony’s army has been decimated and is no longer as severe a threat. Some say he is hiding somewhere in the jungles of the Congo. Most of his soldiers are either dead or have returned home.

The challenges for these former child soldiers are indescribable. Some of the boys, when they were first abducted, were forced to kill members of their own families. Some of the girls, now young women, have returned home with babies. They’ve known nothing but violence and bloodshed. And now, back in Gulu, they’re trying to adjust to “normal” life.

But how could life ever be normal after that? How do you heal? How do you come to terms with your own pain? We met some of these former child soldiers and heard their stories.

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