"Money is their God"

As a follower of Jesus, I am constantly wondering about God's role in human trafficking. In evil. In suffering. I have more questions than answers. And I am sure you do, too - from the bigger things like worldwide human slavery, to the things that are in your own life: infertility, death, disease, heartache, rejection, fear, anxiety.....

One thing I keep coming back to, that I bank on every time: The suffering of Jesus. He entered in. He was rejected by his closest friends - in fact, they physically ran away from Him in His greatest time of need. Have you ever had someone run from you, look you in the eyes and then abandon you? He was beaten. He was mocked. He was abused. He suffered.

I can love a God who suffered; He knows. He is not oblivious. He is well aware. That's what I know.

I also believe a crazy thing about Him. Truly ridiculous and unheard of and off the charts. I know He was pummeled and crucified. And then, I have read and believe, He defeated death. He gave Death a royal ass-kicking. He came back alive.

God keeps coming up in a lot of articles about human trafficking. References and hopes and wondering.

This is an excerpt from CNN's Freedom Project. Iana is from Romania:

Iana Matei runs a safe house for girls who have been trafficked for sex.

"Traffickers simply don't feel they are doing anything wrong," Matei says. "Money is their God and worth making compromises for – so long as they are making money, it doesn't matter how they do it."

And so long as there is money to be made, trafficking is showing no signs of slowing down. "At the moment the biggest illegal trade in the world is drugs and number 2 is human trafficking," says Andrew Wallis, the head of anti-trafficking charity, UnseenUK.

"Everybody says that within five years it will be the biggest illegal trade in the world and the reason for that is with trafficking you have repeat business," he said. "So you can sell a person again and again and again and one woman can make up to £100,000 to £200,000 a year [approx. $170,000 - $270,000 a year], Wallis said.

Iana is suggesting that what we worship dictates our actions. Our life. Our choices. That also makes sense to me even in the crossroads of my questions.

What questions do you ask, in light of suffering?

More on the above article at CNN here.