In an earlier column I referred to some of the books that have proved influential in my life, but intriguingly I chose to omit James Dobson’s helpful study ‘When God doesn’t make sense’. I say ‘intriguingly’ because, for some reason it simply didn’t feel right at the time. It does now because just a few days after I had sent my musings to the editor, my wife and I found ourselves thinking exactly that when a dear friend was brutally attacked in her Florida home and died a few days later.

Thankfully the attacker seems to have been caught but this vicious and senseless act has left thousands of hurting people both in the US where they lived and also in Wales where they served God so faithfully as missionaries. We are just two of many believers then who have been left feeling heartbroken and wondering why God allowed this to happen to a wonderfully gifted and kind lady.

Tragic incidents like this prompt the ‘Why question’ and often lead to what Dobson describes as a ‘profound sense of abandonment by God’. They can also reinforce the conviction that faith is simply delusional. That’s why Dobson’s book is so helpful. It deals with this issue in a very sensitive but thoughtful way and shows us that we can trust God whatever happens to us, although like many a Christian I admit that there are times when it is very difficult to say that.

Dobson points out that even the most cursory look at the Bible will show you that believers often face difficult and painful circumstances that don’t seem to make sense at the time. ‘But’ we might ask, ‘why does He allow this?’ He suggests that it is because God is looking for faith, the kind of faith that ‘hangs on in there’ when the storm is raging, and we feel that we are about to sink. It’s a faith that believes we can trust God because He raised Jesus to life again three days after He was brutally executed.

Lucy Pat’s husband, Bill, is nothing if not a man of faith. We have known that ever since we first met him but his reaction to his wife’s death has only reinforced that conviction that in the most remarkable way. Bill is convinced she is in glory of course but he also took a picture of her damaged body and said he wants to show it to the man who is thought to have done it. He wants to tell him that he will forgive him because he has been forgiven too.

“I refuse to let his actions dictate who I am,” he is reported to have said. Now that’s what I call real faith. It’s the kind of faith that is both humbling and inspirational at the same time.