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why stuff was happening and pondered over whether things would ever change. We ourselves have been confronted with a whole host of challenges that had the potential to tear our faith apart. From struggles with church and Christians as teenagers to a real journey of pain in having children, there have been many moments when it has all just seemed too much to bear. However, in these times we have somehow managed to dust ourselves down, get up, and carry on. With the benefit of hindsight we are grateful for these difficulties, as they have given us more insight into why some folk just cannot reconcile following a God of love with their own personal circumstances. We’ve called them “stumbling blocks”: those things that trip us up and smack us in the face so hard that they cause us to give up on God completely, or stop us from even encountering Him in the first place. Each stumbling block is a separate problem that we have come into contact with, either personally or through knowing others who have struggled with it. At the centre of these pages is the stumbling block that caused us to write this book, because it is the one that has made us battle with faith, question God’s fairness, and ask Him if He truly does love us. The one we are referring to is “When life is bad”. Please forgive us for including such a personal chapter, but everything else you will read stems from it, as it awakened us to realize just how many things can stop us from committing to walking with God, or sap any faith we may have had. Maybe you know what we mean. Perhaps you have faced some hideous pain in your life and you have no idea where God was in the middle of it. Or you dreamed a dream when you were younger but cannot for the life of you understand why a God of love hasn’t answered your prayers. Maybe you relate to the person who says they had an experience of God years ago but He seems a million miles away from them now.