God himself feels genuine outrage and so should we, in the presence of pain, cruelty, violence, and injustice.

By the absolute immutability of His character, He is implacably opposed to evil and outraged by it.

—Os Guinness, The Dust of Death

I am a member of Soroptimist International, a volunteer organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls. In recent months our organization has worked tirelessly to educate its members and the public at large about the worldwide trafficking of human beings. To say the information I’ve learned creates in me utter sorrow and complete outrage is inadequate. The situation many people find themselves is almost too horrible to contemplate.

International human rights groups estimate that anywhere between 12.3 million and 27 million people around the world are enslaved in forced or bonded labor, child labor, sexual servitude or involuntary servitude at any given time. Slavery exists in many forms, but all share common characteristics: slaves are forced to work, owned or controlled by an employer, dehumanized and treated as commodities, and are physically constrained.

Sexual slavery and trafficking continues to proliferate and I’ve come to understand that it exists not only in the U.S. but here in Western Washington as well. In response, a National Human Trafficking Resource Center has been created and organizers have established a toll-free hotline. The number is 888-373-7888 and callers can count on a number of services including urgent and non-urgent referrals, tip reporting and comprehensive resources. You are also encouraged to contact your local police or sheriff departments if you believe there is a situation that needs to be investigated.

It comforts me to know the outrage I feel comes from God. As a Christian, I am promised that God’s spirit remains on the earth to indwell and serve mankind. This connectedness is one of the aspects of Christianity that I found extremely influential when I began to consider spiritual matters as a youngster. To know that God’s presence would move and work in me spoke strongly, for I realized that I would need His wisdom and courage throughout my life.

As my awareness of this international tragedy grows, I have turned to God to discover how He responds to evil. I know Him to be forgiving and faithful and patient, yet there are other aspects to His personality that come into play when sheer evil presents itself in our world. A look in the Bible reveals something interesting. In fact, it is recorded that Jesus outlines seven ways mankind can anger God. He calls them the seven woes. To find them for yourself, look in the 23rd chapter of Matthew.

The first way to anger God is to deliberately prevent people from learning about Him. This speaks profoundly to freedom of information, religion and worship. To challenge ourselves and those around us to consider the spiritual aspects of life is a very high calling. Children usually hear it. We are best served by listening and following their national openness.

Another way to anger God is to pull people away from Him and draw attention to yourself. A number of high profile Christian preachers have proven to be guilty of this, the second of the seven woes. They prefer fame and fortune to humbly sharing God’s message of love and mercy and forgiveness.

The third woe involves people blindly leading those around them to follow man-made traditions instead of God’s word. This ties directly with woe number four: focusing on the small details and failing to develop a discerning eye for the big picture. This reminds me of people who follow the law but never work beyond their comfort zones. They do just enough to appear faithful.

Some people make the mistake of keeping up appearances while struggling with a corrupt private life. We must keep our houses in order or back down from high profile lives. This sixth woe involves appearing spiritual while covering up sin.

The seventh woe is pretending to have learned from past experiences but behaving as if you have never learned valuable lessons at all.

God does not present us with the seven woes to condemn us. I believe He promises strong and consistent responses because these choices profoundly hurt those with whom we work and live. He asks us to bring mercy, true love and forgiveness into our daily lives and gather the courage to make an injustice known to those who can help.

May the seven woes die so we might truly live.