Promises are meant to be kept. Close relationships are designed to be safe. Husbands or wives aren’t supposed to watch pornography behind their spouse’s back. Friends should be able to trust each other with sensitive news. And, thankfully, many relationships are wonderfully safe – not perfect, of course – but places where trust can be given and received without fear.
For some, however, trust has been shattered, relationships are a place of betrayal – far from a place of security.
Betrayal hurts because it breaks a bond. Whether it’s the covenant of marriage that is crushed by one partner seeking sexual gratification elsewhere, or the unity of the church ripped apart by gossip or bullying, betrayal takes something that was meant to be a whole and brings division. It leaves in its wake a sense of shock (‘I can’t believe they would do that’), deep pain (‘I thought they loved me’), profound confusion (‘How do I go forward from here?’), and often isolation (‘Maybe I can’t trust anyone any more’).
