You Can Trust a God with Scars: Faith (and Doubt) for the Searching Soul

by Jared Ayers

Overview

How do you balance the tension between doubt and faith?

Can you really trust God, considering the suffering, injustice, and hypocrisy you see in the news (and in your own life)? Can the Christian faith resolve your deepest longings? You are not alone if you feel spiritually adrift and directionless. Questions about God, faith, life, and the disillusionment toward church and religious leaders are widespread.

You Can Trust a God with Scars invites you to experience the broader Christian story. In these pages, the yearning and questions of your own story become grounded with a God who does not avoid pain but enters into it, bearing wounds of His own. In this timely book, Rev. Dr. Jared Ayers offers a guided tour of the Christian Story for you who may be unfamiliar, skeptical, hurting, and disillusioned, lingering in the borderlands between faith and doubt. With a fascinating mix of theology, art, Scripture, music, and literature, he invites you into a conversation about a Christianity that embraces doubt, mystery, and a God who understands suffering intimately.

Whether you are a Christian seeking to draw closer to Jesus amidst pain, have been hurt by the church, or are an agnostic or atheist, in You Can Trust a God With Scars, you will find:

• A series of conversations about Christian faith that are honest, hospitable, and intellectually compelling
• A meaningful framework to help you work through your beliefs
• Questions at the end of each chapter to guide reflection or discussion

Here is a safe, compassionate space to reawaken hope and find meaning in the Christian story, despite living in a fractured world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641589963
Publisher:	The Navigators
Publication date:	09/09/2025
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.60(d)

What People are Saying About This

Winn Collier

In an age of disillusionment and disenchantment, we need wise pastoral voices who bring a curious mind, an awakened heart, and a lively, compassionate pen to our many perplexing questions. We need voices like Jared Ayers’s, and I’m excited to support the work he’s creating and the beautiful gospel it evokes.

Marilyn McEntyre

Any of us who have found ourselves in “the borderlands between faith and doubt” or suffering from church fatigue or unsure what to make of biblical claims will find in these stories and reflections a hospitable invitation to take a long second look. Maybe even to venture through the doors of a church. Jared Ayers meets readers in the shadowy places of uncertainty not with arguments but with stories that help even the deeply disenchanted reimagine a life in which faith is sustaining and a vigorous community of thoughtful believers is possible.

Eric E. Peterson

Clear, compelling, and propelled by a soaring Christology, Jared Ayers breathes fresh air into the fathomless mystery of what it means to have a wounded healer God on our side. For a doubting, cynical generation, this pastoral, humble, persuasive voice is a giant step forward in the journey of faith seeking understanding.

Leanne Van Dyk

Who knew that a book of theology could be written with such wit and wisdom? Who knew that a book of pastoral ministry could brim with thoughtful, perceptive, and wise insights? This book is both. The combination of theology and pastoral wisdom here is compelling in our present context of deep anxiety and confusion. Jared Ayers offers a fresh telling of the Christian story and connects it at every turn with real people’s real lives. It is a book for people who believe, who doubt, who question, and who yearn.

Andrew Arndt

Jared Ayers says this is a book for those on the borderlands of faith. He is qualified to say this because (1) he wrote it and (2) he has spent an enormous amount of time with people there and knows what he’s talking about. But as I read, I kept thinking, This is a book for the church. Jared knows the gospel. Knows the beauty and power of what has been entrusted to a community of faith. And in an age of disillusionment with and confusion about what the gospel actually is, Jared, a sage, scholar, and warmhearted pastor, is giving it to us all over again—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. This is a book for both the church and those at the borderlands. A book to be savored.

Chuck DeGroat

Jared’s book is a compelling look at how Christians engage wisely and winsomely in this cultural moment. Jared’s exceptional writing, engaging storytelling, and deep experience as a pastor and church planter offer connection and credibility to readers. I’m very excited to promote this book as it’s being birthed into the world.

Editorial Reviews

[Jared Ayers] explores how to grapple with the world’s brokenness, noting that while the existence of suffering is something of a mystery, the knowledge that Jesus experienced earthly pain can reassure believers they’re not alone.

Publishers Weekly

Riveting . . . another deftly crafted suspense thriller of a masterpiece by novelist Ryan Steck.

Wisconsin Book Watch