As Cardus dives head-long into its biggest-ever project, the Cardus Education Survey, I seem to be in a stage in my own life where my big question about Christian education is: did it delay my awareness of the world’s real brokenness?

I’ve listened to my pastor weep about brokenness for years. I’ve seen it in the media (how could you not?), heard about it from acquaintances, even published it in Comment. But I’ve never felt brokenness very closely, until recently, and it’s been kicking me six ways from Sunday for a few months now. I don’t know what to make of it, and I’ve been feeling ill-equipped to address brokenness as a Christian-educated adult.

• A woman’s father and mother are both failing in one city, while at the same time as her son is life-threatened in a hospital a thousand miles away.
• A marriage of two great people is rocky and out of answers.
• Those with jobs feel guilty around those crying out for work.
• Russians abort 60% of their babies, but some who want a baby can’t conceive.
• A toddler falls from his mother’s arms and dies in an airport, en route to his baptism back home.

I don’t know how to deal with these things. I don’t know how not to be furious with God. If I didn’t believe, it seems this would be easier. But the problem is, God does exist—I know this, beyond a shadow of doubt—and yet this happens.

To my original point: does the rest of the world reach this point earlier in life? Am I late to the bitterness game because of Christian K-12 and Christian undergrad? And even if this is true, is it better or worse for me to have these realizations at 27 compared to 17?