Read the passage from "The Book of Martha.” Worse and worse, Martha thought, and she actually felt nauseous with fear. She turned away from God, hugging herself, suddenly crying, tears streaming down her face. After a while, she sniffed and wiped her face on her hands, since she had nothing else. "What will you do to me if I refuse?" she asked, thinking of Job and Jonah in particular.

"Nothing." God didn't even sound annoyed. "You won't refuse."

"But what if I do? What if I really can't think of anything worth doing?"

"That won't happen. But if it did somehow, and if you asked, I would send you home. After all, there are millions of human beings who would give anything to do this work."

And, instantly, she thought of some of these—people who would be happy to wipe out whole segments of the population whom they hated and feared, or people who would set up vast tyrannies that forced everyone into a single mold, no matter how much suffering that created. And what about those who would treat the work as fun—as nothing more than a good-guys-versus-bad-guys computer game, and the consequences. There were people like that. Martha knew people like that.

What is Martha struggling with most at this point in the story?

a. If she decides not to help God, then God will punish her for the rest of her life.
b. If she cannot think of anything worth doing, she’ll wipe out whole segments of the population.
c. If she decides not to help God, then someone else might help and do horrible things.
d. If she does the wrong thing, then God will refuse to let anyone else help humanity.