When Disability - and Death

Last December R.C. Sproul, Jr., son of the great theologian and father of eight, went through the heart pain of losing his wife to cancer. On Wednesday he suffered another loss, as one of those children, his fifteen year-old daughter Shannon, succumbed to a lifelong disability she had. Please pray for their family. A concise and moving tribute to Shannon can be read here.

These tragic situations always raise questions. A few years ago, Joni Erickson Tada produced a video featuring the Sproul Family as they applied the sovereignty of God to the presence of Shannon in their family. Go here to watch both grandfather and father Sproul express the application of the doctrine of God's omnipotence in their family.

If you want further help with tragedy, a beautifully written book by a pastor who lost his wife and several children is _Death in the Home _by B.M. Palmer. Palmer, a nineteenth southern Presbyterian pastor, pays tribute to each of his family members and shares what the Lord taught him as he journeyed through death's valley time and time again.

Traveling with others through suffering, be it personally, prayerfully, or meditatively as we read their stories, helps prepare us for when our time to do so comes.