Recently I read “9 Lessons from God Concerning Sickness” from J. C. Ryle, an Anglican bishop (1816–1900). Every lesson he shares applies to how Nanci lived out her last years before relocating to Heaven. 

If we are to face suffering well, if we are not to waste our suffering, we must let it take us to God’s Word. If we don’t, our loss will be incalculable. If we do, our gain will be abundant and eternal.

In this clip from his message “An Eternal Perspective on Suffering, Loss, and Grief,” Randy reminds listeners of how little we know compared to our all-wise, all-knowing God.

In this clip from Randy’s message “An Eternal Perspective on Suffering, Loss, and Grief,” Randy and Steve Keels discuss how it is OK to ask God our why questions, as long as we are willing to listen to His answers.

Randy spoke with his close friend and pastor Steve Keels at his home church, Good Shepherd Community Church. They talked about Nanci’s passing and what it looks like to have an eternal perspective in the midst of suffering, loss, and grief.

Though we don’t know exactly when, we do know for sure that either by our deaths or by Christ’s return, our suffering will end. From before the beginning, God drew the line in eternity’s sand to say for His children, “This much and no more, then endless joy.”

In this clip from a Q&A at an illumiNations gathering, Randy talks about the problem of suffering. He shares about his own experience of grieving his wife Nanci, and how the Bible allows us to face the hardest questions of life in the light of God’s sovereignty.

Randy joins a conversation with Stephan Tchividjian and Morgan Jackson at a gathering of illumiNations partners (Bible translation and resource partners working together to eradicate Bible poverty in this generation). They cover topics such as the power of God’s Word (both at home and abroad), the problem of suffering, and the hope of the New Earth.

Imagining that God should let us run life our way sets us up to resent God and even “lose our faith” when our lives don’t go as we want. However, that’s a faith we should lose—to be replaced with faith in the God of sovereign grace who doesn’t keep us from all difficulties but promises to be with us in all difficulties.