When we lock our eyes on our cancer, arthritis, fibromyalgia, diabetes, or disability, self-pity and bitterness can creep in. When we spend our days rehearsing the tragic death of a loved one, we will interpret all life through the darkness of our suffering. How much better when we focus upon Jesus!

Daniel Traugott was a 13-year-old boy who died in a car accident, leaving behind his mother, father and four siblings. His mother, Sandy, sent us the following poems she wrote that reflect two different perspectives on his death. (Reprinted with permission.)

What, after all, is more universal to human experience than suffering? And what is more important than the perspective we bring to it?

In this video clip, Ann Stump shares her story of losing her young son. Randy Alcorn writes about this story in his book If God Is Good. 

The name of the song is called “Martyrs For the Lord.”

If your life was perfect, then what would you need Me for?

What is it like to be a designated “abortion person” in your church and community? Well, for me, it’s a little like eating the old “jaw breaker” candy. It’s good and it’s hard.

I desire, I want to be a jewel that does not cringe if God chooses to give my soul a hard scrubbing every now and then.

While serving with Operation Mobilization in India in 1967, tuberculosis forced me into a sanitarium for several months. I did not yet speak the language, but I tried to give Christian literature written in their language to the patients, doctors and nurses. Everyone refused; some politely, some rudely.