Gospel Hope in Suffering and Disability

A few weeks ago, John Piper preached a powerful sermon on the suffering of children with disabilities: "Why Was This Child Born Blind?":

The issue may be autism or Down syndrome or FASD or spina bifida or blindness or any number of rare and unpronounceable conditions—each has its own peculiar sorrows, its own peculiar way of turning decades into what you never dreamed or planned they would be. Married life isn’t what you thought it would be. Everything is irrevocably changed, and life will never be the same again. And you were not asked.

What would I do as a pastor if I had to face these things—these children, these parents—with a Bible that said nothing about it? What if all I could do is think up ideas on my own about suffering and disability? What if all I had was human opinions? I thank God that this is not our condition. The Bible is permeated with suffering and sorrow. This is one of the things that make it so believable. It is filled with things that God has said and done to shed light on these sufferings and sorrows.

You can listen to the entire sermon online or read the transcript.

The Desiring God blog followed this with sermon with several amazing testimonies of grace. First, John Piper's three-part interview with John Knight, followed by the story of Greg and Kim Lucas and their son:

Please take time to watch, listen, read, and worship.

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