It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Life can seem capricious:

• A lively young woman hops into the car to run an errand. Four minutes later she's dazed and injured, looking into the anxious eyes of rescuers from a pile of twisted metal and broken glass.

• A gray-flannel-clad executive clutches his chest and falls to the city street amid the litter — a victim of a heart attack.

• A rambunctious high school linebacker lowers his head to spear a ball carrier — and spends the next year immobilized and the rest of his life a quadriplegic.

• A new bride develops weakness in her legs and then goes suddenly blind. Extensive tests determine multiple sclerosis the culprit.

Each event was unexpected, unwanted, a crisis. Into these experiences pastors are called.

Sudden Incapacitation

Medical considerations. When injury or disease strikes, medical attention must be the first concern. Writes Eugene Kennedy, professor of psychology at Chicago's ...