For eight years John Piper couldn’t stand in front of a group without his throat closing, he once accepted a C in civics rather than give an oral book report. Then a chaplain asked him to pray for thirty seconds in chapel, and the vow he made walking across campus that day set the course of his entire ministry. Hear the risk that changed everything, and consider the fork in the road waiting for you, on this episode of PassionLife.

John and Mark have both stood beside death this month — Mark marking the second anniversary of his 21-year-old son David’s passing, and John saying goodbye to his 103-year-old mother-in-law Johnny, who spent her last hours on a broken hip preaching Christ to the EMTs. They talk honestly about the anguish of a life cut short and the satisfaction of a life lived long, why Scripture makes room for weeping and rejoicing at the same time, and what the shrinking lifespans of Genesis tell us about what we were made for. Listen and be reminded that God has numbered your days — and given you everything you need for the hardest ones — on this episode of PassionLife.