Tim Moore: If you missed our most recent episode of Christ in Prophecy, then you really missed out on a great blessing. Joining us on our program was special guest Joni Eareckson Tada!
Joni’s testimony will give you hope. Her life changed in an instant when she dove into the Chesapeake Bay and broke her neck. At the tender age of 17, she became a quadriplegic. Refusing to wallow in despair, she overcame unexpected adversity to serve as an example of how to live by faith through extreme suffering. To cite Jeremiah 29:11, “God had a plan for her, to give her a future and a hope.”
Nathan Jones: Joni guided us through the writings of Jeremiah, the so-called “Prophet of Doom,” particularly Jeremiah’s second book — Lamentations. In our “Jesus in the Old Testament” series, we’ve left the period of the kings of Israel and Judah, from roughly 1000 to 600 BC. The era was a sad commentary on the decline of a nation that initially had pledged itself in a covenant relationship to Almighty God.
Tim Moore: Jeremiah’s book of laments captures his heartbreak at witnessing the ravishing of Jerusalem and the people who refused to repent of their faithlessness and wickedness. Written shortly after the fall of the city in 586 BC, it is the saddest book in the Bible. It contains horrors almost too graphic to read. But, even as he expresses the bitterness crushing his heart in Lamentations, Jeremiah clings to the mercy of God, expressing hope in the midst of despair.
Joni’s Amazing Testimony
Tim Moore: Joni, you were confronted with a calamity. At some point or another, all of us will experience at least a minor calamity in our life, and it is only human nature to dwell on our pain and loss. Without dredging up too many painful memories, please share how the accident affected you initially, both spiritually and psychologically.
Joni Eareckson Tada: As you can imagine, I was utterly devasted. I am seventeen years old, athletic, on the go, and ready to head to college. I had asked the Lord Jesus right before I was to go to college orientation if He would please do something in my life that would bring me closer to Him. I knew that college would have its temptations, and so, I wanted a closer walk with Jesus.
Now, I had prayed that prayer right before high school graduation. And, not but two weeks after my graduation from high school, I took a reckless dive thoughtlessly into shallow water. My head hit the bottom of a sandbar. The impact crunched my neck back, smashing my vertebra, and severing my spinal cord.
I cannot begin to tell you the despair I felt, especially having just asked God to give me a closer walk with Jesus. I remember laying in the hospital bed thinking, “Lord Jesus, if this is your idea of an answer to prayer to draw me closer to you, then I’m never going to trust you with another one of my prayers again.” I was devastated, and so I plummeted into depression.
But, thank the Lord, there were Christian friends who were praying. Real quickly friends, when people ask me: “Joni, what should I say, or what should I do, for this person who just suffered a catastrophic injury or illness?” My first response is “Pray!” because we wrestle not against the flesh and blood of spinal cord injury or other disabilities, no, we wrestle against powers and principalities that would love nothing more than to keep us steeped in depression. So, I thank God for Christian friends who were praying for me back then.
Nathan Jones: Praise the Lord! Most people might not know, at least in the younger generation, that there was a whole movie made called Joni dedicated to telling your life and experience, should they wish to know more about your testimony.
Obviously, when you don’t have access to your body anymore, that’s a very despairing situation. Was there a particular Bible verse that helped you keep going and help you become an overcomer? Because, Joni, you clearly are an overcomer.
Joni Eareckson Tada: During my depression, there was one Christian friend who pulled up a chair by my hospital bedside and he said: “Joni, I know you want to get out of your despair. Let me give you a Bible verse that can be your anchor. Start here.” And then he quoted to me 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
I remember saying to my friend, “What?! No way! I’m not going to do that. I don’t feel thankful. I’d be a hypocrite if I did that.” And he wisely said, “Joni, let’s read the verse today. It doesn’t say ‘in everything feel thankful,’ rather it says ‘in everything give thanks.'”
There’s a really big difference between trusting God and having trustful feelings. So, you’ve got to push your emotions aside. Push away that box of Kleenex. Just take a deep breath, a step of faith, and start giving thanks.
And so, I did just that. I started mouthing thankfulness. I really wasn’t thankful, but I wanted to be obedient. And so, I started thanking God that my hospital bed was at least near the window. I thanked God that my family was supportive. I thanked God that people were coming to visit me. I thanked God that after so many months I was finally able to sit up in a wheelchair. I thanked God for the breakfast that the nurses would first serve on my side of the hospital hallway because that meant it would be warm. For all kinds of things, I started giving thanks to God.
Those small, drastic obediences of giving thanks really exercised my muscle of faith. Over time I began to feel thankful. I believe it was God’s reward for my faithfulness in relying on His Word. He gave me the emotion of thankfulness. So, I would point to 1 Thessalonians 5:18 as the verse that really kick-started me on the path of righteousness and back to God.
Tim Moore: Joni, so many people will look upon your physical limitations, as they are obvious and apparent, but they will also see that you have become an overcomer. Many people in our society today carry deep emotional and spiritual scars. How can we be sensitive to the hurt and suffering happening to lives all around us and still point people to the kind of faith that you exhibit?
Joni Eareckson Tada: As I said at the onset, pray for these people. Don’t pray sporadically, rather pray committedly, diligently, and specifically. Come alongside them. I had friends who were faithful in visiting me on a regular basis. They not only brought their Bibles, but they also brought their guitars, and they brought pizza. When I got a weekend pass, they took me to a local mall. They did things with me. They just embodied the gospel of Jesus. They didn’t just preach at me — they loved me. And of course, love is a verb; it does things. Their expressions of love got me back into the mainstream of life.
I also think it is important to be realistic. This July made it 55 years that I’ve been in a wheelchair. I also live daily with chronic pain. I don’t sleep very well because I am often awakened by the pain. There are mornings, actually on most mornings, I wake up and before my eyes are even opened I’m crying out: “Oh, God, I cannot do this one more day. I’m so tired of this pain. I don’t have the endurance. I can’t do quadriplegia anymore!” But, then I add: “Jesus, I can do all things through you who strengthens me. Lord Jesus, I am empty. I am cavernous. I need your filling. I can’t do one more hour without You. God help me!”
And, do you know what? It is in this way that God loves to pour out His grace on people. He resists the proud. He resists those who hit the alarm, jump out of bed, throw back the covers, take a shower, scarf down breakfast, and race out the front door on automatic cruise control without hardly ever giving God the tip of the hat of a quiet time. He resists those people. But, He gives grace to the humble. The humble are simply people who wake up in the morning realizing their desperate need for Jesus. It’s how I’ve lived these past 55 years in a wheelchair, which makes my smile pretty authentic, and not made of Colgate, for sure.
Nathan Jones: Joni, let me tell you how much of an inspiration you’ve been to me. My father used to take me to book trade shows in Nashville, and I remember looking up at you and watching you paint. I can’t even draw a stick figure, and here you are painting with your mouth! This shows how young I was because I was looking up at you sitting in a wheelchair. And then, years later, when my youngest son was diagnosed with autism, I ran into you at a convention. You stopped everything and gave me some information about your ministry, Joni & Friends. My wife and I have been supporters of your ministry for 15 or so years now. So, I just want to tell you being an overcomer has been an inspiration to so many people, especially to my wife and me.
Joni Eareckson Tada: Oh, Nathan, thank you! I’m still drawing with my mouth. I recently drew a picture when my occupational therapist encouraged me in occupational therapy to draw something that expressed my feelings. And so, I drew my face in anguish. It is a face of, “Oh, God, I’ve got to do this. This is the way I’m to live my life?” Not only is it my portrait, but it is also everybody’s portrait. At times we all say: “God I can’t do this. This is my life? How am I going to manage?”
And so, that particular charcoal drawing pretty much expresses where I was at the time of my injury. And, oh, the difference the Lord Jesus has made! And it is why that particular charcoal drawing is one of my favorites, for it reminds me of where I have come from and the power of the grace of God to change things.
Tim Moore: You reminded me of what happened when Jesus spoke at the synagogue in Nazareth. He proclaimed a Messianic passage that was fulfilled in the hearing of the people sitting there that day. But, the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy, He did not read, for it pointed to a time when the Messiah would indeed fulfill the rest of the scripture which foretells that the Messiah would bestow “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” That is so evident in your life.
And yet, as we look into the book of Lamentations — a book of lament and despair — the prophet also has a moment when he glimpses the hope that exists even in the midst of despair. In times of trial and despair, what can Jeremiah the prophet teach from the book of Lamentations to those of us living today?
Joni Eareckson Tada: We all know that verse from Jeremiah 29:11. Some probably have it embroidered or placed on a plaque on our walls. “For the Lord knows the plans He has for us, to give us hope and a future.” And yet, Jeremiah wrote that as the people of God were being dragged off into slavery to spend the next 70 years in abject subjection to rulers and domineering tyrants. It was not an easy time for them.
I love Lamentations 3:21-26 because it is so hopeful. Jeremiah says, “But this I call to mind,” okay, whenever you’re suffering, whenever you are hurting, Lamentations 3:21, “…this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The Lord’s great love will keep me from being consumed, for His compassions never fail, they are new every morning.” Okay, right there — great is God’s faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion, I will wait for Him.” This calls to mind the goodness of the Lord Jesus and that He is especially good to those who hope in Him, to the one who seeks Him every single morning.
Nathan Jones: Jeremiah had just witnessed Judah being destroyed by the Babylonians and his people taken away into exile, so he is naturally lamenting. Exile is God’s tough love for hundreds and hundreds of years of Israel rebelling against Him and breaking their covenant. God shows them tough love. But, in the midst of their suffering, Jeremiah offers hope that the Lord is also giving. It’s rather a dichotomy, isn’t it? We’ve got tough love, but we also have God showing tough hope. How can we all gain that tough hope?
Joni Eareckson Tada: I love the way you put that, Nathan — tough hope. Hope is best described in Lamentations 3:32-33. These verses are anchors in my life, okay. These two verses have changed my life. Jeremiah says, “Though He,” that is God, “…brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love.” Now, get this, “…for He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.”
So, right there in that one little Bible verse, Lamentations 3:33 really reflects the heart of God. Though He allows grief and affliction to touch us, He doesn’t do it willingly, that is, He doesn’t do it from His heart. He did not want my diving accident to occur in the sense that He enjoyed it, or got a big kick out of it, or “Oh, let’s break this girl’s neck and now let’s see what I can do with that.” No. No. No! Suffering and affliction, when it comes to us by His overarching will and foreordained plan, is something that God takes no delight in.
That one little Bible verse — Lamentations 3:33 — reflects the heart of God like nowhere else in the Bible. Think of it, the book of Lamentations is divided into five chapters, and the first two chapters are each comprised of 22 verses. The last two chapters also have 22 verses in them. However, the middle of the book is chapter three, and it comprises 66 verses. Now, here is the intriguing part, the exact middle of that chapter is verse 33 which reads, “He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” Wow! That Bible verse falls in the exact middle of the entire book of Lamentations. It is right at the apex of the entire book.
I think there’s a good reason why, because when it comes to suffering, whether it was the suffering that the prophet Jeremiah was speaking of to God’s people, or the suffering that God might allow in our lives, God wants us to know that He has the heart of a Father. We may not understand His ways, but He definitely wants you to understand that He has the heart of a kind and compassionate “Abba, Father, Daddy.”
It doesn’t make God happy to see us hit with hardship. But, oh, my goodness, it does make God happy when He sees all of the things He can do in your life due to it, and how He will encourage others through it, if you would but trust in Him and believe that His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!
I would like to meet this special lady if God allows here on earth. What a testimony! Making comparisons is usually not a very good way to understand our lives but as I look at my own life and struggles and compare them with Joni’s and other dear friends that have suffered greatly, I am overwhelmingly blessed! And so are they! God is good all the time and does have eternal perfection waiting for those who have prayed and longed for relief from suffering in this life. We will be there soon, praising, worshipping, giving thanks for His faithfulness.
I know I will see you soon Joni. Praise the Lord!
Pastor Dale