Joni Eareckson Tada was a very athletic teenager, and at 17 years old she dove into some water which caused a neck injury (C4 to be specific) that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She is now 75 years old, and still confined to a wheelchair. She sings, she paints with a brush in her teeth, she speaks all over the world about the reason for her hope. And she heads-up one of the most significant non-profit organizations for the rights and provision of needs for the disabled on earth.
I attended a conference where she was speaking in 2014. One of my favorite quotes from her speech was this, “Suffering is the textbook that will teach you who you really are.”
I wonder this week if you have some kind of suffering.
Do you have a difficulty that seems to overwhelm you?
Joni Tada is an example of faithful woman who has wrestled with God many times over her injury and the life that she has been assigned. She loves God and still she’s wrestled with Him. We have multiple examples in the Scriptures of faithful people who wrestled figuratively and literally with God over certain outcomes in their lives.
One of the most effective things we could ever do in times of difficulty and great trial is to take our pain and suffering to the LORD, with our hands open…not with a closed fists. Scripture tells us multiple times that He gives grace to those with humility, but He opposes the proud. He already knows what is in our hearts, He is not shocked or offended or confused when you are frustrated or sad. Even if something feels so bad that you’ll never get over it, you can still go the the LORD and pour your heart out to Him. Open the Bible to the Psalms, start in Psalm 34 and begin to read. You are not alone. Pour your heart out to the LORD, not only is He there, He hears the cries of the humble.
Click here for more about Joni Eareckson Tada: Joni and Friends