Tune in for this first installment of Joni Eareckson Tada’s “Heart of the Founder” series, focused on the subject of disability. Hear straight from Joni as she shares a biblical understanding of disability, along with her own personal experience. When Joni Eareckson Tada first broke her neck and became paralyzed at age 17, she fell into despair and self-pity. She couldn’t imagine that God had a good plan for her life. She wanted physical healing, to be free from her disability. Instead, God worked through Joni’s disability to bring about his glorious purposes.
For more than five decades Joni Eareckson Tada has lived with quadriplegia and chronic pain. With the support of Christian community, she has found contentment in Jesus and trusted him to work in and through her life, reaching millions of suffering people with the hope of the Gospel.
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Crystal Keating: This is the Joni and Friends Ministry Podcast and I’m your host Crystal Keating. Each week we’re bringing you encouraging conversations about finding hope through hardship and practical ways that you can include people living with disability in your church and community. As you listen, visit joniandfriends.org/podcast to access the resources we mention, or to send me a message with your thoughts.
Stephanie Daniels : Hi, I'm Stephanie Daniels, and during our last episode, I had the chance to chat with our founder, Joni Eareckson Tada. If you missed that conversation, be sure to go back and listen, because Joni shared a bit about what's new for our podcast this season.
She also shared a bit of her story. When Joni was just 17, she took a dive into shallow water that left her unexpectedly paralyzed. As she's navigated quadriplegia, chronic pain, and other hardships, God has been so faithful. Joni has gained hard-won wisdom over the more than five decades she's spent in her wheelchair, and we'll be sharing her insights with you.
Beginning today, we'll bring you regular episodes that share Joni's heart on various topics, such as disability, healing, and depression. And we know how relevant these topics are. Just as Crystal receives calls and emails here at Joni and Friends from people who are struggling, I hear from everyone who writes in through our ministry's social media accounts.
We've seen the challenges and pain that come with an unexpected diagnosis. a life altering injury, or loss and grief. I'm so grateful to have the privilege of responding with a word of Biblical encouragement, just like Joni received after her diving accident. And that's what we want to share with you today.
We want to encourage you by pointing you to Jesus, the only one who can give you real hope in the midst of hardship. So let's hear from Joni Eareckson Tada about disability and how the gospel offers hope to those who are suffering.
Joni Eareckson Tada: It was the summer of 1967, just a few weeks after my high school graduation, when I took a, um, random and very reckless dive into the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay. I remember my forehead thudded, I felt a thud, against the sandy bottom, um, snapping my head back and crunching my fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae. I had severed my spinal cord.
And back in the hospital, my doctor said, Joni, you are going to be paralyzed for the rest of your life without use of your hands or your legs. I said, what? I mean, come on. I was, I was young, athletic. I was heading off to college. This, this, this couldn't be happening. No, this isn't happening. But when the doctor's words, um, slowly sank in, I became numb with disbelief.
And with that, bitterness began to take root, and I, I hissed at heaven, saying, God, I, I can't live like this. I, I will not live like this. Now, I knew I could not end my life physically, and so, I was tempted to end it, uh, physically. Emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I told my mother to pull my bedroom drapes, turn out the light, and shut the door.
And there in the darkness, I laid in bed for weeks. Behind that closed door, my self-pity literally became suffocating. I mean, dark, morbid thoughts were worse than my paralysis. And so, somewhere along the line, into the dark I whimpered, God, if I cannot die, then please show me how to live. It was the most feeble, fainthearted prayer I had ever offered up, but, um, it's all it took.
Immediately, God put Christian friends in my life who opened the Bible to help me, you know, show me how to live. In its pages, I discovered precious insights and powerful promises. God had not abandoned me. The Lord had a purpose. This paralysis would not last forever, and so many more promises. And over time, I, I have to say, I did not find all the answers to my plight, but I found the one who held all the answers.
I found contentment in Jesus. The only answer that seemed to satisfy all my longings. It was around this time that a good friend, Steve Estes, shared 10 little words that literally changed my life. God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves. Yeah, that's right. God permits all sorts of things he does not approve of.
Like, how about the cross of his own dear son Jesus? He hated what happened that day on Mount Calvary, but he permitted it to accomplish something that he loved. Something that he prized even above the gruesome death of his own son. The something that he loved was salvation for a world of people. Sinners like you and me.
And so, I learned to look at my spinal cord injury the exact same way. For God took no delight in my broken neck. He hates suffering. But, through it, He accomplishes the lovely, quote, something that He was after. Christ in me, the hope of glory, just as it says in Colossians chapter 1, verse 27. And when I look back on those gloomy days in my bedroom, I am reminded that there is a world of other people with disabilities, many of whom will never have the chance to leave their bedrooms.
And I understand, in a way, their agony and, oh, how they need to see that Jesus is their answer too. And this is why, at Joni and Friends, we love declaring and demonstrating the good news of Jesus, whenever and wherever we can, because the plight of suffering people, it's so easy to ignore. And it is why Jesus commands us in Luke chapter 14 to “invite the poor, go out and find the crippled, the lame, the blind, do this and you will be blessed.”
Right there, Jesus is saying of all people you might ignore or neglect, do not neglect people with disabilities. They need the love of Jesus in a huge way. That command in Luke chapter 14 is, for me, so very personal. Because my heart breaks to think that the suffering that people with disabilities endure here on earth may only be a dark omen of worse suffering to come in an eternity without Jesus Christ.
So, at Joni and Friends, we tell people with disabilities that sin kills, hell is real, but God is merciful, he can save you, and Jesus is the way. Friend, countless thousands, millions of people with disabilities have yet to hear that astounding message, and I cannot bear that they are being forgotten by others.
But you know, even after I'm long gone to heaven, guess what? I know that Joni and Friends will never forget those people. Our teams will keep giving the hope-filled news that through Jesus Christ, the weak and the vulnerable can have a home in heaven, escape from hell, a purpose for living, and the power to be more than a conqueror.
Yes, there are more important things in life than walking. There are more important things in life than having use of your hands. The most important thing in life is knowing that God has removed your heart of stone and given you a new heart because of his salvation.
Oh friend, help us keep giving the heart transforming gospel of Jesus so that the world's weakest will gain a new heart in Christ.
Thank you for not forgetting people like me, people with disabilities.
Stephanie Daniels: What a powerful message, Joni.
Our words truly have an impact. And friends, maybe today it's your helpful words that can give someone the encouragement they need to keep going. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, therefore, encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you're doing. I personally felt the power of encouraging words this year.
Just a few months ago, my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly, and we were devastated. It was the small things, hugs from friends, thoughtful text messages, flowers at our door, or meals that showed up at just the right time, that really helped our family make it through that season of grief. And on our Joni and Friends social media channels, I hear from people stuck in hardship. Maybe it's a teenager who just had both legs amputated and he's scared about the future. Other times, it's an exhausted caregiver at her wit's end. No matter the challenge, each has a need for hope and the redeeming love of Christ.
And I love having the privilege to share words of Biblical encouragement. I've seen how just one prayer, one timely scripture, or one encouraging word can help someone experience God's love right when they need it the most.
Encouraging words are at the heart of Joni and Friends.
As Joni shared, following her accident, it was Christian friends who came alongside her to open the Bible and point her to God's eternal truths. Friends pointed her to the One who holds all the answers. And after Joni's story became public, she started receiving letters from other families living with disability.
They asked for advice, for prayers, for help. and for encouraging words.
Joni and Friends was started in order to answer those letters. And now, 45 years later, the human need for encouraging words still remains.
Ephesians 24: 2 says, “Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be encouragement to those who hear them.”
You can bless the heart of someone who may be struggling in a way that you may never know. So is there somebody in your life that you could encourage today? Thank you for listening today. For more episodes, find us wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to subscribe. We'd also love it if you would tell a friend. And for more encouragement, follow Joni and Friends on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, and visit our website at joniandfriends.org/podcast.
Crystal Keating: Thank you for listening to the Joni and Friends Ministry Podcast.