Don’t miss this installment of Joni Eareckson Tada’s “Heart of the Founder” series where Joni digs into the topic of healing. Imagine you’re an athletic, ambitious teenager looking forward to starting college. It’s a hot day at the beach. On a whim, you plunge into the water and your neck snaps as your head hits the sandy bottom. Life will never be the same… After her diving accident, Joni recalls fervently asking God for healing—to walk again and regain use of her hands; to get out of bed on her own. Poring over stories of Jesus miraculously healing people, Joni waited for her miracle healing. But God had something different in mind for her.
Don’t miss this installment of Joni Eareckson Tada’s “Heart of the Founder” series where Joni digs into the topic of healing. Imagine you’re an athletic, ambitious teenager looking forward to starting college. It’s a hot day at the beach. On a whim, you plunge into the water and your neck snaps as your head hits the sandy bottom. Life will never be the same…
After her diving accident, Joni recalls fervently asking God for healing—to walk again and regain use of her hands; to get out of bed on her own. Poring over stories of Jesus miraculously healing people, Joni waited for her miracle healing. But God had something different in mind for her.
Joni had good reason to believe that God would heal her after her accident. She looked at Scriptures like Matthew 7:9–11 where God promises good gifts to his children. Wasn’t a healed spine a good gift?
Why, more than five decades later, still in a wheelchair living with quadriplegia, can Joni attest to the fact that God has deeply healed her? It’s because, over years of Bible reading and trusting in Jesus, Joni began to see the heart healing and powerful purpose God intended for her—all while living with paralysis. Joni still hasn’t walked again, squeezed her husband’s hand, or gotten up in the morning on her own. But a deep and lasting healing is hers, through the power of the Lord Jesus.
KEY QUESTIONS:
Where in your life do you need healing?
Might God want to heal you in a way you don’t expect, or maybe wouldn’t choose?
KEY SCRIPTURES:
Matthew 7:9–11: “‘Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’”
Isaiah 55:8–9: “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways.’”
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 friends! I’m Stephanie Daniels, and I am so glad you’re joining me for another Heart of the Founder episode with our Founder, Joni Eareckson Tada.
Have you ever prayed for healing? Have you ever struggled when the healing you long for hasn’t come? I know I have.
When Joni Eareckson Tada became paralyzed in a diving accident at 17, she thought that the greatest need she had was physical healing. Joni begged God to let her walk again—to heal her spine, her legs, her fingers. And she worked hard in physical therapy, trying to restore her body’s previous abilities. But after a few years of paralysis, Joni realized that physical healing probably wouldn’t come.
As she accepted her disability, Joni began to doubt. In Matthew 7, Jesus says that God always gives good gifts to his children. Isn’t walking a good gift? Why didn’t God heal her?
But as the years went on, Joni began to see that God was using her quadriplegia to introduce many other good gifts into her life—gifts like patience, perseverance, and the ability to serve others. Physical healing wasn’t the gift that God had in store for Joni, but he healed her in a deeper, a more lasting way.
So let’s hear now from Joni as she unpacks the topic of healing and how it has looked in her life.
Joni Eareckson Tada:
After I broke my neck in that diving accident back in 1967, I refused to believe that I would remain paralyzed. Doctors told me that I would never use my hands or legs, but it didn’t sink in. Every one of my prayers focused on walking again. To me, it was a good thing, a good request to make of God. Jesus says so in Matthew 7:9-12, “If evil people know how to give good gifts, how much more will God give good gifts to those who ask him?” Oh boy, what could be better, what could be a better gift than walking, right?
I did everything possible to walk again. I worked hard in physical therapy to get back on my feet. I attended healing services and was the first to wheel up front to receive my miracle. I strained mentally to, to kind of like, “make” my fingers move. I straightened up my spiritual act and I began reading God’s Word more regularly. I prayed more earnestly, thinking that surely God won’t ignore the prayers of someone who’s trying so hard to please him.
Well you can imagine how disappointed I felt when, years later, my hands and my legs were still limp and useless. I thought, God, you say in Psalm 84 that you withhold no good thing from those whose walk is blameless. So, why are you withholding my healing? I just didn’t understand. God promised to not withhold any good thing. And to me, walking was a good thing.
But then, I’ll never forget this one day, a friend said to me, “Joni, I want you to know that I think you’re awfully courageous. I mean, I’ve been looking at you and, I don’t know, your smile in that wheelchair, oh my goodness, it assures me that God is going to help me get through my problems. And I thank you for that!” Wow, her, her comment about courage, it, it just hit me. It resonated. Something told me that this was God's “good thing.”
I realized God wasn’t so much interested in healing my legs, but in healing my heart. God’s always interested in our physical well-being, sure, but he is far more interested in our spiritual well-being. He wants a deeper healing. Those good gifts spoken of in Matthew chapter 7? They include gifts of courage and endurance. The Lord wanted to use my paralysis to cultivate perseverance, and patience, and most of all, a deep reliance on Jesus– and man, that’s the best thing. That’s going to last for all of eternity. And with that, I began to pray for a contented heart, settled thoughts, a mouth that refused to complain, eyes that refused to envy others, and ears that refused to listen to the devilish lie that often said to me, “Joni, you really would be better off dead than disabled.” Mm hmm. In short, I began to accept God’s idea of what’s good. A beautiful, deeper kind of good. A great good.
This said, uh, I don’t know, you might ask God for financial stability, but God may want you to keep leaning on and learning to trust Him. You may desire to marry, but God may keep you single and dependent on His grace. You might ask for a clean medical report, but God just may want to give you courage to face the unknown. And these are all “good gifts.”
Over the decades, I’ve come to highly value things like bravery in the face of suffering, faith and perseverance, endurance, peace, peace that is profound and joy that is unshakable. Unlike our bodies, these wonderful qualities, you know what? They’re gonna, they’re gonna last for all of eternity. So, I would not trade a Christlike character for any amount of walking. And I really would rather be in this wheelchair knowing Jesus as I do, then to be on my feet knowing less of him.
Now… this is not to say that God never miraculously heals. But when he does, I want you to take it as a sneak preview of that glorious day when every disease and every illness will be a thing of the past; every blind eye will be opened, every deaf ear will hear. Miracles (and by the way, miracles really are the exception to the rule down here), nevertheless, miracles should point us to the time when all people who are lame, like me, are gonna leap for joy.
Walking is a good thing. But a strong faith and happy dependence on God is so much better! Life is richer and far more satisfying when lived with a courageous trust in Jesus Christ. I realize I have not covered all the questions that you may have about miraculous healing. But let me tell ‘ya, Joni and Friends has great resources on the topic, and a few of my own books in which I tackle the topic in-depth. And, oh, I pray that no matter what your physical needs, you, too, will find contentment in the One who loves making a deeper healing in our heart.
Stephanie Daniels:
Wasn’t that encouraging?
Even though God’s good gifts are often different from what we expect, his gifts are better than we could imagine.
Friends, Joni’s insights give me a lot to consider, and I hope they do for you as well. When I ask God for healing, for health, for stability... those are all good things... But, perhaps God has something else in store for me, something better... a deeper, spiritual healing that doesn’t always come along with the “good gifts” I desire. It reminds me of Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways.” I know that I can trust his higher way and his plans for my life.
Thinking about Joni... If God had healed her paralysis, what would that mean for the more than 1 billion living with a disability... many who don’t know Jesus? Would Joni know Jesus as deeply if she weren’t acquainted with him through deep suffering? Would she be serving in the same capacity and sharing Gospel hope with other people in need of a Savior?
Sometimes, God has even better things in store for us than physical healing, just like he has had for Joni.
Conversations about healing are complex and can be difficult, and we recognize that here at Joni and Friends. If you have a question about healing or want to hear more of Joni’s heart on healing, you can send me a message at joniandfriends.org/podcast. Joni also has a wonderful book called A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty. If you’re interested, I have left a link to that book in our show notes.
Friends, thank you for joining me today! I hope you’ve been encouraged and challenged just like I have. What a joy it is to know that we can trust God to be working in our lives through all of our challenges to make us more like Jesus.
Crystal Keating:
Thank you for listening today. For more episodes, find us wherever you get your podcast 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. Thank you for listening to the Joni and Friends Ministry Podcast.
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