out of the storm – A challenge for all of us
from nearly 53 years in a wheelchair
Joni Eareckson Tada went swimming at the age of seventeen with her sister in the Chesapeake Bay. She dove into shallow water and severed her spinal cord. As a result, she has spent more than fifty years in a wheelchair, unable to move her lower body or hands.
Joni has become a bestselling author, renowned speaker and painter (she moves the brush with her mouth), and beloved figure in the Christian world. She was asked to explain a statement she made recently: “In the worst of times, Christians can and should be at their best.”
She replied, “I think we are at our best when we remain hopeful, confident in God and his hold on the future, and also prayerful and expectant.” Then she made this powerful statement: “I’m a big believer that God permits what he hates to accomplish things that he loves, and that’s been my mantra for almost fifty-three years in this wheelchair. “
God permits what he hates, this difficult, paralyzing injury, to accomplish something that he loves, and that is, of course, in me, a changed heart and a closer walk with my God. So, that’s it in a nutshell.
God permits what he hates
to accomplish things that he loves
This is an incredible picture of faithfulness, acceptance
and a life used mightily for God and by God. In His eyes there are no disabled people, just people enabled to add to life in a different and unique way. Makes you think doesn’t it?
