This Is My Reality - Joni Eareckson Tada
1950–
“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Why me? It’s a question Joni Eareckson Tada must have asked herself constantly in the months following her accident. Paralyzed from the shoulders down after a diving mishap at age seventeen, Joni faced years of rehabilitation and a lifetime in a wheelchair.
Depression understandably ensued. In her bestselling book Joni, she recounts her despair and suicidal thoughts when she realized God was not going to answer her prayer to be physically healed. Her spinal cord was permanently damaged.
Joni learned to depend on other people for all her physical needs . . . and to depend on God for her spiritual and emotional needs. With the help of Christian friends and family, she accepted her new reality and understood that even with her disabilities, she had a lot of life to live.
After she learned to paint by holding a brush between her teeth, her artwork sold well. She also started to talk to others about what she had been through. Joni’s story gained even more attention when she starred in a movie based on her life. With fame came opportunities to help more people. She started Joni and Friends, a ministry focused on those with disabilities. The ministry, now international, provides wheelchairs for those who need them, hosts retreats for families with disabled members, educates churches on how to minister to those with disabilities, and much more.
There’s no way to know what life Joni might have had if she hadn’t had her accident. We do know that eventually her question of Why me? turned into Okay, this is my reality. How can you use me? More than most people, she had to learn to trust both God and others in order to accomplish the things she found God had planned for her.
Sometimes God puts things in front of us to overcome or accomplish that we can’t imagine we’ll ever be able to do. Can you learn to rely, as Joni did, not only on God but also on other Christians to get them done?
