Who hasn´t heard about Joni (59)?  A swimming accident as a teenager paralyzed her and confined her to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Joni Eareckson Tata is her full name. Her shining testimony has been a blessing to maybe millions though she never was miraculously healed. She can´t even use her hands.

In the beginning of her wheelchair life she wrestled with the question, “I´m a Christian;  why would God allow such severe suffering in my life?  God, why are you being so mean?”

Tenderly the Lord began to teach her some lessons, not on a theological level, but along the lines of self-experienced fellowship with her Savior in all its sweetness and intimacy.  The word about taking up her cross and the fellowship of Christ´s sufferings had a new meaning to her.  “How God allowed for my accident to happen is not the point.  The point is, my suffering has taught me to “be done with sin”, putting behind me the peevish, small-minded, self-focused “Joni” to mature in the “Joni” He has destined me to be, honed and polished by years of quadriplegia (1 Peter 4:1).”

“I´m not saying it´s easy.  Actually it´s getting harder…But I have to remember that the core of God´s plan is to rescue me from sin, even up to my dying breath. Is the cost too high?  Not when you consider that “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” 2 Cor.4:17.

”I´m convinced my response to my wheelchair has a direct bearing on my capacity for joy, worship, and service in heaven.  Of all the things I may waste here on earth, I do not want to waste my quadriplegia!”

”One day God will close the curtain on evil and, with it, all suffering and sorrow.  Until then, I´ll keep remembering something else Steve Estes once told me as he rested his hand on my wheelchair:  “God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.”

“I can smile knowing God is accomplishing what He loves in my life – Christ in me, the hope of glory!”  (Col. 1:27)

-jn-