Joni Eareckson Tada

When I (Jim) was healthy physically, I had learned nothing except my deafness which is not an illness but rather a disability. Looking back. I was very healthy until I was diagnosed with MS a few years ago. I was unable to learn anything from my healthy body. Its just that I was able to do many things that an unhealthy person could not do. (which I learned later). Mark Pickup said it perfectly when he was healthy at one point, “I have been more service to God disabled than during my able-bodied years. This didn’t happen despite my disability but because of my disability.” Joni Tada said: "Sometimes God will use suffering and affliction to sandblast us to the core and get us seriously thinking about larger than life issues of heaven and hell, I just don't know that we would think about these issues were it not for an ice-cold splash of suffering waking us out of our spiritual slumber. God's purpose in redeeming us is not to make our lives happy, healthy, and free of trouble. It is not an escape from our physical pains. His purpose is to make us more like Christ. He will chose to allow spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis or blindness or stroke or Alzheimer's or whatever to not only teach us, but also our loved ones, about what it means to become more like him."

Suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope. Romans 5: 1-5 (NIV)

Joni followed great examples of the biblical's great faiths. No matter what we do, God is always guiding us through our circumstances (good and bad). Nothing is impossible for Him. God is Good and at the same time, God is Holy and Sovereign. The Apostles, Joseph, Joshua, Daniel, Job, David and other great biblical characters lived in the same world, but how differently they interpreted their relationship with God. Learning from them, I can see that circumstances did not control them; it is their reaction to circumstances that determined what kind of people they were and most importantly, how faithful they were.

Through another example of my other personal "Hall of Faith" is Corrie ten Boom who have suffered because she protected the Jewish people from the Nazi, not because of her Christian faith. She lost all of her family and she was the only one came out of Nazi prison alive due to clerical error through God's divine intervention. Through her examples, she explained to us how to survived through suffering as she did. Corrie took to her heart that when life is at its darkest, God is there for her always.

Our circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God's plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. God's love is still working. He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out His wonderful plan of love.

Founder of Joni and Friends

Joni broke her neck (fractured the fifth cervical) at the age of 17 in a July 1967 diving accident in the murky waters Chesapeake Bay, which left her a quadriplegic. She wrote of her experiences in her international best-selling biography, Joni. Joni’s work has mainly focused on influencing the church on disability-related issues. Joni has appeared twice on Larry King Live, sharing not only her Christian testimony, but a biblical perspective on right-to-life issues which affect our nation’s disabled population.

CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE ON DISABILITY began in 1982. Mission Statement: To Impact the Church, Christian and public institutions and societies with a biblical worldview and life-giving Truth on issues pertaining to life, dignity, justice and equality that affect people with disabilities. See more in About The Christian Institute on Disability

People with disabilities are God's best visual aids to demonstrate who He really is. His power shows up best in weakness. And who by the world's standards is weaker than the mentally or physically disabled? As the world watches, these people persevere. They live, love, trust and obey Him. Eventually the world is forced to say, "How great their God must be to inspire this kind of loyalty." Joni Eareckson Tada