REFLECTIONS

March 13th, 2016

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Model of Hope

The audience rose in applause as Joni Eareckson Tada manipulated her motorized wheelchair toward center stage. They stood to honor and express appreciation for the model of hope that her life represents to so many.

Once a normal and active teenager, a poor split-second decision transformed an energetic and athletic body into a life of quadriplegia. Confinement to a wheelchair and dependence on others for even the simple daily chores of life was not the way Joni had planned to live. Unless one is already there, none of us can really imagine how life would be that way, or how such a life could be endured. Even in Joni’s own story there were those moments of despair.

She prayed for God to take her life, but when God did not answer, she changed her request saying, “Dear God, if you won’t let me die, then please show me how to live.” Through her broken body, God answered her.

Joni Eareckson Tada’s life is dedicated to a ministry to the disabled. With only the use of muscles above her shoulders, she sings, she writes, and she paints. She takes her ministry to the airwaves on Christian radio stations; she travels throughout the world making talks and sending a message of hope. She does not disguise the difficulties she faces each day, but neither do her infirmities diminish her message nor dampen the joy in her smile. She boasts gladly in her weakness and through it Christ’s strength is revealed.

Joni is quick to recognize that quadriplegia is not the only form of disability. She finds that forms of disabilities are caused by insults, persecutions, and other difficulties; but she believes we all have a choice about how we live with them. We can pray for God to let us die because of them, or we can pray for God to show us how to live with them.

Powerlessly from a wheelchair, Joni Eareckson Tada stands tall as a model of hope. Through her weakness Christ reveals his strength.

And he will reveal his strength through ours too if we choose to let him.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org


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