Joni Eareckson Tada – the accident
At the age of 18, Joni Eareckson Tada dove into Chesapeake Bay in the USA. She fractured the fourth and fifth cervical levels of her spine. Joni acquired an SCI (Spinal Cord Injury) and was paralysed from the shoulders down. The damage to my spine occurred at chest level, and I have full use of my shoulders, arms and fingers. I cannot imagine what it would be like to receive a higher level injury and be dependant on people for help with almost everything. There are only a few centimetres between C4/5 and T3/4.
Joni Eareckson Tada – the struggles
Joni had great difficulty coping with life following her accident and started to doubt her faith. She was angry and had suicidal thoughts. I am unaware of whether Joni mentions how she may have acted on her feelings. How would someone with no movement below their shoulders achieve this?
Joni Eareckson Tada – the changes
Joni began creating artwork that she painted with a brush between her teeth. Also, she wrote over 40 books and is an advocate for people with disabilities. This is a small sample of what Joni has achieved, and it was a result of her Faith in God.
Joni Eareckson Tada – God testing her Faith
Joni believes that her accident was a result of God testing her faith, and this is where we differ significantly in our thoughts. If God was testing my faith by making a tree fall on me, it paints a picture of God who is hateful or vengeful. I’ve heard Joni’s line of reasoning too often in response to tragic events. I do not understand how this view of God ‘testing our faith’ through suffering can bring comfort to those facing difficult situations. Neither can I comprehend how anyone can believe in a God who would act in this way.
Joni Eareckson Tada – the real reason
There are rules in the physical world, that if ignored, you are subjecting yourself or others to danger. Joni was careless and injured herself by diving into shallow water. Rather than accepting the consequences of her choices, Joni puts the “blame” on God. Imperfect people given free will from God need to be more careful when making decisions. These people include Joni and the leaders of Cedar College. The tree that fell on me was reported as requiring removal by a specific date. Six months later the tree fell on me.
Joni Eareckson Tada – giving God a bad reputation
As Christians, if we give God credit for such acts as the diving and tree accidents, God will ask us a few questions when we get to Heaven.
God ” Why are you giving me such a bad reputation?”.
Joni Eareckson Tada – the irony
In 2012 my wife left her family. I found around five books written by Joni, and it seems my wife was a fan. It felt ironic that a person who read so many books about disability and Christianity would make certain choices in life. Bad things happen in life. What matters is how you choose to behave later. Joni chooses well, although is a little confused about the nature of God.
How does the story of the biblical character, Job, reiate to this?
Good question and I don’t know. I find the book of Job difficult to read and understand. Satan wants to test the faith of a person and God allows it to happen. It could be that Job never existed too. Lots of views on the www including https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.haaretz.com/amp/jewish/MAGAZINE-who-really-wrote-the-book-of-job-1.5434183
I’m not in a wheelchair but I’ve had ME/CFS for more than 20 years and have been a prisoner in my own home for years, barely able to walk at times, sometimes bedbound without the energy to lift my arms or even cry. Prior to that I had 8 years of serious, serious, debilitating mental health issues. All these difficulties happened to me AFTER I became a Christian and my question for decades has been ‘why?’ In the early years I didn’t agree with Joni’s conclusions but as I’ve grown in the faith (I’m nearly 40 years old in Jesus) I’ve come to realise that even though God NEVER CAUSES our suffering, He allows our suffering. The question I then have to ask is ‘why?’. Well there are lots of answers in the Bible, some of them we probably don’t like. But one of them is that suffering tests our faith (1 Pet 1:6-7). This isn’t because God causes our suffering, but He allows it, and in the process of making all things work together for good, He uses our suffering to refine our faith in Him. Will we turn away from Him, or will we trust that He’s a good God, even when bad things happen? If we trust, then our faith is genuine. If we turn away from Him, then our so called pledge to trusting Jesus clearly isn’t true. We aren’t trusting Him through thick and thin. Instead we end up believing the enemy or our own sinful nature when we hear whispers accusing God of wrongdoing. In reality God is more interested in changing us from glory to glory than doing anything else in our life. If, as Christians, we have absolutely NOTHING in life, we’re still better of than someone who has everything but doesn’t have Jesus. They are headed for a lost eternity, we have the promise of eternity with Jesus. Jesus said it’s better to enter heaven maimed than go to hell physically whole. That tells us that hell is an awful, awful place; and God will allow ANYTHING to happen in the lives of His children, no matter how bad it seems to us, as long as it keeps us close to Jesus – because God wants us for His own. Sometimes sickness is the only thing keeping us following Jesus because we know we have no where else to go. God’s main aim is to get His children looking more like His beautiful Son Jesus, but looking like Jesus (in character) involves suffering, just as Jesus suffered. How can we grow in the fruit of patience unless we patiently endure suffering over a long period of time? If we want to be true disciples of Jesus, then we have to pick up our cross and stay nailed there. Being nailed to a cross – to a situation where we have to say not my will be done, but your will, Oh God – is likely to involve prolonged seasons (even decades for some people) of suffering. God knows exactly what types of sufferings/crosses are needed to mould us into the image of Jesus. 30 years ago I would have said Joni was wrong. 40 plus years of difficulties and serious suffering, however, has taught me that she’s not wrong. God allows the things He hates in order to bring about the things He loves. Even though we can’t understand what He’s doing, or what He’s allowed, or why He’s allowed it, we can trust that He knows best. Sending you much love in Jesus. Marisa xx