Joni Eareckson Tada: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of My Diving Accident

Joni Eareckson Tada: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of My Diving Accident

'Throughout my 20s, I became immersed in Bible study with these same friends--mostly character studies about God, especially his sovereignty. When it came to my accident, I had to know whether the buck stopped with him, and if it did, why didn't he prevent my accident? Around my big farmhouse table in Maryland, we'd tackle books like Loraine Boettner's The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination and others by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J. Gresham Machen, and J. I. Packer.

'I now laugh as I picture myself with these books on my music stand, flipping pages this way and that with my mouth stick. But decades of study, paralysis, pain, and cancer have taught me to say, "It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees" (Ps. 119:71). I won't rehearse all of suffering's benefits here. Many of you know them by heart. Like the way God uses it to shape Christ's character in us (Rom. 8:28-29). Or how it produces patience (Rom. 5:4). Or how it refines our faith like gold (1 Pet. 1:7). Or gives us a livelier hope of heaven (James 1:12). And on and on.

'However, if I were to nail down suffering's main purpose, I'd say it's the textbook that teaches me who I really am, because I'm not the paragon of virtue I'd like to think I am. Suffering keeps knocking me off my pedestal of pride. Sometimes, when my scoliosis becomes extremely painful, I'll murmur and drop hints to God that he's piling on too much. Later, when the pain dissipates, I'll make excuses: Lord, that's not like me. I'm not like that at all.

'But it is like me. It's exactly like me....

'Back in the '70s, my Bible study friend Steve Estes shared ten little words that set the course for my life: "God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves." Steve explained it this way: "Joni, God allows all sorts of things he doesn't approve of. God hated the torture, injustice, and treason that led to the crucifixion. Yet he permitted it so that the world's worst murder could become the world's only salvation. In the same way, God hates spinal cord injury, yet he permitted it for the sake of Christ in you--as well as in others. Like Joseph when he told his brothers, 'God intended [my suffering] for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives'" (Gen. 50:20). '