Joni Eareckson Tada: How Tragedy Became Her Greatest Blessing
By Movieguide® Contributor
Joni Eareckson Tada thought her life was turned upside-down when she went through an injury that left her paralyzed, but through a lot of scripture and soul-searching, she learned that her biggest tragedy was actually her biggest blessing.
“I could not understand why God wouldn’t heal me. I mean, Psalm 84:11 ‘No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless,’” Tada said on an episode of PRAISE. “So then I got my life in order, and I was walking according to the word,” she shared.
“Well walking is ‘good.’ Having to use your hands is ‘good.’ So it made sense. Why wouldn’t God heal me? And if he didn’t heal me, then his idea of good must be very different than mine.”
Tada went to many healers and had many pastors pray for her. After nothing worked, she dug deeper into scripture.
“I began to understand God’s idea for good, and that is that I might have courage and that I might prize things like patience and perseverance and endurance and self-control that I might cling to Jesus. I read in 2 Corinthinans 1 where Paul says, ‘My brothers, I don’t want you to be uninformed about the troubles we have endured in Asia. We were in far beyond what we could endure and we despaired even of our lives.’”
“I read that and I thought, yeah that’s me. That’s me. I’m despairing of my life. I don’t like being paralyzed. In the next verse he says, ‘These things happen that we might not rely on ourselves but on God.’”
Tada explained since she read that 57 years ago, she’s relied on God and He’s given her “good” things: patience, perseverance and courage.
“It doesn’t come from me,” she explained. “…It comes from the Lord Jesus, without whom, I would be nothing. I’d be burnt toast.”
“He’s been so generous and the greatest tragedy of my life — breaking my neck — ultimately became God’s greatest use of my life. And I’m still amazed.”
On Tuesday, Tada shared that she felt frustrated after her accident because she thought she couldn’t do anything. Her occupational therapist gave her a slab of clay and asked her to draw something on it by holding a wooden dowel between her teeth. She didn’t want to, but she gave it a try.
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Tada made a clear, wonderful drawing of a cowboy on a horse on her first try.
“This etched, fired and glazed clay is prominently displayed in the international disability center. And to me it’s a reminder of my humble, yet very hopeful beginnings,” she said, smiling.
In January, Tada brought in the new year with words of encouragement.
“You know, disability can feel like a wilderness, a wasteland of one awful hardship after another,” she said in a YouTube video. “But this year, Joni and Friends is doing new things. We are making a way through those hardships and blazing fresh, hope-filled paths into that wilderness of suffering. We are bringing Gospel joy and practical help to weary, worn out families around the world and we just can’t wait to get started.”
“Salvation in Jesus Christ is the miraculous, life-altering message that Joni and Friends is taking into the wastelands of suffering,” she said.
She announced the plans for her ministry in 2025 — new Joni’s House programs, retreats, getaways and wheelchairs for those who need them.
“In every program, we’ll be sharing the ‘new thing’ that is fresh, new life that happens when a family really struggles with disability and when they come to Jesus Christ,” she said.
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