Have you ever experienced a time when challenges and trials caused a deep restlessness within your soul? When we wrestle with unanswered prayers or dreams that have become nightmares, we often increase the pace of our activities to avoid the pain and doubt.
An activity that both inspires and calms me is reading inspirational biographies of people who have faced their own dark nights of the soul.
One such biography is The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada.
In 1967, when Joni was 17 years old, she broke her neck in a diving accident, which resulted in quadriplegia. Despite the many challenges she faced during and after her rehabilitation, by God’s grace, she became a talented author, speaker, and artist.
In 1979, she founded Joni and Friends, a Christian ministry which supports the disabled community in many parts of the world. Joni has written over 40 books.
The God I Love shares her early years and the lessons she learned throughout her life. The book ends with a scene of her and her husband Ken visiting the Holy Land. They visited a pool called Bethesda, near the Sheep Gate. In biblical times, people who were ill would lie by this pool, hoping to be healed. Joni had pictured this scene many times in her thoughts, as she prayerfully asked the Lord to heal her.
In Joni’s own words: “Lord, your no answer to physical healing meant yes to a deeper healing – a better one. Your answer has bound me to other believers and taught me so much about myself. It’s purged sin from my life; it’s strengthened my commitment to You and forced me to depend on Your grace. Your wiser, deeper answer has stretched my hope, refined my faith, and helped me to know You better. And You are good.”
Joni went on to say: “He had brought me to the Pool of Bethesda that I might make an altar of remembrance out of the ruins. That I might see and thank Him for the wiser choice, the better answer, the harder yet richer path. Ah, this is the God I love. The Centre, the Peacemaker, the Passport to adventure, the Joyride, and the Answer to all our deepest longings. The answer to all our fears, Man of Sorrows and Lord of Joy, always permitting what He hates, to accomplish something He loves.”
Joni’s testimony is so powerful and encouraging.
It teaches me that this God I love chooses the best for me, even though it might have been a harder path. Perhaps we need to take the time to thank the Lord with an offering of remembrance as we recall how our trials have stretched our hope, refined our faith, and, by His grace, helped us know Him better.
Yes, He is a good Father, this God we love. Like Joni, who went on to face further trials, including chronic pain and two battles with cancer, we don’t know what tomorrow may bring, but we know the God we love has the best plan and we can always depend on His grace to see us through.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. Psalm 62:5
Susan Page is the daughter of the King, His beloved child, wonderfully forgiven and blessed! Susan longs to age gracefully, becoming more like Jesus as she seeks the hidden treasures revealed to her through Scripture, literature, the arts, humankind, and nature.