A friend of my husband, Dr. Sam Storms, attended the recent Desiring God National Conference hosted by John Piper, that carried the theme: “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God.” Dr. Storms wrote an article about Joni Eareckson Tada who was the Saturday night guest speaker for the conference. As many of you already know, Joni is a quadriplegic who was paralyzed 38 years ago in a diving accident. She has authored more than twenty books and speaks at conferences around the world.
Dr. Storms entitled his article, “I Saw Joni Dance” and I want to post several excerpts for you:
“[Joni] delivered a stunningly great message. That in itself isn’t news, for Joni has been speaking on this theme for many years and the clarity of her convictions remains strong and articulate….
But this past Saturday night I saw something that was as impressive if not more so, than anything I heard. The worship that night began with the rousing song, ‘We are Marching in the Light of God’…. But nothing could compare with what was happening on the right hand side of the stage.
Joni handles her wheelchair as deftly as any Nascar driver on a racetrack. No sooner had the music begun than Joni began to ‘dance.’ As much as a quadriplegic can dance, she danced. Joni has just enough movement and strength in her hands and shoulders to grip the controls on her chair and maneuver herself without the aid of others. Suddenly the chair began to move with the music. She thrust forward, then backwards, then forwards again, then backwards. Smoothly, and yet with obvious passion, she turned to the right, then the left, then the right again.
I can’t prove it, but my guess is that 2,500 pairs of eyes in that auditorium were fixed on the dancing quadriplegic! Suddenly, the forward and backward and side to side movements gave way to spinning. Well, as much as a paralyzed person can spin. Joni began to turn her chair in circles, first clockwise, then back again. If she ceased her movements, it was only so that she could lift her contorted hands as high as her paralysis would allow. It wasn’t very high, but who’s measuring!
How Joni moved and ‘danced’ is secondary. What’s amazing is THAT she did. What struck me, as I trust it struck others, was that a woman who has suffered so horribly and painfully and persistently for 38 years so loves her God and finds him so utterly worthy of her trust and hope that she WANTED to dance.
Joni shared in her message how she struggled spiritually in the early days and months after her accident. She wrestled with bitterness and self-pity and anger at God and longed to die rather than live in that condition. But here she was, 38 years later, celebrating God, enjoying God, honoring and glorifying God. Not simply in her mind or her spirit but with her body as best that body could worship.”
May God give us all a heart like Joni who “loves her God and finds him so utterly worthy of her trust and hope that she WANTED to dance.”
To learn more about Joni’s love for God and what she’s learned through suffering, I want to highly recommend her book, When God Weeps
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