Joni Eareckson Tada
Quote 1: A Step Further: growing closer to God
through hurt and hardship
“The truth of the matter is, Satan and God may want the exact same event
to take place - but for different reasons. Satan's motive in Jesus' crucifixion
was rebellion; God's motive was love and mercy. Satan was a secondary cause
behind the Crucifixion, but it was God who ultimately wanted it, willed it, and
allowed Satan to carry it out. And the same holds true for disease.”
“…we refuse to present a picture of
“gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” a portrait that tugs at your sentiments or pulls
at your heartstrings. That’s because we deal with so many people who suffer,
and when you’re hurting hard, you’re neither helped nor inspired by a syrupy
picture of the Lord, like those sugary, sentimental images many of us grew up
with. You know what I mean? Jesus with His hair parted down the middle,
surrounded by cherubic children and bluebirds…When your heart is being wrung
out like a sponge, when you feel like … salt is being poured into your wounded
soul, you don’t want a thin, pale, emotional Jesus who relates only to lambs
and birds and babies.
You want a warrior Jesus. You want a
battlefield Jesus. You want his rigorous and robust gospel to command your
sensibilities to stand at attention... When you’re in a dark place, when lions
surround you, when you need strong help to rescue you from impossibility, you
don’t want “sweet.” You don’t want faded pastels and honeyed softness…You want
mighty. You want the strong arm and unshakable grip of God who will not let you
go — no matter what.”
Quote 3:
On the day the Americans with Disability Act was signed into law, we all
went back to the hotel for a reception and our national director Paul Hearne
gave a toast. He said, "This civil rights legislation is great in that it
will open up doors of opportunities in employment, it will put ramps into
restaurants. And yet this law is not going to change the employer's heart, it's
not going to change the heart of the maître d'." He lifted his glass and
said, "Here's to changed hearts." Paul understood what makes our
society value or not value people. It's a matter of that moral center. I think
the advancements will only be accomplished when we make friends with people
with disabilities, when we stop tiptoeing around that person with MS, when we
make ourselves see the woman in the wheelchair. You can't legislate that.
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