Be Rope Holders
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada. After I severed my spinal cord, my depression felt like a narrow, dark vein plummeting deep into an unexplored mine. Every shaft I tried to climb up out of ended nowhere. I struggled to keep breathing, keep living, keep moving forward. In that pit of depression, I needed someone to throw me a rope and hang on to me. And my friend Betsy was that rope holder. Betsy sat next to my hospital bed and she’d read to me. Sometimes I was interested and listened; but mostly, I wasn’t. I slept. Thirty minutes later I would wake up, and Betsy was still there. She was a powerful example of this 1 Thessalonians paraphrase, which says, “Build up hope so that you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, and no one left behind.” Oh, friend listening, do you know someone sinking into depression? Well, hold onto their rope. Don’t let them go. Let them borrow your faith, your courage, and your love.
© Joni and Friends
31 Days Toward Overcoming Adversity
Are you feeling a storm raging in your life? Joni takes you not out of the storm you feel you are in, but straight into the eye. Because there in the center is a calm, quiet place where confidence, strength, and even joy can be found.
Joni offers daily inspiration that shows you the remarkable in the midst of the impossible.
