Access to God
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and many years ago when I first became paralyzed from that diving accident into shallow water, oh my world was literally reduced to the basics. Lying there in a hospital for almost two years I did little more than just eat and sleep – I mean that was it! Sure, there were visitors and my family stood by me but most of my hours were just spent kind of like lying there, staring at the ceiling, waiting, eating, and sleeping. When I wasn’t in physical therapy I had a lot of time on my hands.
I had all the time in the world to ask questions and back then I mainly aimed my questions at God. I think some people probably thought I was being too philosophical in the beginning, but most kids my age weren’t faced with the kind of larger-than-life questions that were plaguing me. Questions like: What’s the meaning to life? Why am I here? You can think about that, you can imagine it. Me a teenager paralyzed, a quadriplegic. And although I was haunted and hurting I knew, I just knew there had to be more to living than just existing.
That’s when I came face-to-face with the God of the Bible. It happened when a friend propped a Bible up on the hospital tray table. Back then I had a wooden dowel with an eraser on the end and when I held it between my teeth I was able to flip the pages of that Bible. Lying there propped up in bed I knew it was better to go to God with my questions rather than shrug my shoulders and turn away. Even after I got out of the hospital I would sit in my wheelchair and my sister would put my Bible on a music stand in front of me and with that same wooden mouth stick with the eraser on the end I would read and flip, read and flip, read and flip.
Those early days of my quadriplegia were for me one long question and answer session with God’s word. I was careful to write down the verses from Scripture that answered my questions about meaning and purpose because those verses became milestones on my journey to understand not only the character of God, but why He allowed my accident to happen. I guess instinctively I knew that one day those same Scriptures would help someone else go through tough times.
And you know what? I want to share those scriptures with you because maybe you are going through some tough times and I want to share with you my questions and the crystal clear answers I received from God’s word. I put them in a booklet called “Access to God”. Nothing written is trite. The questions and the scriptures are straight from the heart and straight from God’s word.
I have no idea what your condition is. I don’t think you are dealing with quadriplegia like me. I don’t know what you are going through, but if you are like me your limitations just might be pushing you up against a spiritual wall and you may be looking for meaning and purpose. If so, I want you to read this special little booklet, this record of my question and answer session with the Lord. So, go directly to joniandfriendsradio.org and just ask for your free copy of “Access To God” and as you peruse the questions I aimed at the Lord and the answers He gave me from the Bible I hope that you too will find that He and He alone is the answer to your deepest longings as well as your deepest questions. So don’t be afraid to take those questions to God. Believe me, He’s a lot larger than any of them and His answers are more than sufficient.
Previously aired on 04/19/10 #7296
© Joni and Friends
