Go, Joni, Go
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and this might be a little different opening for us today. It’s not the usual Joni and Friends opening, but I’m going to take you way back to the late ‘50’s and I’m going to tell you about a song that had such a big impact on my life. Here goes!
Yep, that’s me. “Go, Joni, go… go go go!” When it comes to the “be good” part, oh man, I hope that’s me. But ever since I was a kid, I’ve been labeled by this song. Back in 1958, I was nine years old when my older sisters started playing Chuck Berry over and over. And when I grew up? It was still “Go Johnny go.” When I was a teenager, everything was fast. Scarfed down breakfast fast to make it to early athletic practice at my high school. Cram in as many elective classes and afterschool clubs as well as sports to enhance my academic record for the college. Zoom home, and then head back to the track after dinner. Go, go, go. I drove fast, read and studied fast, ran fast, ate fast, and as my mother used to say, “Joni, you even sleep fast.” What can I say? That was life on my feet.
But then everything stopped. In one of those quick, fast, without thinking about decisions, I recklessly dove into shallow water and broke my neck. That ended all the go, go, go. From then on out, it was wait, wait, wait. Wait and wait more! Lying in that hospital Stryker frame for a year, I wasn’t going anywhere. I remember one morning lying on a gurney in the hallway outside of the urology clinic. After two hours of waiting and counting ceiling tiles, a lab worker came through the doors to announce I’d be “first after lunch break.” I moaned because my shoulders were already hurting from lying flat so long. As the urology staff headed to the cafeteria, my heart sank as I just stayed right there on my gurney.
Crying was out. There was no one around to wipe my tears. So I decided to comfort my soul with a hymn. In no more than a whisper, I sang a favorite from church choir: “Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side; bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.’
It was during those long hours of waiting, and singing hymns (and at first, I’ll admit it was waiting forced upon me, I didn’t want to take this direction), but in those times of stillness, I found that rest and quietness was my salvation. Isaiah Chapter 30 verse 15 even says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Well, maybe when I was on my feet, go-go-going, and living life fast; maybe then I would have none of God’s rest or quietness, but after I became a quadriplegic, my inner man slowed down. My paralysis has forced upon me a constant stillness that I carry around all the time inside of me. True, I’ll still hear Chuck Berry sing “Go, Johnny, Go, Go, Go” in my head when my wheelchair is on high speed and let’s say I’m zooming through a terminal to make my plane, but on the whole, I do a lot of sitting and waiting. I do a lot of lying down in bed and thinking and praying. And maybe, just maybe, it helps…Joni be good.
Song: Johnny B. Goode, by Chuck Berry (1958); Public Domain
© Joni and Friends
