I’ve Got Wheels

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a really fun story today! 

And a very fun song! It’s a little song that I recorded years ago about, well, about wheels. My wheels! And how they are the next best thing to having legs that work; yep, that’s what my wheelchair does for me. So let me play just a snippet of this little song, and I think you’ll get my drift…

“Wheels, we’ve got wheels; 
 They get us where we want to go.  
 Wheels, we’ve got wheels a’moving: 
 They can take us fast,  
 They can take us slow. 
 Anyway, anywhere,  
 Come on let’s roll!  
  
 He’s got a tricycle;  
 I’ve got a bicycle;  
 She’s got a motorbike I like. 
 I’ve got a wheelchair,  
 Getting me there. 
 Big wheels, hot wheels, 
 Whatever kind of wheels feels right!”

Little did I realize that that little tune would become an anthem for our Wheels for the World outreach at Joni and Friends. I mean, I remember when I traveled to Kumasi, Africa where I sang that song for disabled African children who were receiving Bibles and wheelchairs from our Wheels for the World team. And I’ll never forget the fun, the joy of singing that song; I mean, instantly I became this Pied Piper, leading a conga line of giggling kids, swinging and swaying, all of them in wheelchairs and following my tracks as I weaved my chair in and out of the adults. Everybody was laughing, having so much fun. And I remember I looked around in amazement, stunned at how the joy of the Lord Jesus overcame the sadness and despair of everyone’s disability in a poor place like Africa. It’s what Jesus loves doing; turning impossible situations into a platform of praise and thanksgiving. You know, when we take our Wheels for the World teams to places like Africa, we don’t consider a wheelchair as something to which a person is “confined.” Rather, we tell them that they’re made in the image of God, even with all their disabilities; and we let them know that having a set of wheels gives freedom. Like I said, my wheelchair is the next best thing to having legs that walk. I mean, I’d be stuck sitting in one place were it not for my wheelchair.  

Even now, as I look back on that moment when I was in Africa with those happy disabled children; poor children; maimed, disabled children – I’m stunned. Their smiles, their laughter are a mighty demonstration of the transforming power of the grace of Jesus. “With man…” – it says in Matthew 19 – “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And I believe that with all my heart, because I saw it happen – and it’s happening still, time and again around the world with Wheels for the World.  

In fact, this month we are taking wheelchairs and Bibles to El Salvador – get this – also Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. And once again, we will see the transforming power of God’s grace at work as disabled kids and adults receive Christ as Savior and wheelchairs and Bibles. So please be in prayer that the Spirit will move in peoples’ hearts with every chair and every Bible given. And, hey, if you’ve got a wheelchair to donate, get involved. Save it for Joni and Friends. Just go to joniradio.org to find a donation location near you. Again that’s joniradio.org. Oh, and if you are in a wheelchair, consider that set of wheels your next best thing to having real freedom and mobility to get around.

“Wheels, I’ve got wheels; 
 She’s got wheels; 
 We’ve got wheels; 
 We’ve all got wheels. 
 Whee!!”

Finally, I want to thank this station for granting me these precious minutes in which I can share hope through your hardship every day.

© Joni and Friends

“I’ve Got Wheels,” ©1985, Word, Inc., written by Janet McMahan, Kurt Kaiser, Niles Borop