The Sufficiency of Christ

I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and do you make the mistake of living too much in the past?

I know I have. For instance, I remember years ago when I first got out of the hospital, I spent so much time, so much effort trying to manipulate others to meet my needs. And if it wasn’t other people, it was things. Listening to the music of the past, constantly talking about the way things were, the way things used to be. Frankly, I did not believe that Christ was a present reality. I manipulated other people to meet my needs because I did not believe that Christ could.

Well, it did not take long for a caring Christian friend named Diana to confront me. She saw what I was doing to others and to myself. And she said a very wise thing; she said, “Joni, I have no intention to make light of your struggles, but you are heading the wrong way. Christ is your sufficiency, not your old record albums or your yearbook. No, the Lord is your all-in-all, not your memories or your photo albums. And you’ve got to stop thinking that your needs are going to be met in things and in other people because they won’t.”

Well, I felt like throwing up on her shoes because I knew she was right. I knew she wasn’t just pointing me to some cross-stitched platitude set behind glass in a pretty frame. No, Diana wasn’t that polite, she wasn’t that safe. This was a friend who understood that Christian love sometimes means confronting a friend. What’s more, once she shared that truth, she was ready to step up to the plate and help me live out that truth, and love it and breathe it and make it my own.

And you know what? She did. In fact, it was the wonderful hours my friend Diana and I spent together which convinced me that Jesus was enough – that Christ, indeed, was sufficient. The Lord bore the burdens of my soul in and through this friend of mine. She was able to expose to me my misguided belief about where security and significance could be found. No, my needs did not end up getting met in my friend, but Christ became my sufficiency through my friend. And more than 45 years later, we are still friends, deep and true.

There is a lesson here. Because we dare not wad up wonderful truths into trite platitudes to be tossed at one another while we stand at a respectable arms-length distance from each other. Uh-uh. You cannot be a Christian brother at an arm’s length distance. My friend Diana intervened and confronted, and she did it all in love to show me that “Christ is our sufficiency.”

And that’s exactly what’s going to be happening in a short while when we begin our Joni and Friends Family Retreats. And I want you to think about coming and helping disabled kids see that Christ can be their sufficiency, too. We need volunteers, and when you help us at our retreats, believe me, it’s impossible to love at an arm’s length distance. You just can’t do it! You gotta practice Christianity with its sleeves rolled up. You gotta get down there and meet the need where the rubber meets the road. You’ve got to love up close and personal. And that’s what we need you to do at a Joni and Friends family retreat. It’s what Diana did for me, so would you please come and help us underscore that Jesus Christ is a present reality to people with disabilities and their moms and dads; help show families that the Savior really is enough. That they don’t have to look back and long for the past and wish for the good old days. No, just go to joniradio.org and find out how you can volunteer at this year’s Joni and Friends Family Retreats where Christ is everyone’s sufficiency. Again that’s joniradio.org. And when you volunteer with us, you know what? I think you’re going to learn what it means to love in an up close and personal way and never, ever at an arm’s length distance.

© Joni and Friends