Joni Eareckson Tada recently shared how we can find Jesus, even in our suffering.
“Ken [Tada, her husband] was driving me home from chemo. It was my second battle with Stage 3 cancer,” she said on the “Crazy Love” podcast. “My lungs hurt, my head was pounding and I was paralyzed, but the Lord stood by me.”
Eareckson Tada explained that, while she was in pain at that moment, she saw a bigger picture.
“Suffering is like a little splashover of Hell. A tiny taste of the real Hell Jesus redeemed us from,” she said. “So, what’s a splashover of Heaven? Is it the easy, breezy moments when everything’s fine? I think a splash of Heaven is finding Jesus in your Hell.”
Eareckson Tada has been paralyzed since she was 17 after a diving accident, which led to depression and even attempts at taking her own life.
Related: Joni Eareckson Tada Explains How God ‘Had a Purpose’ for Her Paralysis
“ That is to me of a precious memory of what God can take us from when we embrace His son, Jesus,” she told Harvest.
That all changed when she came to faith.
“At first when I heard about the sovereignty of God…I was frightened by that idea,” Eareckson Tada shared. “It was scary because if that was the God who allowed this to happen, then how can He possibly be good? What is His idea of good?”
Her understanding of God grew deeper when she heard a friend say, “God permits what he hates to accomplish that which he loves.”
“ The whole point behind my quadriplegia is that I get to know Jesus in such a tender, warm, poignant, personal, powerful way,” Eareckson Tada said.
Speaking to Liberty University, the author and public speaker explained, “All of my questions for why in the world God has allowed my suffering pale when I think of them hanging Jesus up [on the cross] and what Jesus sacrificed on behalf of me.”
“We have every reason to live stalwart, brave, courageous, joyful, happy lives that are a testimony to this dark culture, that [the world] will not find answers by looking inward, only by looking outward and upward,” she continued, encouraging Christians to embrace and overcome their own suffering.
Eareckson Tada concluded, “It means picking up your cross daily and dying to the sins that He died for on His cross. When you do this, when you’re holy as He is holy, you’re going to discover the peace and joy and satisfaction and sweetness of the Savior.”
Eareckson Tada has experienced lots of dark times and suffering, but for her, they are moments to remember Jesus’ sacrifice and what He ultimately saved us from.
Read Next: Joni Eareckson Tada Says ‘Disability is Not a Curse’: All are ‘Image Bearers’ of God
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