I'm devouring Joni's new book: A Place of Healing (I feel compelled to share it with you...this Sunday I will be preaching: holy suffering)

Here's some amazing JONI links and a recent devotion:

http://www.joniandfriends.org/

http://www.joniandfriends.org/television/

http://www.joniandfriends.org/radio/

Joni Eareckson Tada’s inspirational daily

devotionals are biblical insights that will

enrich, enlighten, and encourage you in

your walk with Christ Jesus.

Would You Like to

Be Handicapped?

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For this people’s heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears, and they have

closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with

their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with

their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”

--Matthew 13:14-15

Someone once asked me, “If you had the power,

would you go back and choose your life in a

wheelchair?” In one sense, I knew what he meant.

After all, God has taught me much through my

wheelchair. But would I want to do it over again?

I don’t think so.

I can’t think of anyone who desires to be paralyzed.

Who would be foolish enough to choose not to have

use of his legs and hands? Can you imagine someone

wanting to be blind, choosing darkness over the

brilliance of a clear blue sky? Who would want to

deliberately shut his eyes against the sight of a

glorious rainbow?

And who would want to be deaf? Who in the world

would desire silence instead of the beauty of a waltz,

or the soothing voice of a loved one?

Yet there are people who choose to be

handicapped. If you were to challenge them,

they wouldn’t have it any other way.

They deliberately determine to be disabled.

Theirs are very serious disabilities, not physical

ones but spiritual handicaps. Jesus even

talked about such people.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

O God, it’s foolish to think that someone

would choose a physical handicap.

I certainly wouldn’t. But forgive me when

I foolishly close myself off from You

and Your Word. Help me to open

my eyes and ears. To look for You

and listen to You today. I choose not

to be paralyzed by indifference or doubt.