The quality of this video is not so great but if you have time, watch it anyway. I’m always struck — not just by this woman’s wisdom but the gentleness of her soul. If I never to get to meet her this side of glory, I sure look forward to spending eternity with her. If you’ve ever wondered “Why me, Lord?” or questioned God in your affliction, Mrs. Tada is here to tell you that suffering, as she so eloquently puts it, “can be a bruising of a blessing if it really pushes us into the arms of Christ.” If you don’t already subscribe to Joni’s ministry, visit “Joni and Friends” where you can learn more about her service to the disabled. I bless God that this precious saint is my sister in Christ.
Some good advice by Joni Eareckson Tada
“Dear friend, we are destined for trials. In other words, life is supposed to be difficult, God wired it that way.
Looking back, I don’t think that’s something the visitor to our Family Retreat believed. But he’s not alone — it’s amazing how many people believe that life should be easy. They groan, feeling as though their difficulties are a unique kind of affliction that should not be. They focus so much on the problems and so little on the Lord, that they feel that affliction has somehow been especially visited upon them. But here’s the thing…
Life is a series of problems to be solved. And, yes, solving problems is a painful process, but it is this whole process that gives our life meaning.
I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.” Isn’t that the truth! And the psalmist said long before Benjamin Franklin in Psalm 119 that, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
So today, friend, if you’re thinking that your life is just one battle after the next, take the advice of an apostle: be strengthened, be encouraged in your faith. Don’t be unsettled by your trials, because you know quite well you are destined for them and for good reason. Trials are not for our pleasure; they are for our profit. Once you and I can embrace this truth, we transcend it. Once we know that life is to be truly difficult then life is difficult no longer.
God has not redeemed you and me to make us happy, or healthy, or free of trouble. God has redeemed you and me to become more like Jesus Christ… and this is why He destined trials for you, my friend.”
HT: Truth Matters