Joni Eareckson Tada Shares Her Heart on Hope

This is the Johnian Friends Ministry Podcast, and I'm your host, Crystal Keating. Each week we're bringing you encouraging conversations about finding hope through hardship and practical ways that you can include people living with disability in your church and community. As you listen, visit johnianfriends.org/podcast to access the resources we mention or to send me a message with your thoughts. Hope, it's a beautiful thing. It's the promise that looming darkness won't last forever, the sunlight breaking through the clouds. Hope is always there, but sometimes life's challenges can make it so hard to see. We've likely all faced moments when grief, despair, or darkness seem to linger far too long. For Johnny Erksen Tata, that moment came at just 17 years old after a diving accident left her as a quadriplegic. Can you imagine the weight of such a life-altering event? Wondering how a life once filled with so much talent and promise could possibly move forward? In her darkest hours, when the enemy thought he had the upper hand, Johnny found a lifeline. The Word of God. Like a lamp, it revealed her brokenness and illuminated the path forward, stirring hope in her fainting heart. Let's listen together as Johnny shares how trusting in the Lord transformed her despair into a life overflowing with hope. One of my favorite verses is Romans 15, verse 13. Let me just listen to this. May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, to live a life overflowing with hope, right? Because you know as well as I do that there are times. When life seems to plunge us into one long dark night, a deep grief that keeps lingering, a botched surgery that turns chronic or a heart-stabbing rejection, you cannot shake. It is certain as the dawn comes after a long night. Hope is just as certain. As the morning chases away the night, hope chases away despair. It's why I love that hope filled promise of Psalm 30 verse 5. Weeping may endure for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. And I wish I could explain how dark my life used to feel when I was first injured, sitting by our farmhouse window, longing to be able to ride horses again, watching my sisters race out the back door and not being able to follow them. Being a prize made in other people's weddings, not to mention infections, pressure sores, all of it keeping me bedridden. I put on a smile from my friends and family, but inside my heart was dark. One day, as I was aimlessly flipping through my Bible using my mouthstick, I stumbled across Isaiah chapter 50 verse 10. Let he who walks in darkness and has not a single ray of light, let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Man, that described me exactly. It described exactly how I felt, groping in the dark and unable to find the light. Yet, Isaiah 50 verse 10 also gave me direction. Start trusting God, Johnny, not just talking about trusting him, but actually doing it. And as I reached out on the dark for God's hand, that's when I began to sense this faint stirring of hope, like a magnet, this little hint of hope kept pulling me closer to the Lord. And soon, I found myself waking up from that long dreary night of spiritual darkness. Those first stirrings of hope became a trail that actually led me to Romans 15, 13. There, the God of all hope guarantees me all joy and peace, not just some, but all joy and peace, if, if I would but trust in him. Trust in obey, that old hymn says, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. And here's the thing, I still did not have answers, you know, about why God allowed this to happen, but hope was beginning to rise in my heart. If we don't think much about hope, do we until we're in trouble? Yet it is the one virtue people cannot live without. The hope which the Bible speaks of is not wishful thinking. It is based on the true and eternal promises of God. Every morning, God stands ready to pour out His mercy, His grace, and that's a promise. Every morning, God is ready to lead you into a day filled with purpose. That's a promise. Every morning, God is ready to show you more of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that is a promise. Every morning, He brings you one day closer to heaven, where what we hope for will become reality, a life with no more night, no more tears, no more sorrow or pain. With promises like these, how could we not have hope? It's why we long for a quote that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's from my Titus chapter 2 verse 13. Hope is everything. It keeps you moving forward. It keeps you getting out of bed in the morning. Hope gets you dressed in the morning and heading out the door to share that same hope with others, but it all starts with trusting Jesus. Believing that morning will come, your weeping is only going to endure for a while. It starts with reaching out in the darkness for the hand of God Almighty. And now after many decades of paralysis and pain, I can say that I may be one of the most hopeful people you will ever meet. And I shout out the words of 1 Peter 1 verse 3, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His great mercy has given us all new birth into a living hope. In that great, a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Woo! Oh, friend, I want you to experience that living hope, resurrection hope. For as the line in that old movie goes, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. So get busy living. You need hope? Sure you do. You've been dying long enough in your darkness. Wow, what a beautiful reminder, Johnny. Jesus Christ is our living hope. Listening to this message brought to mind my friend's mom, the late Gail McWilliams. Gail, a once sighted wife, mother, author and teacher, faced an incredible challenge. While growing her family, she discovered she had a condition that caused her to lose more of her eyesight with each child she had. Doctors urged her not to have more children, even recommending abortion for the child she was carrying. But Gail chose to trust in a loving God and hold on to hope. She went on to give birth to five incredible children who all love and serve the Lord. Gail's story reminds us that in the midst of impossibly bleak circumstances, hope sees where our natural eyes cannot. Hebrews 6, 19 tells us we have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure. And later in chapter 10, verse 23, it encourages us. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. We serve a God who is faithful and trustworthy. He cannot lie and he never fails. As Johnny reminds us through Romans 15, 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we trust in Christ and lean into him, he will fill us with hope that pushes back the darkness. That's my prayer for you today, that you would lean into the God of hope and begin to trust him more deeply than ever before. And as you do, may his hope and joy rise within you, driving away the clouds and warming your heart with his presence. Friends, may you be filled with the living hope of Jesus today. If you're in need of encouragement, we'd love to pray with you and offer spiritual support. Visit us at johnianfriends.org/podcast Thank you for listening today. For more episodes, find us wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to subscribe. We'd also love it if you would tell a friend. And for more encouragement, follow johnianfriends on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube and visit our website at johnianfriends.org/podcast. Thank you for listening to the johnianfriends ministry podcast. [Music]