Preparing for That Day

Jill: Hi, my name is Jill, and I’m from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The main reason I support this ministry as a Monthly Partner is its commitment to stay true to God’s Word and His principles. I hope you enjoy today’s episode of Revive Our Hearts, brought to you in part by the Monthly Partner team.

Dannah Gresh: The difficulties of life look different when the light of heaven shines on them. Here’s Joni Eareckson Tada.

Joni Eareckson Tada: You cannot understand suffering in its context unless you look at it from a heavenly perspective. Unless you see that, yes, there’s a finish line, heaven makes suffering on earth bearable. And, believe it or not, not just bearable, but enjoyable.

Dannah: Welcome to the Revive Our Hearts podcast. It’s March 27, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh. Our host is the author of A Place of Quiet Rest, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We’ve been talking a lot this month about living and dying, preparing now for the life to come after death. Because, for the believer in Jesus, death is just a doorway into His presence forever.

But for some, though, the pressures and problems of this present life cause them to slip into despair. And in some cases, they’d even rather give up and end it all now rather than continuing on in their suffering.

Maybe you’ve felt that way. Or maybe you know someone, like a woman I talked with last week, who struggles with those dark thoughts of suicide.

Well, our guest today has been there herself. I know you’ll appreciate her transparency, her vulnerability. I hope you’ll be encouraged by what pulls her out of that desire to give up. Let’s listen as Dannah further introduces our dear friend Joni Eareckson Tada.

Dannah: At seventeen, a diving accident left her a quadriplegic, too paralyzed to act on suicidal urges. That was several decades ago. Today, Joni Eareckson Tada is simply one of the brightest lights of hope in a world of brokenness.

If you’re familiar with her, you already know that, and you’re leaning in. I can see it. In my mind’s eye, you’re leaning in to listen knowing what a wealth of wisdom this sweet woman has been for us.

If you’re just about to meet her for the first time, let me encourage you to stop what you’re doing. Listen closely, because I know this: God is about to minister to your heart. I’m so confident of that.

Joni, what a blessing to be here with you today. Thanks for joining us on Revive Our Hearts.

Joni: Oh, absolutely, Dannah. I can’t think of anything more fun than just to talk to the mothers and the grandmothers tuning in about how much I love the Lord Jesus.

Dannah: Well, we’re going to talk about Jesus. We’re going to talk about heaven. We’re going to answer some of people’s most common questions about heaven today. But, Joni, could we just go back for those who are just meeting you for the very first time? Take us to the day of that accident. How did that happen?

Joni: Well, it was a hot July day, and I was ready to head off to college. My sister and I decided that we’d spend a sisterly day together at the beach. What I did not realize was that the tide was out, the water was shallow. I took a dive off a raft, and I crushed my fourth cervical vertebrae and severed my spinal cord.

Immediately, Dannah, I was face down in the water, couldn’t move, hoping that my sister Kathy would notice that I had not surfaced from my dive. Praise God she did. And just as I started to drown, she pulled me up and out.

When they rushed me to the hospital, and doctors said, “You’re never going to use your hands again or your feet. You’ll never be able to walk or run,” I just plummeted into depression.

I just could not understand why a loving God would allow something like this to happen to one of His children, especially since right before I was heading off to college orientation, I had asked God for a closer walk with the Lord. Like, “What’s this? What’s this all about? Is this an answer to that kind of prayer? What are You doing, Jesus?”

I became angry and embittered, but thankfully, Dannah, a lot of Christian friends were praying. And, real quickly, when people ask me, even now fifty-five years later, “Joni, what changed you?” I always point to the people who prayed.

Never underestimate the power of your most faint and feeble prayers on behalf of loved ones who are depressed, because I can testify, “We wrestle not against the flesh and blood realities of spinal cord injuries or other circumstances of life. We wrestle against a powerful adversary who would just love nothing more than to keep you steeped into depression.” And the way you battle the adversary is with prayer.

Dannah: That is an encouragement because you know that the anxiety and depression and even the suicide rate among teenagers, college-aged students, even tweens, those who aren’t teenagers just yet has really skyrocketed in recent years. So your testimony there is such an encouragement to me.

Can I ask a question? How dark did it get when you were feeling that depression in that bed, in that hospital bed?

Joni: Well, I can’t describe it now, Dannah. I wish I could, but it was so dark that when I finally got out of the hospital, and I went to live with my sister on the family farm in Maryland, I refused to get out of bed. I said to my sister Jay, “Just close the door, turn out the lights, pull the drapes, and leave me alone.” And for at least two weeks I laid in that darkened bedroom and just steeped in remorse and regret and self-pity, and said, “I can’t believe this is happening. God, where are You?”

But honestly, Dannah, I think that is when I began to experience the import of intercessions from others. I began to feel a pressure on my heart that, “Joni, you don’t want to live like this. You don’t want to live in self-pity. Get yourself out of the corner and look to the Word of God. Find hope, because it’s there for you if you would but believe and take that first step of faith.”

And so I prayed, “Jesus, if I can’t die, then You’ve got to show me how to live.”

And the next morning I asked my sister to turn on the lights, draw the drapes, open the door, get me up in my wheelchair, and push me out into the living room, and park my wheelchair underneath the music stand—kind of like the kind you see your church worship leader use.

I had my Bible plopped on it, and my sister put a pencil in my mouth, an unsharpened pencil, and with the eraser end I just started slowly flipping the pages this way and that . . . looking for hope, trusting that somehow, someway there was a God who was going to get me out of this depression.

Dannah: And did He?

Joni: Oh my goodness, yes, He did . . . but not overnight. It started small. It really did.

You know, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that God has not allowed you to be tempted, tested beyond what you can bear. But when you are tested or tempted, He will provide a way of escape. I think the King James says, “a way out” so that you will be able to endure it.

I began to find early on, Dannah, that the way out, the way of escape, are Bible promises. And man, I started memorizing every single Bible promise I could come across.

The fact that 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8, “Thou we are hard pressed on all sides, we’re not crushed” (paraphrase). That’s a promise.

Man, I felt like I was getting crushed. In the middle of the night I would say, “God, You’re putting me through a lot here, and I think it’s too much. But obviously, You don’t think it is. You think that with Your promises, I can endure this. So I’m going to trust that this is not going to crush me. I’m going to trust that You are going to see me through. This thing will not decimate me.”

I began to memorize other Bible promises, and the fact that He would be my ever present help even in this terrible trouble. And soon, Dannah, I stopped wrenching my head back and forth on the pillow to kill myself. I just stopped doing that.

Dannah: You were literally doing that?

Joni: I wanted to break my neck up at a higher level to end my life. I mean, think of it, Dannah. I’m seventeen / eighteen years old, and I’m facing a life without use of my hands or my legs. I was an athlete. I loved to play tennis. I loved to ride horses. So, yes, I was that depressed. But, yes, God provided a way of escape. And, of course, those were His, and they still are, Bible promises.

Dannah: His Bible promises. How beautiful. What an encouragement today as you thought through those Scriptures and prayed through those Scriptures and talked yourself through those Scriptures until they started to take effect, it sounds like.

Joni: Well, I’ll give you a quick example, Dannah. Even still I struggle. I’ve been in this wheelchair for fifty-five years, and I’m getting older. I deal with chronic pain. It’s getting worse. Just recently I was coming to work in our van. Ken was driving. I was tied down in the back in my wheelchair. And, man, I’m in such pain. I’m ready to say, “Ken, take the next exit. Turn around. Take me home. Put me to bed. I can’t do this. It hurt so badly.” But then I decided to grab hold of what Psalm 119, verse 50 says, “My comfort in suffering is this: Your promises renew my life.”

“Okay, God, I need comfort. I’m suffering. You tell me here that Your promises are going to renew my life. So I’m just going to recite them out loud. I’m going to pull them down from heaven. I’m going to grab hold of all the grace that might be available in and through them."

I’m going to believe that “You will never leave me. You will never forsake me” (see Heb. 13:5).

I’m going to believe that even “this is working together for my good” (see Rom. 8:38).

I’m going to believe that “Your grace really is indeed sufficient” (see 2 Cor. 12:9).

I’m going on and on reciting these promises. And, Dannah, when I got to the headquarters of Joni and Friends and got out of the van, my pain was no better, but I had courage. I had strength. I had hope. I had peace of mind. I had, I don’t know, I just had a greater, more hopeful, happier perspective on the day.

And that’s what happens when you just say, “Jesus, I’m going to hold Your feet to the fire. You tell me in Your Word that this is what You will do. I’m going to grab hold of that. I’m going to believe it. I’m going to move forward into life. I’m going to thrive on Your promises, so give me the grace to do it, and I’m Your best partner in it.”

Dannah: Oh, beautiful.

Joni, would you have considered yourself a Christian before the accident? Or did you make a profession of faith after? At what point in your life did that happen?

Joni: Well, Dannah, I had come to Christ through Young Life as a tenth grader in high school, but Jesus immediately became my spiritual bell boy. I wanted great grades. I wanted a boyfriend. I wanted to get to this college. I wanted . . . you know, it was all about me. And we’re all so me-focused about our life in Christ.

And so Jesus became, I don’t know, I just tucked Him in the back pocket of my Levi’s and pulled Him out when there was an occasional need. But basically, when I prayed, it was like pulling levers of a vending machine. It was all about me.

But then my accident happened, and it was no longer about me. It became a tooth-and-nail-biting-kicking-clawing struggle to believe God. I had to fight to find contentment in Him. But it is the best fight. The apostle Paul calls it “a good fight” because when you come out on the other side, you win:

• Hope becomes so satisfying.
• Joy becomes so other worldly.
• And peace becomes so profound.
• Your soul becomes so settled that you wouldn’t trade it for any amount of walking, as far as I’m concerned, or even having use of your hands.

It’s a fight, but boy, it’s got great rewards when you win, when you become more than a conqueror.

Dannah: Oh, your smile. Joni, I wish that everyone could see that contagious joy that just explodes out of you when you speak about these promises of God and how they’ve carried you through these terrible times.

Joni: Absolutely. But, Dannah, I’m the lady of 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 10. I’m sorrowful. I’m not always rejoicing. I’ve got nothing, but yet I possess everything. I am so poor in spirit. I need Jesus so badly. I am so poor, yet He has made me very, very rich. And it’s a delightful place to be in your walk with Christ.

Dannah: And those riches have been such a blessing to this world as fifty-five years later you are the C.E.O. of Joni and Friends, an organization that just ministers so well internationally to the disability community . . . and not just to the disability community, but to all of us.

And, Joni, we invited you here because you’ve written a book that I have to say ministers to me so much. It’s about heaven, and it’s about Jesus. The Awesome, Super, Fantastic, Forever Party: A True Story about Heaven, Jesus, and the Best Invitation of All.”

Joni: Woo-hoo!

Dannah: Yes! As I was reading this, I had a question. I just wonder, How has being in a wheelchair made you think differently about heaven?

Joni: I think it has prepared my heart for heaven. Heaven is a holy habitation for holy people. It’s why Jesus said, “Be holy as I am holy” (see 1 Peter 1:16). But suffering, my wheelchair has prepared me in that I can’t bear to be depressed. I can’t bear to be self-centered. I just can’t stand it when I have that sullen, morbid, peevish self-centeredness. And my wheelchair kind of ratchets me up out of that. Like a big lever, it just sucks me up out of the miry pit and puts my feet on solid ground.

And, oh my goodness, I need Jesus so desperately. I wake up in the morning—and I’ve said this to your audience before—“I can’t do quadriplegic one more day—I especially can’t do it with pain. But I can do all things through You, Jesus, as You strengthen me” (see Phil. 4:13).

“I know I’m going to get more strength if I unearth out of my heart more sin. So, Holy Spirit, shine Your searchlight and expose in my deepest recesses the sin that needs to be confessed and turned away from. I don’t want it besetting me. I don’t want it entangling me because I want to be closer to You.”

And that means I’ve got to be more holy. And, of course, heaven is that place where we will be like Christ finally.

So my wheelchair prepares me for that day. It gets my heart set on heaven. It sets me up for that day. Oh, Dannah, I can’t wait to stand up next to Jesus. I’m going to hold His nail-scarred hands. I’m going to say, “Oh Jesus, thank You. Look what You did.” And He will know I mean it because He will have seen me and the way I dealt with suffering on earth.

If I had never suffered, if I never persevered through it, I just don’t know if my gratitude would have a lot of depth. But when I express my thanks to Jesus on that glorious day, man, He’ll know I mean it.

He was my life and breath. He was everything to me. Like John chapter 6 says, “He became my flesh and blood. I drank His blood. I ate His flesh” (see vv. 53–55). I consumed Him. I ingested Him every single day. And a wheelchair helps you do that. And when it does that, man, you get your heart on heaven like anything else.

Dannah: So suffering makes heaven sweeter.

Joni: Yes, it does. It makes it so sweet.

Dannah: How has understanding heaven and studying it in the Word helped you through the suffering?

Joni: Well, I think when you understand what heaven is:

• The culmination of all things.
• The final defeat of Satan and his minions.
• The time when the Lord Jesus will be crowned as the undisputed Champion of the universe.
• The time when you will gain reward—the reward of hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” 
• When you understand that your sanctification will be complete.

Oh, my goodness, you’re going to step into glorification, and what’s that going to look like?

When you have that perspective, it puts your suffering on earth in context. You cannot understand suffering in its context unless you look at it from a heavenly perspective. Unless you see that, yes, there’s a finish line, hope is concrete and real, and it’s on its way.

And you will be rewarded. Every little obedience that you do down here on earth is going to gain for you a bigger, deeper, wider capacity for joy and worship and service in heaven.

And so heaven makes suffering on earth bearable. And, believe it or not, not just bearable, but enjoyable because it’s that sheep dog that drives you down the road to Calvary and into the arms of Jesus. What a home base that is. Right?

Dannah: Let’s talk about heaven—practically. I imagine that you’ve been in the Scriptures about heaven. And why is it such an exciting topic for you to talk about that you’d actually wrote a book?

Joni: Well, let me address one quick aspect of heaven that people struggle with: they think it’s going to be so boring.

Dannah: Yup. I’ve heard that. That’s one of the top questions on the internet. I looked.

Joni: Right. If you sing your favorite worship song often enough, even they become boring after a while. So you just can’t possibly imagine going to heaven. “Aren’t you going to run out of Scripture choruses and praise songs after a few thousand years?”

That’s the way we look at things from an earthly perspective. After a while we’re happy for good things to come to an end—even the best of vacations. But it’s not going to be that way in heaven. Praise will never become boring, and let me tell you why.

In heaven, self-forgetfulness will be second nature, and so nothing will be tiring. Nothing will be wearisome in heaven.

Praise would only be boring if you were able to stop and look at yourself to see, “How are we doing? How are we liking this? How are we sounding? How are we performing? Is this place okay with me?”

But, no. Such self-consciousness will be totally unknown in heaven. There will be no self-awareness or self-absorption. There will be no self-consuming thoughts. No self, as we tend to allow ourselves free reign here on earth. In heaven we will totally lose ourselves in Christ.

Dannah: What a relief!

Joni: And so there will be no self-awareness—so no boredom.

Our thoughts will be Christ’s thoughts, and we’ll be growing ever wiser, ever younger, ever happier, discovering new things about God every day.

I’m a listener to Ask Pastor John’s podcast. And the other night he was on the last line of Ephesians chapter 1. I just finished memorizing that chapter. He talked about how it says, and it does, it says that “we (the Church) are Christ’s body, “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (v. 23).

And from that Dr. Piper conjectured, “Well, my goodness, what could that possibly mean when we go to be with the Lord? Could it possibly mean that in this grand, great universe, billions and billions of light years across, we are going to create new worlds, new vistas. We’re going to create beauty out of that nothingness, that darkness. We’re going to populate it. We’re going to make it happy and holy. We’re going to fill it. We’re going to design it. That’s one way we, as Christ’s body, He will extend His kingdom through us, and He will fill everything in every way, including the entire universe.”

Oh my goodness, lying there, Dannah, I got so excited! To think that’s how big our jobs are going to be and how exciting they’re going to be.

So, boring? I don’t think so.

Nancy: That’s Joni Earckson Tada demonstrating for us the absolute importance of having a heavenly perspective. It’s crucial for weathering whatever suffering we may be going through between now and heaven.

Dannah mentioned the children’s book that Joni’s written about heaven. It’s called, The Awesome, Super, Fantastic, Forever Party Storybook: A True Story about Heaven, Jesus, and the Best Invitation of All. It’s written for children ages three to six.

You’ll find more information about it linked in the transcript of this program at ReviveOurHearts.com. So be sure to check that out. It’s a beautiful book, and beautifully written for children ages three to six. Be sure to check that out, maybe for your own child, or a grandchild, or maybe a birthday gift for a special young friend.

As a listener-supported ministry, Revive Our Hearts depends on donations from people just like you. Your support helps us continue bringing solid biblical content to women through programs like this, through our various podcasts, and also through our international outreaches.

And this week, when you give any amount to Revive Our Hearts, we want to say “thank you” by sending you a copy of Colleen Chao’s devotional book on suffering called, In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God.

As you may have heard earlier this month on Revive Our Hearts, Colleen is another woman like Joni who is teaching the rest of us so much about having the right perspective in the midst of suffering and in the face of death. I know you’ll benefit greatly from Colleen’s book with thirty-one devotional readings on the subject of suffering.

To make a donation, visit us at ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Be sure to ask about Colleen’s devotional book on suffering.

Dannah: Joni, you’ve answered one of the most-asked questions on the internet about heaven: Is it going to be boring?

I have a few more I want to ask. Would you come back tomorrow so that I can pose them?

Joni: Oh, yes, and I hope one of those questions has to do with boring because I have a few more things to say about it.

Dannah: Okay. We’ll start there tomorrow.

Nancy: Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants to help you view life now with a heavenly perspective. It’s part of your freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted.

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