“A Place Of Healing” by Joni Eareckson Tada

I have long considered Joni Eareckson Tada to be one of my heroes of the Christian faith.  It is common for Christians to wonder how their faith would fare under the weight of a devastating tragedy.  Would we say, “Though He should slay me, yet I will serve Him” or would we rather “curse God and die.”  Joni has for several decades given us a contemporary glimpse into the struggles of trying to faithfully serve the Lord in the face of enormous challenges.  Most readers will be familiar with the story of how Joni lost use of her arms and legs as the result of a teenage diving accident.  In the over forty years since that tragic day, Joni has sought to serve the Lord faithfully through writing, painting, speaking, and ministering to the needs of other disabled persons.  As a result, she has tremendous insight into the working and will of the Lord for His people. 

A Place Of Healing is Joni’s latest book and as the subtitle suggests, it is an attempt to wrestle with the mysteries of suffering, pain and God’s sovereignty.  In the book, she reveals the ironic fact that she has for some time suffered debilitating pain that has hindered her and challenged her far more than her paralysis.  Despite having asked difficult questions of the Lord before, the new enemy of chronic pain has motivated her to take up her pen and record how she has sought the Lord in the midst of this new struggle.  The result is one of the most searching and inspiring books that I have read in some time.  Through the ten chapters of the book, Joni shares the thoughts and reflections that have been brought powerfully home to her through her pain.  The middle chapters of the book ponder questions such as: “What benefit is there to my pain?”, “How can I go on like this?”, “How can I bring God glory?”, and “How do I regain my perspective?”  The book is chock full of testimonies, personal encounters and compelling illustrations that bring the deep biblical truths with which she is wrestling to life.  The book is 215 pages long. 

Here are some select quotations:

“You can’t teach suffering from a textbook.  Sharing about suffering is like giving a blood transfusion … infusing powerful, life-transforming truths into the spiritual veins of another.  And you can’t do that with words only.” (p. 25)

“Here at our ministry we refuse to present a picture of ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’, because we deal with so many people who suffer, and when you’re hurting hard, you’re neither helped nor inspired by a syrupy picture of the Lord … when your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, when you feel like Morton’s salt is being poured into your wounded soul, you don’t want a thin, pale, emotional Jesus … You want a battlefield Jesus.” (p. 31)

“We have gilded the real Jesus with so much ‘dew on the roses’ that many people have lost touch with Him … a sugar-coated Christ requires nothing from us – neither conviction nor commitment … it’s an image that lacks truth and power.” (p. 31)

“To this point, as I pen this chapter, He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me.”  (p. 35)

“The Bible simply doesn’t teach that God will always heal those who come to Him in faith.  He sovereignly reserves the right to heal or not heal, as He sees fit.”  (p. 45)

“He is the one who chooses the tools He will use to perfect His workmanship … Am I to tell Him which tools He can use an which tools He can’t use in the lifelong task of perfecting me and molding me into the beautiful image of Jesus?”  (p. 67)

“It isn’t the hurts, blows, and bruises that rob us of the freshness of Christ’s beauty in our lives … it is the careless ease, empty pride, earthly preoccupations, and too much prosperity that will put layers of dirty film over our souls.”  (p. 86)

“When you find yourself in chronic agony, life gets reduced to hours rather than days – and sometimes minutes and seconds … I need to know that God’s concern and care for me is literally breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat, moment by moment.”  (p. 101)

“People suffering from debilitating injuries … aren’t your standard musical instruments … it takes special skill to bring music out of a broken instrument, and the one who does deserves recognition and glory.  God is that one.” (p. 103)

“So many have tried to get me to say that my accident forty-three years ago was never part of God’s plan.  That my paralysis was never His intention … I know differently.  It was all planned long ago, and God brought it about in His perfect faithfulness.  And because He allowed it and permitted it, because He has walked me through every moment of it, his plan has been marvelous for Joni Eareckson Tada.”  (p. 197)

A Place of Healing is a book that will stretch you, encourage you, and touch you.  The truth is that even those of us who do not suffer with paralysis or chronic pain have occasions to wonder how God could possibly use some of the challenges of our lives to accomplish something good.  This book will aid the sensitive reader in gaining insight into that question.