Why Joni Eareckson Tada Believes God Can Use Your Weakness for His Plan
By Movieguide® Contributor
Sometimes the greatest sign of strength is the ability to ask for help. Artist and author Joni Eareckson Tada knows this all too well.
Tada is paralyzed from the neck down, but she has not let her disability stop her from following God’s call on her life.
“The most effective leaders do not rise to power in spite of their weakness. They lead with power because of their weakness,” the 74-year-old told a group of pastors and leaders at the Global Leadership Summit in Chicago.
Tada became paralyzed at age 17 after a diving accident, changing her life forever. She went on to found Joni & Friends, a ministry that “has committed to reaching and serving people with disabilities with practical help and the saving love of Jesus” since 1979.
Through her accident and time in ministry, Tada learned humility and how to ask for help when she needs it.
“My speech was mainly about how God delights in recruiting people who don’t naturally shine with their giftedness,” she told RNS of her speech at the summit. “He delights in using their weakness to get things done. The whole point was to talk about how God loves to leverage weakness and minimize power.”
Tada explained how success in the kingdom of God looks different from the world.
“That’s not the way the kingdoms of this world work, but it is the way of what many call the upside-down kingdom of the Bible. You have to be poor in order to be rich. You have to be weak in order to be strong. You have to be humble in order to be exalted. Those kinds of things,” she said.
Tada also opened up on what receiving help from others looks like in her personal life.
“I have to rely on people just to help me with the most menial tasks — bathing, dressing, getting me up in my wheelchair. There are countless times when I must rely on others — and that teaches you to be grateful and to admit I can’t do this by myself. I’ve got to ask for help,” she added. “And when help is provided, I better be grateful.”
Movieguide® previously reported Tada’s conversation with Kirk Cameron:
“I think, Kirk, that the devil thinks that disability is his last frontier…He’s going to make a stand against the goodness of God,” she told actor Kirk Cameron on his show, TAKEAWAYS. “He’s going to use disability as ammunition against the goodness of God, spitefully saying, ‘Look, how can God call himself good if he allows this child to be born with that birth defect? You can’t call yourself good, God.’”
“That’s what we want to change,” Eareckson Tada said. “That perspective. And that’s the point behind all the program services that we have to not only give physical support but spiritual hope in in the Bible and in the good news of Jesus.”
A differently-abled person herself, Eareckson Tada’s organization, Joni and Friends, helps people all across the world who are dealing with disabilities. Through her work, people are shown that they are loved, cared for, and valued.
Tada’s inspiration for her ministry comes from Luke 14: 21, 23: “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame…Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.”
“Now we serve around the world through Retreats & Getaways, student internships and church training Wheels for the world, offices across the United States and international partnerships,” Tada wrote, “and yes, there’s still a team of us at Joni and Friends personally responding to people looking for prayer and encouragement just like we didi in the beginning days of our ministry.