"My wheelchair is a blessing"

Sometimes I am embarrassed. I think I have it tough. We don't have a new church home; Wes' law practice is starting slowly and we need income; I don't have a job; when will we really feel connected in Toledo; were really supposed to come "home"?...then I look at people who have real problems.

I've been reading Joni Eareckson Tada's book - "The God I Love" - which should be on your short list of books to read this year - and I am embarrassed. She has a severed spinal column. She has been living in a wheelchair since she was 18. She can say with honesty that her accident and her life in a wheelchair has been the greatest blessing in her life. It brought her closer to God, it has taken her into a life of ministry that is international in scope. She brings awareness and help and hope to the plight of those who are disabled. She glories God.

My problems are real and they are a challenge. But they are temporary! We will find work and have income and find a church home and be involved in ministry again. My challenge now can be what draws me closer to God or away from him. My challenges reveal my purpose -- to know and love Jesus. I can trust God in spite of my problems, because of my problems, or simply because He is trustworthy. Either way I can commit to knowing and loving him more in the challenges I face.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:35-39