Discovering the Fountain of Life: the gospel for the ages (4)

• Posted on sdgale
• in 'CHOP Talk' Blog
• on May 3, 2013
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Adapted from Chapter Nine, “The Vanity of Strength and Beauty” from Making Sanity Out of Vanity: Christian realism in the book of Ecclesiastes by Stanley D. Gale (EP Books, 2011)

A passage I often share with those whose bodies are failing and racked with infirmity carries this same perspective.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Jim, the guy with the intestines popping out, refused to let go of working out, torn abs and all.  But it was more than his muscles being defined.  Rather, he allowed himself to be defined by his muscles.  Muscle mass was his identity.  It was his life.

The life of a young woman with perhaps the same penchant as Jim took quite a different course.  Joni Eareckson was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1950. She was the youngest of four sisters. Joni had it all—a loving family, athleticism, beauty, popularity.  But the July after she graduated from high school something happened that changed her life.

She was to meet her sister Kathy and some friends on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay to swim.  When she arrived, she jumped right in.  Listen to Joni tell the story.

“One hot July afternoon in 1967, I dove into a shallow lake and my life changed forever. I suffered a spinal cord fracture that left me paralyzed from the neck down, without use of my hands and legs. Lying in my hospital bed, I tried desperately to make sense of the horrible turn of events. I begged friends to assist me in suicide. Slit my wrists, dump pills down my throat, anything to end my misery!

I had so many questions. I believed in God, but I was angry with Him. How could my circumstance be a demonstration of His love and power? Surely He could have stopped it from happening. How can permanent, lifelong paralysis be a part of His loving plan for me? Unless I found answers, I didn’t see how this God could be worthy of my trust.

Steve, a friend of mine, took on my questions. He pointed me to Christ.

Now I believe that God’s purpose in my accident was to turn a stubborn kid into a woman who would reflect patience, endurance and a lively, optimistic hope of the heavenly glories above.”  (from Joni’s website)

Paradoxically, that event in 1967 saved Joni’s life.  It brought her to Jesus Christ for salvation and gave her new life in knowing and serving him. Joni Eareckson (now Tada), a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair, today is an internationally known artist who paints with the brush in her mouth, a talented vocalist, a radio host, an author of 17 books and an advocate for disabled persons worldwide.  Her physical state serves as a parable of one losing her life that she might gain it.

Joni had lost it all by our culture’s standards.  It was when God lifted her eyes to see him, and by his grace led her to gain Christ that she found beauty that will not fade with age and look forward to a resurrected body free from the ravages of life under the sun.