Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Shauna: I’m Shauna with Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Thank you for joining us. Well, Joni, the last time we met, you were answering questions that some of our listeners sent in. One was from Dave, and he asked about your favorite Bible verse.

Joni Eareckson Tada: I had trouble thinking on that one because my favorite Bible verses are always changing. But I did land on the Bible verse that I chose way back when I was around 14 years old. It was when I first opened my heart to Jesus Christ on a Young Life weekend retreat. I’d been attending church, but it was at that retreat when I embraced Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Not but a week into this new Christian journey, I also chose for my life verse Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."

That’s a powerful statement for a 14-year-old to make. Perhaps I thought back then I was crucified with Christ and was no longer living as the old Joni, but looking back, I had no idea what I had signed up for. I had no concept of what Galatians 2:20 meant when I shared my testimony at church and closed it off by reciting that life verse.

I believed Galatians 2:20 like I believed in the Girl Scouts honor code. It sounded serious, and I guess it made me look serious about my newfound faith. "I am crucified with Christ," announcing that I was no longer living my life as I used to, but Christ was now living in me. It sounded noble and deep, but for a 14-year-old, I think it was just an ideal, not a genuine fact about my life.

Just three years later, when I turned 17, that’s when I broke my neck in that terrible accident. Overnight, I became a quadriplegic. My world was turned upside down, and I had to be totally dependent on others to help me with absolutely everything. Frankly, it all felt terrible.

But over time, in my deep discouragement, I turned to my only hope, Jesus. I was finally getting serious about my Lord and Savior. So, one day when I was sitting in my wheelchair and slowly flipping the pages of my Bible with my mouth stick, I turned a page and came to Galatians. In the second chapter, I saw my handwriting in the margin.

Back when I was 14, I had taken a red pen and scribbled that Galatians 2:20 was my life verse, with an exclamation point. I stared at that writing for a long time because now I understood it. Now I was facing a life filled with suffering, and if I were to survive a lifetime of affliction, I knew I had to crucify my old wants and wishes from days when I was on my feet.

I had to die to that self and be crucified with Christ. No longer could the old Joni live as she did. From now on, it had to be Christ living in me. My life in a wheelchair, the one that I now had to live, I had to live by faith—faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I'm sure you can see that when I was 14 and picked Galatians 2:20 as my life verse, it was an act of Providence. I didn’t know then, but God surely knew that it would not only be my life verse but my life-saving verse. It would be the Bible verse that would guide me for years all the way to the present.

Every day I’ve got to remember, even now, that I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but every day it’s Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in Jesus and by faith in His wonderful word.