RIVERSIDE, Calif. (BP) -- "No five-year plan that you embark on will be
more important than the people put before you to serve," Joni Eareckson
Tada told students at California Baptist University. "If you have a
passion for God, you will have a passion for people."
Tada, who
became a quadriplegic after a diving accident in 1967, said in a chapel
message at the Riverside, Calif., campus that she wakes up with no
energy 95 percent of the time and no strength to live through another
day with disabilities.
"I lay in my bed and tell God, 'But I can
do all things through You who strengthens me. Can I borrow your smile?
Because I don't have one for today.'"
Tada, recounting the story of her accident, said life seemed without purpose.
"I
could not kill myself, since I was a quadriplegic, so I tried to be
dead emotionally and spiritually. But hardships are what will press you
against the heart of Jesus and eventually I knew that if I would grow
closer to Christ, I would grow closer to His passion."
Today Tada
is involved with Joni & Friends, which encompasses the Joni and
Friends International Disability Center, a weekday five-minute radio
program and other ministries.
"At first, the last thing I wanted
to do is hang out with other people in a wheelchair," she said. "But
suddenly my wheelchair took on a different purpose when I realized that
Jesus hung out with people who had disabilities. The blind man, the man
with twisted limbs -- Jesus' heart was toward those with disabilities."
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