Joni Eareckson Tada has known suffering, from the depression she felt when she didn’t think her life was worth living to the physical pain she’s lived with for nearly 50 years as a quadriplegic. As someone who relies on her husband and other caregivers to bathe her, dress her, and tend to all her physical needs, Joni has learned to embrace her weakness. She believes God’s glory shines brightest when we are at our weakest—and that’s the theme of her new devotional book, A Spectacle of Glory: God’s Light Shining through Me Every Day (Zondervan, 2016).
I talked with Joni about how she fights for joy when her chronic pain feels overwhelming, why she believes God hasn’t healed her, and why we should oppose physician-assisted suicide. Joni is someone who has been through the fire, but she testifies that all her suffering has been worth it because it has drawn her closer to Jesus. As she puts it, “There’s nothing more intimate than finding Jesus in your garden of Gethsemane.”
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
