Where is God When You are in Pain?
Dr. John Ankerberg: Joni, we need to talk about when people go into discouragement and depression because they have the chronic pain that they’re living with all the time. And one of the verses that is keen to you is Philippians 1:3, “Every time I think of you I give thanks to my God.”
Joni Eareckson Tada: That verse inspires me so much. Because just look at the context. Paul is writing to his friends in Philippi and he’s writing from a jail cell. And he could have started off his letter saying, “Dear friends, the cell stinks. It’s ice cold in here. The food is awful. The jailer is mean. My cellmates are bullies. My chains are chaffing my wrists and my ankles. It is ice cold at nights, they don’t give me a blanket….” He doesn’t do that. He doesn’t start off his letter with a list of complaints, which is so much like I will do. And that’s why I draw such inspiration from that wonderful little verse in Philippians 1:3. Paul starts off his letters saying, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” Oh, my goodness, does that inspire me; because it tells me that in my suffering I’m to look for others, look out for others who are hurting even worse than I do.
I have a photograph on the wall next to my desk. Every time I wheel into the office of Joni and Friends every morning, I look at this photograph. It’s of an African man that we met in Ghana. He had fallen out of a tree, broke his back, laid by the side of the road in a place where no hospitals, no clinics, no ambulance came running after him. He laid there for some hours before his friends found him and dragged him back home. And now he sits in this one position in intractable pain.
And when I wheel up to my desk, and I look at that photograph, it’s a vivid picture to me that, well, Philippians 2:14, “Do everything without complaining.” What? Does the Bible really expect me to do that? “Do everything without complaining.” Michael alluded to the fact that we learn about God from taking Him at His word. And so, I’m not going to complain, I’m going to look at that guy on the wall and say to myself, “Joni, I don’t care how painful your back feels or how limited your paralysis, you are going to squeeze every ounce of ministry effort out of that quadriplegic body today, to do everything in your power to encourage him, inspire him, boost him, serve him, and serve people like him.”
One billion people with disabilities in the world live like he does, 80% of them in developing nations. And here I sit in America with a nice wheelchair, and food at the table, and friends to support me. Dare I hoard those blessings to myself? I mean, I want to be like Abraham, I want to be a blessing to nations. I’m going to pass it on. I want to get the blessing off my lap like a hot potato and encourage somebody else whose situation is much more difficult than mine.
And, John, nothing helps my depression better. The depression just seems to dissipate when I get up in the morning, take a shower, get dressed, go out the front door and find somebody in the community who’s hurting worse than you are. It’s the advice I give people with disabilities far more difficult and far more restrictive than mine. And it’s the advice I would give my friends even today. It is the best cure for depression.
Dr. John Ankerberg: Here’s a verse that I think should be put on Joni’s wheelchair. It talks about God comforting Paul, and how that comfort helped Paul comfort others. It goes like this, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort that we ourselves have received from God.” [2 Cor. 1:3-4] Joni, to me that’s you.
Joni Eareckson Tada: Well, God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort those who suffer any trouble. I mean, whether it’s quadriplegics, paraplegics, I mean, I can comfort, I can be used of God to comfort anyone. And what a joy, what an honor, what a privilege.
But God’s Word is a comfort. In fact, just the other day I was so depressed. I had gone to an orthopedic specialist and I was so hoping that he might have the magic pill, the instant answer, the surgery that would work. But he shook his head and said to my husband and me, “Your quadriplegic bones are just too fragile, there’s nothing we can do for you.” That was just recently. And the next day I had to get up and go to work. And I just hated having to wheel through the front door of the Joni and Friends headquarters and smile at somebody. I was so down; I was so weary; my heart was so broken. And all the way on the freeway driving to work, every single bump on the slow lane just goes right up my back. And I’m not only depressed, I’m in an unusual degree of pain. So, God, how are you going to comfort me?
And out of nowhere I remembered a verse I had memorized years ago, Psalm 119:50, where it says, “My comfort in suffering is this, your promises renew my life.” I think some translations say revive my life, preserve my life. And, oh my goodness, John, all the way the rest of the distance on the freeway, for the next six exits, I am quoting out loud—out loud—all the promises of God that I can remember. “Oh, God, you promised that your grace would be sufficient for this pain, and you promised that you’ll never leave me or forsake me, and you promised in the book of Joshua that you will go out and fight for me. And you promised that you’ll be my ever-present help in danger. You promised that all of this is going to fit together into a pattern for good.” Bang, bang, bang, bang. Every single exit on the freeway I had twenty more promises to quote.
And, John, by the time I got to the parking lot of our office, God’s Word had revived me, had refreshed me, had renewed my life. And I shook my head in amazement, because it was only a twenty-minute drive between my house and the office. But take God at His Word when He tells us that our comfort is His promises, that they will renew our lives, then grab hold of them. And don’t just grab hold of them, speak them, say them, share them out loud, voice them, give them flesh and bone and blood. And say it as though you really mean it, and God will infuse His grace. It’s though He’s just waiting for us to take that step of faith, to move out of depression, to find that person who is hurting worse than we are, to believe something in His Word that we never really believed before or stepped out in faith on before. And knowing God, trusting Him in that regard, holding on to those anchors from Scripture, it just turns on the fan to blow away the fog of depression. And I’m just grateful that even though I still get depressed, and at times it is overwhelming, I’ve got the Word of God, I’ve got those promises to revive my life.
Extracted from our series, “Where is God When Life Hurts?” Slightly edited for publication. This entire series with Dr. Michael Easley and Joni Eareckson Tada is available through our online store at jashow.org.
