A life-altering injury or illness may seem like a rude detour on your otherwise smooth path to happiness. But God uses those difficulties to reveal your weaknesses and force you to lean hard on Jesus. When hard times come, keep persevering. God is with you in the battle! Visit joniradio.org for resources mentioned in today's program.
You can learn a lot of lessons when you have a brain injury.
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada, and my friend Grace Stroud would agree. Oh, the lessons her brain injury has taught her about herself, others, and about God. I first met Grace when she was a little girl. She was part of a wonderful family who volunteered to serve at our Family Retreat in Texas. Grace was only 11 or 12 years old, but serving at our camp gave her a real heart for kids with disabilities.
And all those years the family kept coming back to serve at Family Retreat? Well, Grace’s experiences with disabled children at camp prepared her to become a disability respite attendant when she was a teenager. For over eight years she found herself changing diapers on kids who were much younger than she was. If a little boy had a seizure, Grace pulled their tongue out of their throat. She was only a teenager, but Grace was handling ventilators, feeding tubes, and even ministering to kids who did not survive their serious medical issues. She felt great empathy for these children. But then, on a volleyball court, Grace herself sustained a traumatic brain injury. The diagnosis was alarming, but Grace surrendered to it and let go of the dreams she had for her future. Amnesia caused by her brain injury made her lose all sense of time. She felt trapped in a brain that did not recognize anything and felt confined in a body that kept working against her. Angry at the world, Grace found herself wallowing in hopelessness.
But then an amazing thing happened. Many of the children that she had worked with when she was a teenager, they came to visit her. And so did a couple of the special needs families she met at Family Retreat. They prayed over her. And memories suddenly came flooding back of times at Joni and Friends’ camp, as well as times with those courageous kids she worked with. Grace recalled their life-and-death battles; each, persevering through the toughest of times. And that is when it struck her. She could not allow herself to throw in the towel. For her, it would dishonor the families and the children she had served all those years. I mean, Grace loved them; they had the guts to overcome – and now, these same children were cheering her on as she recovered from her brain injury. They taught Grace so much about herself and about God.
The kids that she helped all those years, they taught her that every battle is worth waging; every war is worth winning. Yep, these boys and girls taught Grace to battle hard and to rise above the residual effects of her brain injury; and after tireless weeks of fighting her way back into life, this young woman began to appreciate the lessons that her brain injury had taught her. It showed her how to persevere, to be resilient, to endure, to trust God, and keep serving.
I love this story because it’s National Brain Injury Awareness Month. And sometimes we feel that an awful condition like a brain injury presents a rude detour in our otherwise smooth path to happiness. But not so. God can use even brain injuries to reveal our weaknesses, pull out the best in others, help us submit to being cared for, and force us to lean very hard on the Lord Jesus. Proof of that is the story of Grace Stroud. It is also the story of my friend Katherine Wolf. She outlines astounding lessons that God has taught her through her brain injury. Let her story help you persevere to be resilient. Just click on the link at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends