AL: Joni, I have here an e-mail from a 43-year-old man named Kevin. He’s in a wheelchair due to Parkinson’s disease. I like what he says here... “Thank God that you, Joni, and I still have our voices to praise God with!” (JONI: I like that.) It’s a good attitude... but then Kevin writes, “Discouragement often sets in and I need to know how to deal with it. I try to stay focused on my Savior but sometimes it’s downright hard. Thanks for lending a special ear and any advice you can give...”
JONI: Boy, it’s hard to share advice with him over email, but in these few short minutes...
AL: And this man’s discouragement is probably no ordinary “Monday morning blues”... Parkinson’s is a painful condition... plus, Kevin has to deal with it from a wheelchair.
JONI: Well, I don’t have Parkinson’s, but I am a quadriplegic in a chair, and I will say this (and I hope this will encourage our friends today who must deal daily with discouragement)... I’m convinced that discouragement is one of Satan’s most successful weapons against believers like Kevin and me, and you, Al, and anyone who feels like the problems pile on so high they only wear you down.
In fact, the apostle Paul really struggled against discouragement. I know we don’t think that when we read his epistles. But listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. Now this is really something, this verse... because Paul says of his circumstances, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” Now I know Kevin has felt that way... I have... and I’m sure our friends listening have... you’re in a situation, a marriage, a life circumstance, whatever... you are under great pressure, far beyond your ability to endure... at times you think, “I can’t live this way... I’d rather die than live this way” (that’s what it means to feel in your hearts the sentence of death).Anyway! In the next verse, listen to what Paul says, “We despaired even of life... but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.”
Kevin, if you’re listening, did you hear it, do you get that? Even an apostle felt at times, “I can’t live this way... I’d rather die... this is beyond my ability to endure.” But, friend, God has purposed it that you might be forced, be pushed, be poked and prodded every morning when you wake up, that you might be goaded to rely on Him, and not your propensity to put it on cruise control... to put your day on automatic pilot.
Discouragement? Yes, it’s part of what it means to be human. But our problems mean something divine, too... and if God can raise the dead, He can raise us up above our circumstances as we rely on Him. And that’s advice from one person in a wheelchair to another... hopefully, encouraging a lot of people in between.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
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