A conversation should be a two-way thing, right? Well, not all the time…
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I just got off the phone with Linda, a woman I’ve never met before. And our conversation may have been, oh, 15 or 20 minutes long, but it certainly was not a two-way thing. In fact, I did all the talking. Come to think of it, I prayed and sang a couple of hymns in that stretch of time on the phone with her. And Linda, she just listened.
That’s because Linda is in the last stages of Lou Gehrig’s disease, that’s ALS; plus she’s got pneumonia, Linda is in hospice. Earlier today when Linda’s daughter was told that her mother had just hours to live, her daughter wasted no time in tracking me down. Apparently, my story of how I’ve drawn closer to Jesus through my disability really touched Linda who has Lou Gehrig’s, and through my books, Linda recently embraced Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Linda had hoped she might meet me one day, but with only a short time to live, she knew it wasn’t going to happen. Well, when her daughter told me all this on the phone today, I just knew I had to call this woman who only had hours to live. When I dialed her and reached her room, they told me Linda was too weak to talk, but they tucked the phone receiver under Linda’s ear. I could hear her heavy breathing. And I said, “Look, Linda, don’t exert yourself here; you just relax and let me do the talking, ok? If I ask you a question, all you’ve got to do is give me a grunt for yes, okay?” I got a grunt, and that meant okay, so I began asking Linda simple questions that required only a yes-or-no answer. I asked her if she was looking forward to heaven… I asked if she was ready… I asked was she reading her Bible? All to which I heard happy grunts in reply.
The time really flew and before I hung up, I sang a couple of hymns to her, I prayed for her, and I told her I would see her soon in heaven. It was one of the sweetest times I’ve ever had with anyone on the phone… come to think of it, it wasn’t one-sided at all, because both of us were blessed. Ours really was a two-way thing.
By the time I recorded this radio program I learned Linda had gone on to heaven. Listen, friend, there are thousands of people like her who need encouragement and they are on the brink. I just learned today of a woman with multiple sclerosis who lives in a nursing home in the next town; and she told my friend, “All I want to do is just to have someone call me…someone to talk to.” Well, my friend’s been doing just that. Far from being one-sided, my friend has said those phone conversations have ended up being such a huge blessing to her, too… and a friendship has started… and now she is visiting that nursing home once a week to help wash the woman’s hair, isn’t that something?
A weekly phone call, intervening in the life of someone who has multiple sclerosis or someone like Linda who’s not long for this world. As I said, there are so many people like her who need encouragement. And would you like to know how to help? Isaiah 50:4 says, “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” Friend, God wants to teach you, He wants to instruct you on how to reach people like Linda and that woman with multiple sclerosis. So today, learn how to share those words with people who have disabilities, who have life-threatening conditions like ALS. Just visit me at joniandfriendsradio.org and come to know the Word that sustains the weary. Again, that’s joniandfriendsradio.org. Until next time, this is Joni on Joni and Friends.
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