Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a special song and a special memory,
On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand, And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land, Where my possessions lie.
I am bound for the Promised Land, I’m bound for the Promised Land
Oh, who will come and go with me I am bound for the Promised Land
Don’t you love that chorus, "I am bound for the Promised Land"? You know, I did not grow up with this hymn. It’s an old Mennonite hymn, and when I first heard it — and learned it — many years ago I was at one of our Family Retreats. A Mennonite woman named Martha Troyer taught it to me as we were standing in line at the dining hall waiting to go to dinner. And before I say much more about the hymn, let me say a few things about Martha. It was her first time at our Family Retreat — this Mennonite woman and her family came because her young son, Michael, had recently become paralyzed.
The sad thing is, Martha was the one who was driving the car when she fell asleep at the wheel, Michael who was, oh, maybe eight or nine at the time, was in the backseat. When the car rolled over, Martha’s little boy suffered a spinal cord injury and became a paraplegic. As you can imagine, Martha was heartbroken, not only because her young son was in a wheelchair, but it devastated her that she had caused his injury. She suffered with much grief, and it is why a friend encouraged her family to come to one of our Family Retreats. Now, the first day or so was not an easy experience for Martha. Oh, sure, Michael and his brothers and sisters were fitting right in and enjoying all the activities, but their mother? She pretty much stayed on the sidelines. She simply couldn’t allow herself to enjoy a retreat for disabled children and their families. She felt like she didn’t belong there.
And then Martha sat in on the woman-to-woman session, and there she heard the stories of other mothers who confessed their struggles and remorse and regret over their child’s disability. Some of these mothers, like Martha, even struggled with guilt; some of them, like her, saw themselves as the cause of their child’s disability, whether it was because of a botched surgery or a bad vaccination. You can imagine how Martha listened to all of their stories with great interest. And she began to see that the love of Christ that comforted these women could, indeed, comfort her. So this dear Mennonite mom, right then, right there, she lay down her remorse, regret and guilt, and she reached out for hope and help in Christ. And by the end of Family Retreat Martha was singing. And standing outside the dining hall waiting for supper is when I asked her to teach me this beautiful old hymn, “That we’re bound for the Promised Land.”
I cannot sing this hymn without thinking of Martha. And now, after all these many years since that first time she and her family attended Family Retreat? Well, not only do all of her sons and daughters now volunteer at retreat, but get this — so does Michael in his wheelchair. He’s 17 years old now and I was just serving with him earlier this summer at our Family Retreat in Pennsylvania. What do you think of that? Friend, come serve at our Family Retreats by visiting my radio page today at joniandfriends.org.
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PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376