God has a way of blind-siding me every now and then – such as the time I experienced at one of our disability ministry training summits in Chicago where I spoke. Now I meet lots of people with disabilities who come to our training things, but I will never ever forget this one particular summit where I met this one particular young girl.
It was her nametag I noticed first. There it was on the tag; printed real big: J-o-n-i. That was my name! I immediately noticed this girl’s smile and she introduced herself as “Joani” – she spelled her name the same way as I spell mine, but she pronounced it differently. I laughed when she told me all this. And I asked where her mother (who was standing next to her) got the idea to name her J-O-N-I.
It seems that her mother – who, by the way, looked to be about my age – had read the Joni book when she was very young. It had really touched her life and, in fact, it had been instrumental in her coming to Christ. And so, when this woman married and had her first child, she named that little girl after… me.
I cannot begin to tell you how bless I was, I was so touched to hear this. I mean, can you imagine how humbled I felt to know that my Christian testimony had so inspired this mother that she named her daughter after me. Well, when Joni grew to be a young adult, she became engaged to be married. Shortly before the wedding, Joni was in a terrible accident and she became a quadriplegic, paralyzed. Isn’t that something, not just any kind of paralysis, but she became a quadriplegic… like me.
When I heard all this, I looked deeply into the eyes of Joni’s mother. She named her daughter after me but never did she dream that one day her little girl, her Joni, would suffer the same kind of spinal cord injury as I did.
To make a long story short, even though Joni came out of the hospital in a wheelchair, her fiancé still wanted to marry her. In fact, Joni’s husband was there by her side that day at the training summit. And the thing that struck me most is that despite all the challenges, all the disappointments, despite all the many obstacles and heartaches, all three of them – mother, daughter, and her husband – were smiling. To me, that speaks volumes. I can only hope, I can only trust and pray that somehow, someway my life story that inspired Joni’s name so many years ago will continue to inspire all three of them to hold fast to God’s grace
Friend, you must know, you must realize that people are watching you, too. Your story may very well be inspiring and encouraging to somebody else, without you even knowing it. And whether or not others name their children after you isn’t the point… the moral of the story is underscored so beautifully in Titus 2:7 where we’re told, “In everything set others an example by doing what is good.” So, friend, today be an example, encouraging others to hold fast to the grace of Jesus.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends