A Life Of Contradictions

            Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman of many contradictions...

            Just ask my husband; just ask my secretary.  I was sitting at my desk just yesterday and early in the afternoon, I looked at my watch and realized it was time to take my Caltrate pill - I have osteoporosis and I'm on some medication to address it, plus these bone-building pills help reverse bone loss - I sound like a Boniva commercial.  Well, anyway, so as my secretary gets the pill and gets ready to put it in my mouth, I ask her to help me swallow it with a sip of my Diet Coca-Cola.  I had hardly swallowed it, when we both looked at each other and started laughing.  Here I am drinking carbonated soda which destroys calcium in the bones... and I'm drinking it with a pill that builds calcium in the bones.  Go... figure.  It's so contradictory, right? 

            I do the same thing when I want to cut down calories.  I go out to a restaurant and order, well, something like fried shrimp and French fries, but then I justify it with a sugar-free slice of apple pie.  Hey, c'mon, it is sugar-free, right?  No getting around it - I contradict myself over the stupidest things, like asking someone the time when I've got a watch on. 

            Sometimes we as Christians contradict ourselves when we trust God one day, then completely doubt Him the next!  And that's why although I contradict myself about diet cola, there are many, many things about me that are far from contradictory.  Isaiah 50:7 says, "I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame."  And indeed I have.  I have set my gaze on heaven as Colossians 3 tells me to do.  I have fixed my eyes on Jesus as Hebrews 12 has told me to do and I will not be put to shame.  I will not veer aside or detour my way around a problem.  I will face it head-on for I refuse to contradict myself when it comes to issues of heaven and hell.  And just what has aided me in keeping my focus?  In setting my face like flint on heaven? 

            Well, you are going to laugh at this, but it's my disability and most specifically, the pain I experience with my disability.  Nothing keeps me on the straight and narrow like my pain (notice that I call it "my" pain -I guess it is a strange companion, a weird dark friend, a bruising of a blessing).  And I know that God has placed it in my life to keep me very close to His side.  Often I will say to the Lord in prayer, "Lord Jesus, do you feel me on your shoulders?  I'm up here, I'm the wounded lamb the Father has placed on your shoulders today and I am so glad, so grateful that you are carrying me through the morning and carrying me into the afternoon and evening - because, Jesus, I have no strength to go it on my own so thank you, thank you, thank you for carrying this wounded lamb up here on your shoulders." 

            Maybe that describes you today; perhaps you deal with pain.  Well, if you do, please drop by my radio webpage today because I have a special offer called Not by Sight, it's a guide to ministering to believers living with pain.  It's a 78-page booklet and it's yours free by simply contacting me at joniandfriendsradio.org or you can call 888-522-5664.  I want you to join me in pushing aside the contradictions, trusting God one minute and then disobeying Him the next.  This book called Not by Sight, this guide for Christians living with pain, I know will be such a blessing to you because no one should be alone when pain hits... you should have a prescription, and you should have something that you can swallow.  Well swallow the good news of Jesus Christ.  You are not alone when He is your prescription for strong bones and a strong heart.

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