Joni Eareckson Tada Testimony: From LIFE-ALTERING Hardship to God’s Strength | Kirk Cameron on TBN

Joni Eareckson Tada joins Kirk Cameron to share her inspirational journey through life-altering challenges to finding overwhelming joy in Christ. She highlights how hardships allow us the opportunity to strengthen our faith and shares how her ministry is helping change the lives of others. Don’t miss this inspiring interview!

Join Kirk Cameron to discuss pressing issues Christians are facing with compassionate, well-informed guests. Together we will find actionable takeaways that we can use today, this week, and this month to bring more of Heaven to Earth..

I think, Kirk, that the devil thinks that disability is his last frontier.
This is this is his he’s gonna make stand against the goodness of god.
He’s gonna use disability as ammunition against the goodness of god, spiteful saying, look, a cop and god call himself good if he allows this child to be born with that birth defect.
Uh, you can’t call yourself good god. So we wanna change.
Johnny, so great to be with you. Thanks for coming on takeaways.
Oh, absolutely, Kirk. And thanks for having me on, sir.
You’re one of my favorite people in the world, and I’m so grateful for the story that God has written and demonstrated his faithfulness in your life and and to see how you’re serving him is such an example to the rest of us.
Uh, Johnny, talk to those who who aren’t familiar with your story about, uh, what life was like before your accident.
Uh, what what did you like to do? And what was your relationship with god like?
Oh, Kirk. We would have gone camping, hunting, swimming, playing tennis, horseback riding, you name it.
I was quite the athlete. And as such, I guess I was the least likely candidate to, uh, become a quadriplegic, but as far as my relationship with the lord goes, Jesus was kind of tucked away in my back hip pocket, and I pulled him out on uh, Sundays holidays and Easter and Christmas.
But, um, when I was a senior in high school, I was frustrated with, uh, with my shallow life in Christ.
And to be honest, Kirk, I had a boyfriend back then, and we were doing some stuff on Friday nights.
That was pretty embarrassing. Um, it elated me with guilt Sunday mornings, I confess my sins. Oh god.
I’ll never do that again, but then the following Friday night in the backseat of my boyfriend’s car there, we’d be uh, fool it around again.
And, oh, I just hated the sin. I hated the guilt.
And I said, finally, Jesus, I have entrapped myself in sin. I’ve become slave to it.
W would you do something in my life to jerk it right side up?
Because I don’t wanna be a hypocrite, and I don’t wanna go off to college making a, a sham of your good name.
And, Kirk, I prayed a prayer in April of 1967, saying, God, do anything. Anything.
I just wanna honor you from here on out, and you need to help me get free of sin.
And then I graduated a couple of months later 2 weeks after that, went for a swim in the Chesapeake Bay with my sister, dove into shallow water.
My head hit a sandy bottom and snapped my head back and crunched my vertebrae, snapped my spinal cord, and I was lying face down on the water paralyzed.
And the next thing I knew Um, my sister was pulling me up out of the water.
I was gasping sputtering near drowning.
And doctors told me You’ve broken your neck, you’re you’re never gonna walk again, or, or have use of your hands.
My my hands don’t work. I I wear arm splints to support them, but That was 55 years ago.
And I have to confess Kirk that at first, I was quite angry at God that he took my prayer so seriously.
Like, hello. I mean, aren’t you being a little severe?
Um, I asked for a closer walk with you, and this is your answer.
I, I, I thought God was being awfully unfair.
And, uh, but over time, Christians were praying, Christians were loving me, and, slowly, but surely I came up out of depression.
And I began to ask people, why should I trust god if you allowed this to happen?
It was a good question to start me off on this journey.
Wow. I have known you for years now in my children have gotten to know you a little bit interning at your disability ministry, Johnny and Friends.
Um, and you’re one of the most inspirational that I know, and I’ve heard you say things like god permits things that he hates in order to accomplish what he loves.
I’ve heard you say things that I would rather be in this wheelchair knowing Jesus than to be on my feet without him.
Uh, these are things that are so encouraging and inspiring to us, but they’re almost confusing.
Because we don’t understand how you could say those things. And what does make sense is what you just mentioned.
Um, why would god let something like this happen?
Um, Johnny, did you ever feel just downright angry and betrayed by god?
I felt angry. I felt almost betrayed, but to be quite honest, Kirk, I was I was fearful of turning my back on him.
Because I had nowhere else to go. I was paralyzed. I was sitting in the corner feeling sorry for myself.
I needed hope And I knew that if I was to find hope it would have to be in god and god alone.
And I’ll never forget, uh, real quickly, I I asked a friend of mine, how can any of this be god’s will?
Come on. I mean, I thought god’s will was only for good stuff.
And he said, now wait a minute, Johnny.
Look at what God allowed in the life of his own son Jesus.
He allowed murder and justice, torture. I mean, real torture. And treason.
How can any of that be good in our eyes or even his? But, again, you said it.
God permissible he hates to accomplish something that he loves.
And, yes, he hated the torture, the murder, the, the trees, and the injustice that led up to the crucifixion.
But The world’s worst murder became the world’s only salvation.
And my friend said, Johnny, the same is true in your life or any of our lives.
God doesn’t like spinal credential. He hates suffering. Uh, my goodness.
When, when he walked on earth, he spent most of his time trying to relieve it.
So he despises the pain and the anguish, but he will allow it to produce something good in your life.
And I said, well, what could could that possibly be? And he said, How about Christ in you?
I mean, the god of the universe dwelling in you, changing you, turning you from a good, strong, stubborn, hypocritical, self centered teenager.
Into a young woman who by his grace might appreciate something of perseverance, patience, endurance, self control, bravery, courage.
And over time, I began to value those virtues in my life.
And I think that’s when I began to find my smile.
And you do have one of the most joyful smiles of anyone that I know And John Johnny, you were enrolled in the most difficult of schools to learn these lessons of patients of trusting in God, of walking by faith, and not by sight.
And and I’ve read your book. I know your story better than some.
And how do you go from that place to finding and discovering the peace and the joy that animates your smile.
Well, Kirk, I’m gonna tell you a secret that I hope, um, I hope all of our viewers will employ tomorrow morning when they wake up.
I don’t like being paralyzed. Quadraplegia is hard. I deal with chronic pain.
That’s even harder. It makes my quadriplegia feel like a walk in the park.
And, and, and so when I wake up in the morning and my Friends are still in the kitchen brewing, uh, coffee.
And I know they’re gonna come into my bedroom in a minute, um, and greet me and give me a bed bath, do my toileting root gains, stretch my legs, get me dressed, set me up in a wheelchair, brush my teeth, blow my nose.
And I’m lying there thinking, God, I don’t have strength for this.
I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.
And I I cannot do quadriplegia, but I can do all things through you as you strengthen me.
And, Kirk, by 7:35 in the morning, I’ve I’ve got joy that’s already been hard fought for, but it’s real.
It’s profound, it’s deep, and it’s lasting.
And and I think sometimes all of us got us to push us up against the wall.
Where where we’ve got nowhere else to go, but turn around, face that wall and start walking through it.
Do the impossible. Just do the possible and say, I can’t do this, but I can. I can do all things to you, Jesus, as you strengthen me.
And what do you know? God specializes in doing impossible things, and he will give you that ability to persevere, to endure, to be patient, to move forward, to be courageous, to be brave, Uh, and there’s nothing better than than having those virtues, uh, well up within your heart every morning and get your face on the day.
And and I know that you have personal regular disciplines of reading god’s word and and allowing your mind to be saturated with the promises of god and you don’t just read them.
You sing them. Every time I I come into Johnny and Friends ministry building, I I I hear this angelic voice somewhere in the halls or in the chapel, and it’s Johnny singing another hymn a mighty fortress is large.
That’s right. Or or and and and the doxology and These are the things that Yeah.
I know have reminded you of the of the faithfulness and promises of god, and you’ve appropriated them in ways that many people have never had to, but you make it real for us too.
Yeah. Well, Psalm 119 verse 50 says, this is my comfort and suffering. Okay. Like, what? What is it?
What is your comfort and suffering? What your promises renew my life? And so Kirk, you’re absolutely right.
I memorize Bible promises left, right, and center, and I sing them. I I sing my way through suffering.
I sing because I have to sing. I mean, my my circumstances are so awful.
There’s no better word for it. They’re just, uh, just, just awful.
I mean, I could cry talking about it. They are so hard and harsh.
I’ve gotta anchor myself, like it says in Hebrews. We gotta we gotta make Christ our anchor firm and secure.
I’ve, I’ve hooked the corner of that anchor over the mercy seat, and I am not letting go Jesus.
Don’t let me go. I’m thinking of Psalm 63.
Um, my spirit clings to you, but it is your right hand that upholds me.
I mean, I cling to him, and it’s a little weak.
Half hearted grip, but, oh, I’ve got the right flound arm of god’s strong salvation gripping me.
He’s not gonna let go as long as I continue to yield myself to him.
And that’s what I do every morning.
Don’t be thinking, and I hope none of your viewers think this is easy. Man is not easy.
It’s so darn hard. But I’m like Peter, where else do I turn?
Lord, you have the words of life. So I’m gonna eat those words of life.
I’m gonna memorize those words of life, those Bible promises, and make them my own.
And I would encourage our viewers to do the same. If they’re struggling.
Johnny, I want everyone to know about this amazing organization that you started called Johnny and Friends, Uh, would you share a little bit about what it is and why you started the Johnny and Friends Disability Ministry?
Kirk, what, 4, 5, 6 years after my diving accident?
And I’d come up at a depression, and my church was so supportive, and I was being blessed so much.
I was growing. I was changing. I was finding joy in my hardships. Uh, sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
I I I was experiencing so many benefits from the lord.
It’s like, I I can’t keep these for myself. I just, I just can’t keep this to myself.
I gotta pass the good news on to other people with disabilities.
I, I’ve found so much hope so much joy. Oh my goodness.
There’s so many other people in the country and around the world who are suffering far more than I am.
And I I wanna give them the same good news that that transformed my life.
And and so that’s pretty much why I started Johnny and Friends. I’m just one lady.
I can’t do it by myself.
So I got a lot of friends, uh, here in the states and around the world who carry out our programs to give the good news of Jesus to to millions of people with disabilities who, as I said, are in, uh, circumstances far more challenging than mine ever will be.
So it it it all got started because I wanted to pass on the blessing.
And and let me tell you. It is the real deal, everyone.
Uh, the Johnny and Friends, International Disability Center is right down the road from where my family lives and my children have interned there at Johnny and Friends.
And what a blessing that is Uh, they have learned so much from you personally and from all the staff there and the volunteers.
And you’re helping people with wheelchairs and delivering the gospel.
And Johnny is writing books and her paintings are inspiring people all over the world.
Uh, Johnny, one of the questions that that that I think about is what is living with a disability like in a developing nation in a 3rd world country in places where you don’t have the Mayo Clinic.
You don’t have Cedar Sinai Hospital or Johns Hopkins?
Well, I remember in 1989, I was in the Philippines, and it was during the monsoon season.
I was there speaking at a pastor conference.
And I was waiting outside the, uh, stadium with an umbrella over me.
And I looked across the street, and there was a A woman who dragged herself through the muddy road.
She was dragging her paralyzed legs behind her, and she came up to the back door of a restaurant.
And tucked her legs up underneath of her and sat there quietly by the door until someone opened and handed her a a bag of scraps.
And I asked my pastor friend.
I asked about her, and and he said, well, I know that woman. She’s a respectable woman, a good woman.
And things should not be like this in our nation.
They should not be like this in anywhere else in the world.
You know, dragging your legs behind you to a dirty muddy street, um, trying to avoid traffic, uh, begging for food.
I and I saw that Kirk And on my way home on the airplane, I said lord Jesus.
If you could please use my life to make a difference in that woman’s life.
I’d give anything. I’ll do anything.
It was my first experience with someone who was that disabled and who was that impoverished And, uh, so right away, I came home, and I said, team, we’ve gotta we’ve gotta make a difference in the lives of people like I saw in the Philippines.
Because there are millions of them just like that around the world.
And, of course, having traveled to 60 countries, I’ve seen many sites like that replicated time and time again where people with disabilities, um, live like homeless people.
They live under uh, bridges, uh, alongside rivers. They they do the best they can.
They’re relegated to back bedrooms often in Southeast Asia. Their parents are ashamed of them.
There’s much social stigma connected to disability.
So when when we take wheelchairs around the world and we’ve delivered hundreds 1000 of wheelchairs and bibles.
It’s not only about giving a wheelchair. It’s about changing the culture of disability.
And helping people see that a disability is not a curse from the from the local shaman, or it’s not a curse from the which doctor or the animus spirits, but we’re all image bearers of our great creator god.
In one way or another, we reflect. We’re image bearers of of the lord Jesus.
And and and that’s what we wanna do through every wheelchair that we deliver, through every retreat that we have for families struggling with disability, either here in the United States or around the world in developing nations.
We wanna change people’s perspective. On disability that, uh, because I I think, Kirk, that the devil thinks that disability is his last frontier.
This is this is his He’s gonna make a stand against the goodness of god, and he’s gonna use disability as ammunition against the goodness of god.
Spitefully saying, look at how can god call himself good if he allows this child to be born with that birth defect.
Uh, you
can’t call yourself good god. So that’s what we wanna change. That perspective.
And that’s the, the point behind all the program services that we have to not only give physical support, but spiritual hope in in the Bible and in the good news of Jesus.
Amazing. Wonderful. Johnny, can you share with uh, uh, maybe one story that you might remember of how a wheelchair changes somebody’s life.
Maybe you can think of somebody in the Philippines or Africa or in in Asia or even here in the United States.
What what does it mean to someone to finally be able to be mobile?
Well, I remember when I was in Africa, um, we were doing a wheelchair distribution.
And, uh, a family came in carrying something in a blanket.
I didn’t know what it was, but um, they had all four corners of the blanket, and they carried this young teenager in.
He was severely disabled. His limbs were toward it and twisted.
He had never had any physical therapy, so he was quite stiff.
And, And there he spent all his days lying in that burlap sack being carried from place to place in a blanket.
And our wheels for the world team worked 7 hours to construct for him, a wheelchair that would be adequate that would recline that had chest supports and a shoulder harness that had side supports, that had elevating, uh, leg lifts.
I mean, it it was a zippity doo dog, perfect wheelchair for this young boy.
And I’ll never forget when they sat him in it, he was able to reach the wheel rim, uh, the wheels wheelchair rims with his hands.
And for the first time in his life, he was able to move himself just inches, and he broke out in laughter, He was so excited.
And then he would realize he could do. We couldn’t stop him.
He was pushing that field share as far as he could all over the distribution sites as laughing, and his mother and father were weeping tears of gratitude, but the best part is, uh, we gathered that family together, and a local pastor was able to share in their language, uh, the gospel of Jesus Christ They open their hearts to the lord for the very first time.
Um, the pastor said something to us afterward. He said, you know, this is a family.
My church would not normally care about.
But I see you people and the love you have for them, and I know now God has love for them.
And I’m going to make them a part of our church.
Oh, that just made me just I was so excited because not only did this family come to Christ, but that whole congregation was transformed as they began to see that god’s power always shows up in weakness.
He delights in in showcasing his love to the vulnerable, the poor, the unlikely, the unlovely.
Um, these are the ones that he wants gathered into our congregations because then his power can explode through them.
And I, I saw it that day in Africa. That was quite something there in Ethiopia.
Johnny, you mentioned earlier that it’s important that when we meet someone with a disability that we don’t define them by their disability, where should we find our value?
What what determines our true worth, whether we’re able or disabled, whether we’re experiencing discomfort or comfort Um, how do we stay focused on god and determine our value?
Well, our value comes from the fact that we bear the image of god, for sure.
And our our value comes from knowing that the lord Jesus Christ died the most excruciatingly painful, anguished, horrific death to secure for us a home in heaven.
I mean, when I think of myself, I do not think of myself primarily as a quadriplegic or even a pain sufferer or even, uh, in my seventies.
No. I think of myself as a blood bought believer in in the lord Jesus. Mhmm.
And and he is the one who gives me value.
He is the one who has a plan for my life, a plan for your life, a plan for all of for the lives of all of those who are watching us right now.
A beautiful plan. And sometimes it could be as humble as being a witness to our husband or our children, a witness to our neighbors, um, just being a witness to the people at our church, I mean, where we could be, uh, my bedridden friends, they are prayer warriors they see their value in the kingdom as being intercessors, uh, for god’s great kingdom all across the globe.
So we all have a purpose, and god promises us in the Psalms.
He will fulfill his purposes in our life. He will not abandon the work of his hands.
So every day, I pray from Philippians, lord god, um, carried to completion, that which you have begun in me until the very last breath I know I’m living for a purpose.
So I just wanna partner with you to find out what that is today. Great way to live.
Johnny, thank you for that answer.
I’m so glad that that you and Ken are friends of me and Chelsea and our family.
You are a gift to us and to so many people. Thanks for joining me on takeaways today.
Oh, Kirk, always good to be with you, sir. I love you so much.