Weekly Magazine | Don't Waste the Pain
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Dear Friends,
Suffering is an unavoidable part of life, but it doesn’t have to be wasted. In this week’s mini-magazine, we explore how God meets us in our pain and works through our weaknesses to display His strength. Whether you’re facing physical challenges, emotional wounds, or spiritual struggles, there is hope and purpose to be found. You are not alone, and your story isn’t over—God is right there with you, shaping something beautiful out of the ashes. May you find comfort and strength in the One who sees you in your suffering and promises to bring good out of every trial.
Encouraging you in God’s truth,
Don’t Waste the Pain
Joni Eareckson Tada shares how God uses even the hardest seasons of life for His glory and your growth.
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Seeing the Beautiful
Learn to shift your perspective from life's thorns to the roses, finding hope and beauty in every situation.
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He’s Making Me Strong
Read one woman’s journey through chronic illness and the surprising strength she’s found in surrender.
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The Teacup Story
See how suffering can transform us into something more beautiful in God's hands
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Music for Your Soul
Even If; Mercy Me
Listen
Don’t Waste the Pain
By: Suzan Braun
When Joni Eareckson Tada enters a room, you hardly notice the wheelchair she’s been in for over half her life. It’s her radiant smile and joyful countenance that lights up the room and immediately draws you in.
A diving accident in 1967 left Joni, then a teenager, a quadriplegic. “Whisked off to the hospital, I thought my life was over. Wanting to die, I cried out, “God, if I can’t die, please show me how to live, because I don’t like paralysis; this is not what I bargained for in life!’”
Now Joni has lived in her wheelchair for 58 years. Along the way, she has also faced two bouts of cancer and the onset of unrelenting chronic pain.
“Every morning I feel overwhelmed by pain and the daily-ness of my paralysis,” she says. “I often have not slept the night before and I am cranky. In these moments, I run to Jesus with my empty-handed spiritual poverty and cry out, ‘Oh Jesus, come to my aid. I cannot do this day. I cannot do paralysis. But I can do all things through You as You strengthen me.’ And before my morning routine is completed, I have hard-fought-for joy sent straight from heaven—a solid and settled joy that sees me through the morning and into the evening.”
Joni’s gift to us is simply this: She shows us how to embrace suffering and not waste the pain. Her costly discipleship during ongoing hardship can’t be achieved by human efforts, only by divine intervention through surrender to her Savior. After spending just a few minutes with Joni, we rest assured that God’s promises for us are in process, even in the dire circumstances of life when we can’t yet see any evidence of good. Her example of finding joy during the darkest times calls us to walk the path of long obedience with her.
And Joni reminds us here, “What an encouragement to realize that God has reserved you and me for a special task in His great work.”
JBU: How can you be so joyful after years of suffering?
Joni: I haven’t always experienced joy and victory in my suffering! Many times, it’s been a fight to trust God—but as hard as it is, it’s always a good fight. God has many purposes in allowing pain, but one is that pain puts God’s promises to the test. Pain is the great intimidator saying, “Do you believe God’s promises?” When my confidence in God’s promises is tested, I have the privilege of proving the trustworthiness of God.
For instance, when I am in great pain and close to collapsing under the pressure, I run to 2 Cor. 4:8, “We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed.” I say to my pain, “I’m promised that I will not be crushed. And although everything in me screams otherwise, I will stake my life on what God has promised. Pain, by His grace will not crush me. I will persevere.” That verse is but one of God’s thousand promises; if we would remember it alone, we would be well on our way to victory.
But if we do collapse under the weight of suffering or fall into a “woe is me” attitude, even that can have purpose—for suffering is like a textbook that teaches us who we really are and what we really believe. And if it’s not pretty? Then you have more reason to cast yourself on the mercy of your Savior, Who can transform the weakest saint into a soldier who will valiantly fight to stay contented in God and His promises.
JBU: How has your trust in God deepened over the years?
Joni: Long ago, I accepted the fact that God has hardwired life to be extremely difficult. That view has helped me when it comes to trusting God, because He says in 1 Thess. 3:3 that “no one should be unsettled by these trials, for you know quite well that we are destined for them.” So, I need not be afraid when tough trials come. I’ve learned to choose to believe God when He tells me to embrace trials, “because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (Jas. 1:3-4). I want my life to be complete. I don’t want it to be lacking anything. The key to getting there? Face your trials with courage, trusting in your wise and good God Who does everything for your ultimate happiness. And honestly, really, I am so happy. I would rather be in this wheelchair knowing God as I do, then to be on my feet without Him.
JBU: Why do classic hymns and music play such a vital role in your life?
Joni: Timeless hymns contain rich doctrines of the Christian faith, and so I have made it my goal to memorize as many hymns as possible. I recite the stanzas back to the Lord at night in bed when I am in pain; the words of these hymns become a prayer. For instance, the other night, I was praying, “Jesus, I am resting, resting… in the joy of what Thou art… I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart,” and so on. The words of hymns provide such rich vocabulary for worship and for intercession. For instance, “When I survey the wondrous Cross, on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
Stanzas of hymns are so helpful when I am in so much pain that I cannot even put two sentences together in a prayer because my mind is so foggy. But I can fall back on words of hymns that I know by heart. Hymns provide such a comfort to me in communicating to the Lord Jesus my devotion, my great need for Him and His help, or for the confessing of my sin, or pleading on behalf of another. Classic hymns are the best!
Continued below…
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