This is a book about suffering, about disability, about marriage. Most importantly it is a book about Jesus Christ and how faith in Him can transform suffering into a means of grace.

I had known about Joni Eareckson Tada, the diving accident which left her paralysed, and her ministry to people with disability around the world. But this book so powerfully brought her person into focus for me. I got to see into her life and the faith which has driven her these past decades.

In the beginning, God created Adam and then fashions Eve to be his helper. For Joni, it seemed to be the other way round. He first finds Joni and calls her to a global ministry. Then he selects Ken Takeshi Tada to support and help her on that massive task.

Together, they learn much about Christ their Redeemer, and they are brought into a living experience of the Holy Spirit, as they move from one phase of life to another. Asides dealing with Joni’s quadriplegia, they get to battle physical pain, depression, mastectomy, cancer, chemotherapy, pneumonia, etc. Beyond these, they also encounter fear, pride, discouragement, unbelief, and many other unseen foes.

Through all their encounters, they learn the reality of Christ’s promise: ‘I am with you till the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).’ They are constantly reassured of the presence of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised (John 14:16). Through their challenges faced together, they learn not only that God is with the believer through every trial, but that he works through those trials to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

For a married couple, this takes a special shape: God can use the hardships we go through to bind us not only to one another but to Jesus. As we learn to walk by faith in him (and not by sight), as we learn to focus more on the wellbeing of our partner (and less on ourselves), and as we learn to see that our spouse is not the enemy (Satan is!), God sanctifies us and builds us up.

As Jon and Ken remind us, Satan especially hates marriage:

‘He hates marriage, and he has hated it since the very first union in a fragrant, misty garden called Eden. This fierce adversary will do everything in his power to suffocate married love.’ (p.179)

But we must resist him, by standing firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:7-9)

‘If the man and woman twine their lives around each other in marriage, that is good, and they’ll be stronger for it. But if both of them twine themselves around the living God, that’s best of all. It’s a union that will hold through anything that life – or even hell – might throw at them.’ (p. 178)

The book is a call to lay ourselves out for the Lord and for those whom he has called us to serve. Whether it is faithfully loving our spouse within the context of marriage or serving those whom he has called us to lead at work. Perhaps instead of calling us to a worldwide ministry like Joni and Ken, he has chosen that we minister to little children in our church or drug addicts in our community. Whatever the role, we can expect difficulties but we know we can depend on his grace.

May God teach each one of us what he has unfolded to them. May God give us grace to rejoice in all our trials. And may we find that he who begins a good work in us will always bring it to completion through Jesus Christ.