Sermon Note: Hope Often Takes a Different Shape

Recently, I read the latest book by Francis Chan, Forgotten God. It is a practical and engaging theology of the Holy Spirit. Brief portraits of those manifesting the fullness of the Spirit’s work appear throughout the book. Among those featured is Joni Eareckson Tada.

For those that don’t know, Joni Eareckson Tada became a quadriplegic in a diving accident in 1967, leaving her in a wheelchair to this day. However, despite this potentially crushing trial, Tada now thrives as an internationally known artist (she uses brushes controlled entirely by her mouth to paint). She's written several books. She's a staunch-yet-gracious advocate for the disabled. Her daily five-minute radio program reaches a million listeners per week, while her organization – Wheels for the World – provides tens of thousands of refurbished wheelchairs to needy disabled persons in developing nations. Her testimony of Christ’s hope in the darkest of circumstances is one of the most compelling you will ever hear.

Did Joni Eareckson Tada envision this calling for her life? Probably not. Her hope in Christ took a radically different shape than anyone expected. However, uniquely sharing in our Lord’s sufferings for the sake of his kingdom, has Tada come to also uniquely share in his glory? Undoubtedly. She enjoys an obvious communion with God through radical dependence and submissiveness to his mysterious will for her life.

I am willing to bet that Joseph never thought that his childhood dreams of coming glory implied brotherly betrayal, slavery, a scorned woman’s sabotage, imprisonment, and more suffering en route to the second chair of global leadership. 

God was true to Joseph, but the form of that fidelity was surprising. Glory would come, but only through suffering, and in a shape quite unexpected.

Likewise, God will take your life in many unexpected directions, and fulfill his promise of abundant life in unexpected ways. By waiting patiently in submission to his will, we – like Joni and Joseph – will eventually see how God brings everlasting and unexpected good through temporary suffering.

Keep moving, soldier. You're moving into the fullness of God's glory.