“Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up heart and soul.”
I don’t know who penned the quote but it’s one I jotted down years ago. It came to mind when reading You Can Trust God to Write your Story by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and Robert Wolgemuth. I remembered the quote as I began to read the foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada,
During a recent trip to Maryland, I drove beyond our family farm to visit the campus of Western Maryland College. I wanted to meander the commons and courtyards of this old Methodist College I originally planned to attend. Had much changed since 1967 when I would’ve been a freshman? As I wheeled past the brick buildings, I kept thinking, how different my life would’ve been had I graduated from here . . . All I know is that you, Jesus, had a much better design for my life.
And for the past 40 years, Jesus’ design for Joni has included leading a Christian ministry reaching hundreds of thousands of disabled people and their families across the US and around the world for Christ. The ministry holds retreats for special-needs families across the globe and delivers thousands of wheelchairs to needy kids with disabilities overseas.
Today, Joni is heard on over 1,200 radio stations nationwide sharing God’s hope to hurting people on her daily “Joni and Friends” and “Diamonds in the Dust” programs. Listeners often hear Joni share about first-hand experiences of God’s strength in her life,
My best life-chapters were not the easy, breezy days of my being on my feet; they were the deep ones when I was suffering and groping for the arms of my Savior.
I look forward to reading the book and learning more about how God wrote the future chapters of Nancy and Robert’s lives . . . the unveiling plans different from theirs but part of God’s sovereign plans. For now though, I’m taking a few extra minutes to reflect on the forward and to let “the book begin to swallow up my heart and soul” with glimpses of God sovereignty and resting, as Joni reminds listeners, in Him for “it’s wise to leave our storyline to the best Storyteller of all.”
