A Place of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada

Author:Joni Eareckson Tada
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: 2011-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

Three Turns of the Ramp

Five different friends, on five different mornings, drive me from home to work. It means four stoplights, a sharp turn onto the 101, exit, then another three lights, and a right-hand turn onto Agoura Road. There’s one more light before you turn onto Ladyface Court, which winds up the hill to the International Disability Center—but I don’t count that one, because there’s enough room to brake long and slow up to the light.

I know every bend, every intersection of the route. I know it because each stop and turn causes a sharp jag in my back. It’s why on the freeway I always ask the girls, “Could we please get out of the slow lane? The trucks have sure made it bumpy.”

I may not love the drive to work, but I do love arriving.

Our receptionist recently called it “a little bit of heaven.” And so it is. The center stands tall and large, reminding me of the vision that brings me here every day: to communicate the gospel and to equip Christ-honoring churches worldwide to evangelize and disciple people affected by disability.

Just this morning as Sandy was driving me up Ladyface, I said with a sigh and a smile, “How many people get to do something each day that literally changes lives for eternity?!”

“We do,” she said with a smile into the rearview mirror.

I hit the handicap access plate by the center’s front doors, which slowly swing open, and in I wheel—heading not for the elevator, but the ramp.

I always take the ramp.

Centered in the middle of the lobby, it’s a slow, winding climb around the chapel to my second-floor office. And the chapel is, of course, the first place I want to visit. Yes, my secretary’s waiting. Yes, there are piles on my desk demanding attention. Yes, I have an interview at 10:30 a.m. But I can’t clear my head of those jags in my back until I spend a moment with God. It’s a moment that always includes a word of thanks that I’m here … and a prayer for healing from the pain.

I proceed to the second floor, where on each of the three landings, a Bible verse has been inscribed in large flowing script on walls of soft lavender.

Three turns in the ramp. Three landings. Three verses.

The first one reminds me of my purpose—why I get out of bed, go through an elaborate morning routine to get ready for the day, and endure fresh visitations of pain on my commute to the center. It’s why we’re all here at Joni and Friends—to go out, find the disabled, and bring them in.

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