Joni Eareckson Tada - A Step Further: growing closer to God through hurt and hardship

WINNER OF THE GOLD MEDALLION AWARD WINNER OF THE ANGEL AWARD

This book is pure spring sunshine, radiant and bright.... She fairly bubbles with joy and life. Her sharing of herself makes this a precious book. Dont miss it.

J. I. Packer

A Step Further really ministered to my heart and taught me new things about suffering. I am heartily recommending it to others. No wonder God chose hera precious vesselto help thousands of other sufferers.

Margaret Johnson

Here are profound spiritual truths, learned in the writers personal fiery furnace and transmuted by the Holy Spirit into triumphant Christian living... biblical, practical, real.... Not only should all sufferers read this book, but all Christians everywhere. It is the definitive book on Christian suffering.

Margaret Clarkson

Not the least bit sentimental, this sequel to Joni is Jonis wrestling with God from her wheelchair. She engages God with a profound, simply stated theology of suffering.

Dale Sanders

An excellent book that is extremely helpful in ministering to those who are going through a period of pain or suffering in their lives. Like her first book, Joni, she shares in a deeper way some of the questions that people ask and struggle with.

Rev. Kenneth Behnken

Warm, compassionate, and full of hope and faith, even as it squarely faces issues at which other authors flinch. This book is highly recommended for those personally affected by suffering, and for those who minister to them.

New Horizons

This book speaks to anyone who is afflicted, whether in mind, body, or heart.

Liguorian

Extremely moving and inspiring.

Rehabilitation Gazette

This book stands heartily recommended, high on the Christians library list.

Calvinist Contact

[An] intensely personal story, telling honestly how God has used circumstances, individuals, and events to reveal more of Himself to Joni and to mold more of Himself into her.

A New Heart

She gives the reader a deep appreciation for God and a delightful awareness of heaven.

Christian Schools International

ZONDERVAN

A Step Further

Copyright 1978, 1990, 2001 by Joni Eareckson Tada

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Epub Edition June 2019 9780310315452

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tada, Joni Eareckson.

A step further / Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes. Updated and rev.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0310239710

1. Tada, Joni EarecksonHealth. 2. Tada, Joni EarecksonReligious life. 3. QuadriplegicsUnited StatesBiography. I. Estes, Steve. II. Title.

RC406.Q33T33 1990

362.43092dc20 9036321

CIP

The poem by Marion Donaldson on is used by permission of the author.

Unless otherwise noted, Old Testament references are from the New American Standard Bible and the New Testament references are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Interior design: Nancy Wilson

Printed in the United States of America

11 12 13 14 15 /EPAC/ 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

To Verna

(still laying down her life

for God and those around her)

We love and respect you

THANKS TO

Jayfor being part of the team that put this book together.

Vernafastest fingers in the east (on a typewriter).

Judy Markhamour editor extraordinaire, the unsung hero of many books, including this one.

Elisabeth Elliot and Margaret Clarksonfor what they teach through example.

Dr. Richard Gaffin and Dr. George Schelzelfor their suggestions and encouragement.

The congregation of Steves churchfor loaning him out.

Special thanks for all those friends who helped pray this book into being.

Contents

1. PART ONE:
   PUTTING TOGETHER THE PUZZLE OF SUFFERING
2. PART TWO:
   WHILE WERE WORKING ON THE PUZZLE
3. PART THREE:
   HEALING: A PIECE OF THE PUZZLE?
4. PART FOUR:
   WHEN THE PIECES DONT SEEM TO FIT
5. PART FIVE:
   WHEN IT ALL FITS TOGETHER

He sat in a straight-backed chair in a dull gray room. Although only fifty years old, Henryk looked an easy seventy. He peered into my eyes.

Ive known you for many years, but Ive never met you till today, he said in broken English. Youve been a great help to many of us here. Weve passed your story around to everyone in the group. Henryk wiped his hand over the tattered, worn cover of a book I halfway recognized. Krok Dalej, the title read. A Step Further... I had never seen it in Polish.

We so appreciate your visiting our country. We have, perhaps, had a few tests of faith over the years.

What do I, a paralyzed person, share with a Polish clergyman who has spent the past thirty years under an oppressive regime? What do you have in common with him? What about a ninety-year-old man spending long, meaningless days in a Florida nursing home? What do you have in common with dry-breasted mothers carrying starving infants in Ethiopia? Or with a smartly-dressed wife in Southern California driving a BMW while biting her manicured nails over her ruined marriage?

The one thing that binds the entire human family together is suffering, and the questions raised by it. Thats why I felt compelled to write my first book, Joni, in 1976. It catalogs my spiritual journey to accept my sufferingmy paralysisand the life God had planned for me in a wheelchair.

But Joni was only the beginning. My friend and spiritual mentor Steve Estes and I wrote A Step Further in 1978 to help answer the myriad of follow-up questions about suffering being raised in hundreds of letters. We had no idea that God would spread the ministry of A Step Further to not only thousands of individuals, hospitals, and rehab centers in America, but to scores of countries overseas. In fact, Steve and I were stunned when Zondervan Publishing House informed us that more than 2,500,000 copies of our book were in print in nearly thirty languages.

That drove us to our knees. In Steves case, literally, and in my case, figuratively! How good of God to use our combined giftsSteves theological background and my years in a wheelchairto inspire and encourage so many others who knew all forms of suffering.

And the ministry of A Step Further continues. When Zondervan asked Steve and me to revise what they called a classic, we were thrilled yet hesitant. On one hand, we were anxious to roll up our sleeves, update the writing style, change the illustrations, expand the theological insights, and generally overhaul the entire book. On the other hand, we had seen God use