*****= An all-time favorite
**** = Outstanding
***
= Above average
**
= Enjoyable
*
= Good,
with reservations
****The God I Love
A Lifetime of Walking With Jesus
by Joni Eareckson Tada
Reviewed November 6, 2003.
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2003. 357 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (B TAD). A Sonderbooks’ Stand-out of 2003:
#4, Biographical Nonfiction
A couple of years ago, a friend and I heard about a horrible accident
that had killed many people, including a young teenage boy and his father.
My friend said that things like that kept her from believing in God.
I tried to express my firm belief that God can bring great good out
of evil, even in ways we’ll never see, even though at times it’s so hard
to understand.
This message resonates so much more deeply when it comes from the
pen of Joni Eareckson Tada.
When she was seventeen years old, Joni dived into water that was
too shallow, broke her neck, and became paralyzed from the neck down.
Joni’s already told her autobiography in the book Joni, published
in 1976. (I read that book sometime in high school. It’s
a powerful story.) This book tells more about her childhood and
the last three decades and the way God has worked in her life all these
years.
The book doesn’t give pat answers. Joni talks frankly about
her struggles, how she has to ask for God’s help each morning just to face
another day in a wheelchair. At the same time, she shows us how God
brought her to a place where she honestly rejoices in her wheelchair and
all it has brought into her life.
Joni’s family was one that cherished the old hymns, and the text
is peppered with hymns and Scripture verses. I found myself singing
when I put the book down. This is a beautiful book and will help you
believe in the great goodness of God even when confronted by the great evil
in the world.
Book Reviews
by Sondra Eklund