Review: A Place of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada

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Title: A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty
Author: Joni Eareckson Tada
Released: September 1, 2010
Publisher: David C. Cook
Pages/format: 224 (Hardcover)
Genre: Nonfiction, Christian Living
Source: From the publisher.

Over four decades ago, a diving accident left Joni Eareckson Tada a quadriplegic. Since that time, she has become a beloved writer and speaker to millions. But today, Joni faces a new battle: chronic, unrelenting pain. In A Place of Healing, Joni takes readers on a very personal, intimate journey back to foundational questions about healing, suffering, and hope to discover that healing sometimes comes through answers–and sometimes through questions themselves.

Quick Review: A Place of Healing is a beautifully written treasure that I emphatically recommend to anyone going through a time of physical suffering.

In-Depth Review:

A Place of Healing is a quick read consisting of ten chapters in which Joni talks about different aspects of healing and living with chronic illness or disability. She covers the theology of miraculous healing and seeks to answer questions such as “What benefit is there to my pain?” and “How can I go on like this?”. She writes about the benefit sickness can be to our character, while at the same time acknowledging how incredibly difficult it is to endure.

For me, A Place of Healing was a deeply personal book. I’m no stranger to chronic pain. For the last five years I have unceasingly suffered with intense, unrelenting widespread pain thanks to late stage Lyme Disease. Because of my own current ongoing experience with pain, I appreciated that Joni wrote this book in the throes of her own misery. She didn’t wait until it was over and the feelings of desperation that naturally accompany severe pain passed; she plunged right into it and examined the tough questions about suffering without the benefit of hindsight.

I am taking on the task that in-the-know book writers wouldn’t attempt, and setting myself to complete an assignment that military historians would never dream of undertaking. I am writing in the midst of my experience, in the violence of a firefight, in the crush of circumstances, and in the vice grip of unrelenting pain. I am recording my combat-zone observations before the smoke has cleared, before the shells have stopped falling, before the guns have gone silent, before the long grass and wildflowers have grown over the scars of war. {page 21}

Joni’s theology is rock solid and she brings a deep understanding and compassion to the topic of prolonged suffering that is truly unique. Despite the sobriety of the subject, her tone bubbles over with hope and joy. Her vulnerability and honesty about her own struggles with God and illness are refreshing and there is an unmistakable sense of urgency in her message that told me she too has to fight to keep her eyes focused on God in the midst of relentlessly distracting pain.

Jesus is the breath of life we reach for every moment of every day. Inhale His love–no matter what your current situation or circumstances–and you can’t help but exhale gratitude and gratefulness. This is something I can do even when I am bound to my bed or trying to navigate my way through the narrow corridors of oppressive pain. {page 117}

Joni is a gifted writer. Her style is simple and personal, and the words are at the same time challenging and profoundly comforting; they read like honey on a raw throat. In a way her writing resembles Max Lucado’s–lilting and borderline poetic at times. Though short, the book is organized well, making it easy to reference.

All of Joni’s books that I have read in recent years have been encouraging, faith-building, and beautifully written, and A Place of Healing is her best work yet. I emphatically recommend this book to anyone who is going through a time of physical suffering.

About Joni Eareckson Tada:

Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder and chief executive officer of Joni and Friends, an organization accelerating Christian outreach in the disability community. An acclaimed artist and advocate, Joni is also the author of nearly fifty books and a popular speaker around the world. Joni and her husband, Ken, live in Southern California.