Nick Vujicic is only 31 and has already
preached live to over three million people. He has reached about six hundred
million through the internet[1]. In
2012 Billy Graham invited the Australian evangelist to his home for
prayer and counselling: an Elijah commissioning an Elisha.
He could well become the greatest
evangelist of his generation. Read on to find out more about this extraordinary
man.
No arms, no legs, ‘no limits’
It’s not all in the picture. Yes Nick
Vujicic has no arms or legs, just a very small left foot he calls his ‘little chicken
drum-stick’ and an even smaller right foot. But his life is not about having no
arms and legs. He has decided it is about having ‘no limits’.
He has learnt how to look after himself
(how to dress, shave, clean his teeth, use a mobile, a computer). And he has
learned how to enjoy his life. He swims, scuba dives, surfs, plays football and
golf. Falling in love, marrying and having kids was always a part of life’s
richness for Nick and last year (February 2012) he married Kanae Miyahara[2].
At the wedding he danced with his bride (sitting in his wheel chair). A few months
ago (February 2013) their first child was born, Kiyoshi James. Nick wants to
have at least three more children.
At work too there have been no limits. Nick
has a double major in financial planning and accountancy from Griffith
University, Queensland Australia, is the director of two organisations; has made
a successful music video (over 1.6 million views on youtube); and has starred
in an award winning film, ‘The Butterfly Circus’.
But most important of all, Nick Vujicic is
one of Christendom’s most successful evangelists. He has preached to vast
audiences in twenty four different countries, speaking face to face with three
million people. He has over a million followers on Facebook, and overall
through the internet he has reached six hundred million people. That is one in
ten people on the planet.
Aged only thirty one, this man without
hands or legs, could become the greatest evangelist of his generation. That is
certainly the view of Billy Graham, already recognised by history as the
greatest evangelist of the 20th C. Last year (2012) the 92 year old
preacher invited Nick Vujicic to his home to encourage and advise him: an
Elijah passing on the mantle to an Elisha[3].
Nick’s birth: shock and mourning
There was little optimism around at the
start of Nick’s unexpected journey to success. Instead there was shock and
mourning on December 4th 1982 when Nick was born.
Shock because in the Vujicic family there
was no history of deformities; and nothing had been picked up by the ultra
sound. Yet in the delivery room his father saw his baby being born with an arm
missing. He made a quick exit. When eventually a doctor came out to see him he
blurted out, ‘My son, he has no arm!’[4]
The doctor’s reply was out of a horror film: ‘Actually your son has neither
arms nor legs’.
Inside the delivery room, the mourning had
begun. Nick’s mother was in tears. She refused to hold her new son: ‘“Take him
away,” she said. “I don’t want to touch him or see him.” As news of Nick’s
birth spread to family, friends, and the church where his father was a pastor
there was no celebration. Nobody sent any flowers.
Suicide attempt – aged 10
His parents eventually recovered from the
shock and grief of having such a severely disabled son. They did all they could
to give him as normal a childhood as possible and chose to believe God had a
purpose in giving them a disabled son.
Nick did not have that faith, at first
As a toddler life was all right for Nick
because he did not understand how different he was from other children. He
threw himself around like any ordinary youngster. ‘I was all trunk but all baby
boy too; a rolling, diving daredevil.’[5]
However soon Nick understood the brutal reality
of his situation. His parents took him to church so he would pray for a
miracle. Nothing happened. When he asked his parents the cruel question, ‘Why?’
they had no answer, ‘Only God knows’, they said. Nick asked God, but God gave
no answer.
Nick believed there was no future for him.
No woman would marry him; no employer would take him on; he would just be a
burden on his family. He became convinced he was an unfortunate accident: ‘I
felt I was just a mistake, a freak of nature, God’s forgotten child’[6]
Aged just ten Nick had lost hope. He
decided to end his life by drowning in his bath. But with his face down in the
water an image of his family standing by his grave flashed through his mind. He
flipped his body over so he could float again. He could not stand the thought
of hurting them so much.
The cold logic of suicide still remained - but
he decided to wait till he was twenty one, a long way off. That evening he told
his younger brother Aaron he was going to kill himself. Aaron told dad. Later
dad came and sat on Nick’s bed, stroked his hair, and talked about all the good
things that were going to happen in Nick’s life. Nick’s father spoke with faith
and though Nick still had many difficult days ahead, his father’s comfort
blunted the pain of his despair and gave hope. He never considered suicide
again.
Bullying
Some of those difficult days were because
of the taunts and teasing of school bullies. In Nick’s first grade there was
Chucky, a play ground tormentor, who one day came up to Nick in his wheel chair
and said, ‘Bet you can’t fight’. ‘Bet you I can’ was Nick’s stubborn reply, but
Chucky had to agree to stay on his knees. By launching himself as a human
missile Nick gave the bully such a bloody nose that he never bothered Nick
again[7].
In middle school there was Andrew, a huge boy, who whenever he saw Nick would announce to the whole world, ‘Nick has no *****. Nick hated the teasing. With such an obvious disability his self confidence was already fragile. Indeed there were times he would have preferred to stay at home. But one day he went up to Andrew and told him that what he was saying was causing him pain. Andrew apologised.
Becomes a Christian and accepts his
miracle.
Nick felt a lot more confident about
handling his situation when he became a Christian aged 15. Before then his
parents had taken him to church and constantly talked to him about faith. But
Nick had an obvious problem with God. He even wrote that in his early teens
that he hated God. Because if God was a God of love why had he created Nick Vujicic
without hands or legs? And if God was a God of all power, why had God not
answered his prayers.
One day when Nick was fifteen these
questions were swept away as his eyes locked onto a verse in the story told in
John 9 about Jesus and the blind man. Jesus’ disciples had assumed sin was
behind the blind man’s disability and so asked Jesus who the sinner was. That same
question was always lurking in the back of Nick Vujicic’s mind: had his parents
done something terrible; had he? Were his family being punished? Nick’s life
was changed by Jesus’ reply about the blind man: he was born that way so ‘the
works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9:3)
This reply opened up a new world for Nick:
‘I was not a burden. I was not deficient. I was not being punished. I was
custom-made for God’s works to be made manifest in me!’[8]
With that verse a wave of God’s peace swept over Nick’s soul – and it has never
left him. He gave his whole heart to Jesus Christ. He became a Christian.
Instead of blaming God for not giving
him a miracle, he chose to believe that as with the blind man, God would work
through him. To this day Nick believes God can perform a miracle and give him
arms and legs (he keeps a pair of shoes in the cupboard), but if God doesn’t
give that miracle, Nick is more than happy to become the miracle God has
planned for him, without arms and legs.
World famous speaker
This is what has happened. For Nick
without arms and legs has managed to speak into the hearts people much more
successfully than he would have been able to do if he had had arms and legs.
In his late teens however, Nick was not
destined for public speaking - officially. His father was very practical. Nick
was good at mathematics, people always need accountants and financial planners
- those were the careers to prepare for. So that is what Nick studied at
university.
Unofficially something else was going
on. Shortly after becoming a Christian an inspirational speaker, Reggie Dabs,
came to Nick’s school to share his story of being an unwanted child till his
prostitute mother gave him to an old couple to adopt. Nick was impressed.
Reggie had managed to keep the attention of 1,400 restless children by his
skill as a speaker; and there was the message itself: you cannot choose your
circumstances, but you can choose how you respond. After the assembly a thought
was planted in Nick’s mind: ‘Maybe I’ll have a good story like Reggie’s to
share someday.’
Then there was Mr Arnold, the Christian
janitor at the school who eventually persuaded Nick to share his story at a
lunch time discussion group he ran. Very nervous, Nick talked for ten minutes
about what it was like to grow up without arms and legs and choosing to believe
he was not a mistake, but a part of God’s plan. At the end, everyone was in
tears. Now the invitations started to come – from other schools, from youth
groups, from churches. And so God’s purpose for Nick’s life started to become
clear. He was to be a public speaker.
There are reasons for success
It is one thing to successfully share your
Christian testimony about a particular problem – however interesting – with a
youth group or church, quite another to speak successfully in front of stadium
audiences of thousands, which is what Nick Vujicic does.
There are reasons for his success. He is
very skilled. And that skill has come about through training and hard work. He
has taken communication lessons, where for example he was shown how to use his
eyes to express his emotions. It is also very clear that he works hard at
preparation. If you check out any of his many clips on you tube you will see he
never uses notes. He speeds on to the stage in his wheel chair, and the talking
begins. There is no pausing or hesitating. It’s a smooth operation. The content
is easy to listen to and read with many wonderful one-liners (If you do not
receive the miracle, become the miracle). There is also a fine sense of
drama, as seen by the impact he had on the Oprah Whinney show when from the
audience he waddled down the aisle and jumped up each step to get on to the
stage[9].
Nick is also very funny. He especially
likes to joke about his body, so he’ll say things like, ‘let me lend a hand’,
and he loves to play practical jokes on people and then he uses these stories
to break the ice at his meetings. Once he hid himself in one of the cabin
lockers on an aeroplane. A business man came along, opened the locker and was
of course shocked to see a human face starting back at him. Nick then said,
‘Why didn’t you knock?’
Skilled, funny – and Nick relates to need.
He is not overtly theological. Instead he hones in on concerns that bother most
people. Issues like finding your purpose, dealing with fear, or fighting
injustice. He will then use his story – and those of others – to show how the
problem can be overcome. It is here he speaks of Jesus Christ as the Person who
has given him hope.
Finally there is emotion and challenge. The
simplicity of the message is emotional: that God loves and accepts us as we are;
that God has a good plan for us; that God will have the final word. But what brings
many to tears is that this message is coming from a man without arms or legs.
This is visual theology. The Christian mystery of God’s power in weakness and
suffering: God speaking through a man dying on a cross; God speaking through a
man without arms and legs.
The challenges, for us
With the emotion come some challenges.
The challenge to reject the blasphemy that any life is an ‘accident’; the
challenge to fight against the abortionists’ argument (believed by some in the
Iranian church) that if a child is disabled in the womb the parents have the
right to arrange a termination, a death; and above all the challenge to have
hope for our lives whatever our circumstances.
For if God can give meaning and hope to
Nick Vujicic, then surely He can give meaning and hope to me. And if God so
clearly has had a plan for Nick Vujicic’s life, then He too has a plan for me.
This is a challenge that brings so much
hope and is probably one of the most important reasons behind the ongoing success
of Nick Vujicic’s ministry.
Tom Hawksley
June 2013
Tom Hawksley
June 2013
[1] Here are three
clips of many which are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGbZcTD6h24
[2] If you like a good romantic story, read ‘Unstoppable’ by Nick
Vujicic published by Waterbrook Press, Colorado, 2012, chapter three for a
moving account the courtship and engagement. Much of this article is based on
this book, and Nick Vujicic’s first book, ‘Life Without Limits’ also published
by Waterbrook Press, Colorado.
[3] See ‘Unstoppable’ by Nick Vujicic published by Waterbrook Press , Colorado
[4] ‘Live Without Limits’ by Nick Vujicic, published by Waterbrook Press , Colorado
[5] Live Without Limits’ by Nick Vujicic, published by Waterbrook Press , Colorado
[6] Live Without Limits’ by Nick Vujicic, published by Waterbrook Press , Colorado
[7] The full story of the fight is amusingly told in chapter six,
‘Armless but not harmless’ of ‘Life Without Limites’ by Nick Vujicic published
by Waterbrook Press.
[8] Live Without Limits’ by Nick Vujicic, published by Waterbrook
Press, Colorado, 2010 page 70 (Kindle edition)
[9] Check out this clip on youtube to see Nick Vujicic’s dramatic
impact on the Oprah Whinney show - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr_5wDmX3kY
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