Interview: Limbless Nick Vujicic on Secret of Being Joyful
Nick Vujicic, the inspiring man with no arms and legs but a smile on his face, spoke to The Christian Post recently about his new book, Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life. In the interview, he shares his secret of how he is joyful despite his disability and how he was able to write the book without fingers.
The following are excerpts from the interview conducted on Nov. 27.
CP: What message will you be sharing at Lakewood Church this weekend?
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Vujicic: I have the blessing of bringing the message of hope and inspiration about my life, how God has changed my life from a life without limbs to a life without limits. Also to encourage everyone to know that God has a plan for their life and that God never makes a mistake even though it seems like He is not listening or paying attention sometimes. We know that God is in control and we all have ups and downs and fears and uncertainty sometimes. Sometimes even on an hourly basis we need to keep praying and keep our peace in God and remind ourselves on the promises of God that never fails.
It is not to say that everything is fine and a positive attitude is all you need. But I share about values and principles and attitudes [in the book] and I never tell people I understand their pain. But I just share my story in hopes that some people out there who have gone through different circumstances might be encouraged and inspired that even in their circumstances to know that there is nothing God can't change. And when God doesn't change a circumstance, He can change our hearts in knowing that He can change all things for the good.
CP: Do you always talk about your faith when you talk to crowds or only when it's a Christian audience?
Vujicic: You know, there are times where I can't talk about my faith in Jesus, especially internationally. You can't just walk up to a public school and talk about Jesus or go to a corporate event and do that. But the people who do know who I am they know that the principles that I share are from scripture. In question and answer [time] I am often able to share about faith, as an acronym: full assurance in the heart. Then question comes, well what is your faith? So then I can share about that. So where I can preach I do preach and where I can't I still preach with love but just not the normal words we usually use in church.
I preach with the hope that whoever is inspired, encouraged, intrigued, curious by my life on any level, whether it be parents saying they showed my video to their kids because they were complaining. It is the hope that that parent will go a bit deeper and know that ultimately Nick actually puts his hope into something bigger than himself. He puts it in Jesus Christ.
CP: What is the secret to being joyful even though your circumstance is difficult?
Vujicic: I loved it when I first read Philippians 4:13, which says "For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." That was a powerful verse and certain people use it in different context. But when you look at it in context of I know how to be full whether well fed or hungry, paraphrasing the language, Apostle Paul says he has learned the secret of being content.
So you ask me what is the secret when I read that line, "I have learned the secret to being content." I asked myself what is the secret. The secret is to be content. Why? Because the joy of the Lord is my strength, knowing that He is with me, knowing that He will never leave me, knowing that He is bigger than any circumstance, and that He loves us. It's not about Nick being happy but Nick's trust in God. It is not that everything is going smoothly. It is not that Nick never cries or Nick is never fearful anymore. But the ups and downs are on the journey of walking with the Lord, trusting in the Lord, and growing in my faith with Him one step at a time.
CP: You talk about not always trusting your feelings in the book. What do you mean by that?
Vujicic: You can't always trust your emotions. You can't always trust your feelings. And I'm not talking about pain but I'm talking about more about life issues where something happens to you or somebody says something to you or somebody said nothing to you and you're waiting for them to say something to you. Let's say I have a friend and my friend doesn't call me or text me for awhile. I come to the conclusion that maybe they heard something or maybe they are talking behind my back or maybe I hurt them. We come to many conclusions and those aren't always accurate.
Same with our relationship with God. When we don't hear anything from Him we just don't know exactly what He is planning and we come to different conclusions that maybe He has forgotten me, maybe He doesn't hear my prayers, maybe I'm not good enough. All these things.
In my life, I know that I couldn't always depend on my feelings on my thoughts about God and what He was doing. So it is coming back to the truth. Faith is walking by faith not by what you feel. You are not always going to feel that Jesus loves you or that God is good but you know He is. It is the up and down of the journey.
CP: How were you able to write this book without fingers?
Vujicic: I type 40 words per minute on a normal computer with my left foot. And with two cups of coffee I can do 53 words per minute. I also had a fantastic ghost writer and he did an excellent job at that.
CP: Is there anything else you wanted to add?
Vujicic: I think emotional and mental pain is probably worse than physical pain. I think we don't realize that I have no arms or legs but we all have disabilities of some sort, some fear, some lost, some wishes that didn't come true, things we wish would be better. But we know that God works for all things together for the good of those who love Him and that God is faithful. We will fail God, we will fail our family and our family might fail us at times, but God never fails us.
