Embrace Your Uniqueness and Impact the World Beyond Your Weaknesses

On December 4, 1982, an amazing child was born in Australia called Nick Vujicic. This baby did not have arms or legs, only a small foot with two toes. This meant that, he had a lot of physical challenges to deal with right from birth – he could not crawl, walk, feed himself, or perform basic self-care.

Aside the personal incapacitations he faced, he had to also deal with pressures that would come to him externally from society. The immediate ones were; he would be stared at, he would be pitied and socially isolated at a very young age. As if those were not enough, he was bullied at school, verbally abused and called names such as ‘alien’ and other kids refused to play with him. In fact, he was excluded from all social activities in school.

All those challenges suggest that, just by entering the world at a very young age, he had to fight some peculiar battles on two fronts, aside the battles every human faces.

These impacted Nick greatly and felt depression as early as early as age 8 because, he felt like a burden to his family who had to legally challenge Australian laws at the time that prevented their son from attending mainstream school because of his disability. Moreso, he struggled with basic independence such as toileting, writing, eating and relied heavily on parents and aides.

At age 10, he attempted suicide when he tried to drown himself in a bathtub because he believed he would never have a normal life, friends, or family hence, felt completely alone and worthless. By age 16, he has contemplated several unsuccessful suicide thoughts.

However, by age 17, he realised that, irrespective of how he looked physically, his true potentials and abilities to make impact was innate and not outward. Hence, he started to look within to see what his creator gave him and how he can help others with that. So, he started giving short talks at school and church prayer groups about overcoming adversity, which initially was not easy for him because of the usual pushback of rejection or being laughed at. But he was unperturbed and unbothered. He kept faith alive and continued with the small things that really gave people hope.

By age 22, he started his non-profit ministry ‘Life Without Limbs’ in 2005, which gave him the platform to travel across the globe to impact lives, although he initially struggled financially and logistically, coupled with his disability. He did not stop amidst those challenges, instead, he forged on courageously.

Then, in February of 2012, two days to Valentine’s day, he settled and married Kanae Miyahara. Between 2013 to 2018, they were blessed with four children, with the last being twins.

Today, Nick Vujicic is living a fulfilled life of purpose as a Christian Evangelist and a Motivational Speaker, blessing and impacting millions of lives. The boy who was born without arms or legs can engage in activities like swimming, painting, playing sports, and has consequently authored several books.

The important lessons the life of Nick Vujicic teaches are that your abilities and potential to impact the world and fulfil purpose, is within you. It is innate and not physical, hence, do not look at your physical incapacitation or your outward weaknesses.

You are perfectly created the way you are, to fulfil a particular assignment which goes beyond what you have or do not have physically.