GLENN: One of my favorite people in the world is Nick Vujicic. If you have not heard of him, this is going to be a very interesting time for you. Nick is a guy who was born without any arms or legs, hands and feet. And he has a new book out called Be the Hands and Feet. He is one of the more inspiring people I've ever met. Hello, Nick, how are you?
NICK: Hi, Glenn. So good to see your face. Love you sitting at this table. Thanks for having me on your radio show. Appreciate it.
GLENN: You're welcome.
So, first of all, let's kind of catch up with you. For anybody who doesn't know you, tell me your story quickly.
NICK: Quickly: I was born in Melbourne, Australia, without limbs. Lady Gaga don't know why I was born this way. Many people had their own theories and philosophies of life, including a woman who said that, well, in my previous life, reincarnation, I was a bad boy, and now I'm getting punished. But now that I'm a good boy, I'll come back in my next life and be a butterfly. And I'm thinking, she don't know how many butterflies I killed in my wheelchair, I don't want to be a butterfly.
Being isolated at times. Very loving home though. Went to a mainstream school. I was the first disabled child to go to the mainstream school system of Australia, 1989. And was excelling in mathematics, because that was the only that I could compete with everyone. But I really had depression and fears about my future. Attempted suicide at age ten because of bullying predominantly at school.
GLENN: Can you tell me how you tried to do that?
NICK: Yeah. Went to the bathtub, and I told my dad, I just want to relax in the bathtub of 4 inches, 5 inches of water. And I turned over to let the breath out a bit. I couldn't go through with it. Not because of physical limitations. But because I didn't want to leave my parents with that pain, and I pictured my parents crying at my grave. So I did not go through with that by the grace of God.
GLENN: Tell me -- tell me the depth there of despair, of losing hope.
NICK: You know, it was as if I never had it. It's not about losing hope. It's actually losing all -- all strength to go on. Just because of the bleak and broken future that I could see ahead, I felt like I was a burden to my parents. I convinced myself I would never get married, never be happy, never be a father. Never find a job. Just be a burden to everyone around me. I thought even if I got married, I can't even hold my wife's hand. Even if I had kids, I can't even hold my kids when they're crying.
Today, I have my wife. Her name is Kanae. She's a rock star. She's a superstar. She's amazing. She's beautiful. Six years of marriage now.
GLENN: She is. I think you had just gotten married the last time I saw you.
NICK: That's right.
GLENN: And congratulations on your twins.
NICK: That's right. Thank you, Glenn. Yeah, so we have two boys, Kiyoshi and Dejan, five and two and a half years old, and we have now two twin girls, Olivia and Ellie. They're about ten weeks old now.
Oh, and I wanted to say this: I don't need to hold my wife's hand. I just need to hold her heart, and you don't need hands for that. And when my boys cry, I can't put my arms around them, but they put their arms around me.
GLENN: So you -- you were convinced that you would be a burden on everyone. And that's kind of the way the world is working right now, especially with anybody with any kind of disability. We were talking off the air that this is a providential week to have you come in.
NICK: It is.
GLENN: Because I have been truly sleepless in the last few nights about what's happening with the Washington Post coming out and saying, you know, if you have Down syndrome, it's very brave. Very brave to abort them because we're curing Down syndrome.
NICK: Goodness, gracious.
GLENN: By killing them. Of course, they're not saying killing, but that's what they mean.
They have -- you know, the responses are, people with Down syndrome have no quality of life. And they're a burden on families.
And I -- I think, Nick, quite honestly, if we can -- if we as a society can embrace killing the most angelic -- I mean, the most angelic --
NICK: I can't agree with you more.
GLENN: -- then who won't we kill?
NICK: You know, I've been interviewed all night, Glenn -- you know I've been on the road, for my book and all that stuff. And the question that -- that, you know, you know, because we talk about how when I was in Russia a few years ago, there was a petition signed. Because I was famous in Russia overnight, preaching the gospel on mainstream TV. And some editor from a publication in Russia said, no disabled person should get married, should reproduce, and should ever have a stage and should ever be on TV. Ninety thousand people signed that petition. And then a million people got angry and that guy got fired. I wonder if this person will ever --
GLENN: No. You know that.
NICK: Never.
Well, it's just an opinion. Well, this other guy also had the opinion. And so the idea here is, how many more of these articles will actually be publicized without us actually saying, hey, wait a second. Let's really, really analyze this. And it's just unfair. It's unfair.
GLENN: It's amazing to me --
NICK: How are we different from the Russians, Glenn?
GLENN: We're not.
NICK: I'm Yugoslav, and I love the Soviet area, and I love the Slavic region. And they have a lot of improvement coming.
Ukraine just changed their law, Glenn, after I spoke to the government. Just to let you know, they're allowing special needs children to go to school for the first time. There's improvement over there.
GLENN: Wow.
NICK: But you come home here and you get so discouraged and stuff like this.
GLENN: Wow. It's remarkable to me that you wouldn't -- if we had this -- if you would have been seen in utero, you would have been gone. If Stephen Hawking would have been able to be tested in utero, he'd be gone. Stephen Hawking passed away today.
NICK: Today. I'm sorry to hear that.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. One of the most remarkable men to ever live.
NICK: Wow.
GLENN: And, you know, when you look at the -- the Nazi era, the people who voted for Hitler -- think of this. When he started his T4 program, to wipe out -- would have killed you. Would have killed my daughter. Would have killed anybody with Down syndrome.
When they found out that they were gassing those children, the people who voted for Hitler rose up and said, no more. No more. You can't do that.
We're just letting it go. We're not rising up. That's terrifying.
NICK: You're right. You're right. And there's many fronts on many fights that you can choose. And for me, Glenn, you know I'm pro-life. You know I'm with you. I'll wing you. I'll be your wing man on this. No problem. We'll do whatever we can to do.
The bottom line is I understand the -- the opposition in trying -- or the challenge, let's say, in trying to convince people of changing their mind. But you know what also gets me just a little bit angry are the people who actually say we're Christian and we allow 111,000 7, 8-year-old children in America, still waiting, still waiting for an adopted home. A hundred thousand churches spends billions of dollars on buildings, and we're not the hands and feet. We're claiming Jesus is Lord.
Do you know how many teenagers, they think they're Christian because they go to church on Sunday, then they tease someone at school on Monday. Forty percent of the reason for teenage suicide in America is because of bullying at school.
We really got to do an analysis of ourselves, if we really are the salt and light -- there's 400,000 foster kids waiting. Anyway, in the --
GLENN: You go for it.
NICK: You know it.
GLENN: We were just talking about this last week. Last week, we were talking about how Christians -- I don't know what it means to be a Christian anymore. Because if this is what it means to be a Christian, it makes literally statistically no difference in the world.
I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested.
NICK: Well, here's a contrast, ready. In Islam. In the Koran, they actually say that it's against Allah that you adopt. Because you can never love somebody that's not your blood, like you love someone that is your blood.
GLENN: Holy cow.
NICK: So how different are we to Islam? Because so many people think, how can I love somebody as much as I love my own?
And it's not about that. It's just addressing the biggest questions and fears that people have and saying, hey, look, don't just sit and listen to the prosperity gospel from the pews. You know, surrender your life to Jesus. And then guess what happens? The next paragraph. What do you want God to do for you today. Let's believe and I'll stand for you. Are you kidding me? We're not here to receive. We're here to serve. The prosperity gospel will end, Glenn, in ten years from now, when thirty-five percent of all jobs in America are taken by robots. How dare any prosperity preaching preacher will talk about prosperity when a third of their men have no job.
It's time to realize, stop waiting on God to do something. And God is waiting on you to do something. I'm all for praying for revival in our country, Glenn. A million people trying to gather in Washington, DC, but what if a million people actually learned how to preach the gospel? And we preach the gospel to 20 people in a day. You can reach the whole country of America in 16 days. Is it really that hard?
GLENN: No.
NICK: It's not.
GLENN: It's not.
NICK: A hundred thousand, you know, adoption -- is it really that hard?
GLENN: It's not.
NICK: It's not.
GLENN: I was at a -- I was at a venture capitalist conference, and I had to speak. And it was all Silicon Valley.
NICK: Uh-huh.
GLENN: And a guy gets up and he's an atheist. One of the biggest venture capitalists in the world. And he gets up and he says, I have news for you, what's coming is a loss of meaning.
He said, because the unemployment rate -- he said -- and this is important I think for people to understand. We now look at unemployment and say, oh, can we get it close to zero?
They -- Silicon Valley, with the way they're working now, they're the opposite. They're saying, let's get it 100 percent on employment, so you can do what you want to do. Which is a noble thing. However, it also removes meaning for a lot of people who find meaning in their jobs. And he said, so we're going to have a lot of meaning. He said, but you know who is going to conquer that? People who have actual faith.
NICK: Wow.
GLENN: Because people who have actual faith find meaning in good works. Isn't that crazy?
NICK: Wow. Wow.
GLENN: And we're not doing it.
NICK: Wow.
GLENN: And we have to.
NICK: Yes.
GLENN: Because it will be the only thing -- we will be the ones that can lead the world into meaning and into the --
NICK: Hope.
GLENN: The hope of --
NICK: Hope.
GLENN: -- it's going to be okay.
NICK: Yep.
GLENN: So, Nick --
NICK: Glenn, I love you. We got to spend more time together, bro. I'm out here in Dallas quite a lot. We got a second home here.
GLENN: I know. You don't ever stop by.
NICK: I'm going to stop by.
GLENN: The name of the book is Be The Hands and Feet: Living Out God's Love For All of His Children. I want to talk a little bit more about the book and the -- your adventures. And we're going to also spend some time on television tonight.
NICK: Good.
GLENN: So make sure you join us. We'll be back in just a second.
GLENN: So, Nick, let's talk a little bit -- you know, you talk in your book about how we need to share -- how we need to share the gospel. However, I think people -- because of what we were just talking about, people are tired of people talking about the gospel because, you know, it doesn't make a difference. We're -- we're going to church, but we're living a hypocritical life. We're no different than everybody else.
NICK: Right. Right.
And so the bottom line is, when me and some angels go to 68 countries, meet 18 presidents, speak in front of ten governments and in front of billionaires to sex slaves and orphans, there are commonalities of why people don't believe in a loving God. And one of them, rightly said, is that, oh, I'm not going to become a Christian because I know Christians. There was a bumper sticker that said, dear Lord, save me from thy followers.
GLENN: Yeah.
NICK: And, you know, it's the truth. That's one of the things.
And that's when we point the finger at ourselves and make sure that how we live shows it. You know, if you're a teenager and you love Jesus, then you're not sexually active until marriage, period. No matter what you feel. And we're going to hand the truth with love and love with the truth. And the bottom line is, when you put God in the throne of your life and you realize that his plan and his way is best -- and money, drug, sex, alcohol, pornography, fame, and fortune, and where this country is going, where this world is going, we know that the only hope is in Jesus Christ. That's one of the top seven reasons, Glenn, why people don't go to church. Another one is because they think church is a business.
GLENN: Can you argue that though?
NICK: You know what, I have the least amount of argument for that point out of seven. Yeah? And that's why I'm, you know, pretty firm to the churches in making sure that the center of ministry isn't your gifts. The center of ministry is the gospel. And I feel like we as Americans are absolutely ignoring the fact that the prosperity gospel started in America. And it's absolutely devastated Latin America and Africa. And the pinnacle of growth and beauty in the church of those continents was when the church met the needs of the people.
But then --
GLENN: But isn't that -- that, again, isn't that the point? I have this argument with people all the time, you know, about faith and works. No, all I have to do is have faith in Jesus. And then I'm saved. Okay. I got it. I got it. I got it. However, you can't tell me that you've been saved if your works aren't his works.
NICK: That's right.
GLENN: If it hasn't changed you in fundamental, easy ways the way you live your life, then sorry, you don't really buy into it.
NICK: Yeah. I tell the teenagers, if you tease someone at school on Monday, I don't think you're a Christian because you have no idea what the love of God is. You know, and so the other things that I write about in my Be the Hands and Feet book is, how do you talk to somebody who is an atheist who says, well, science explains everything?
And I, you know, present the points where witchcraft, voodoo, black magic, science can't explain it, but man, it's real. And I'm not an atheist because I've seen an angel. I'm not an atheist because I've seen demons.
And so when you realize how you can actually come back with knowledge and points and say, how can a loving God let pain be in the world? There's a simple explanation for it. And people don't share about their faith because they don't know the answers to the top six and most common questions that people have.
GLENN: So we're going to cover these tonight on TV at 5 o'clock.
NICK: Yeah.
GLENN: But I want to ask you this: If there's a God in the world, Nick, how could he possibly let a child be born without arms and legs and go through what you went through as a child?
NICK: Well, first of all, I want to say it's worse being in a broken home, than having no arms and legs. Let's just get that straight. Number one, we can't compare each other's brokenness. Number two, though, we know that sickness, disease, and death, and uncomfortability to our existence didn't happen until Satan came into the world.
And that's when people said, well, then why did God allow the serpent in the Garden of Eden? And the answer is very simple. How unfair God would be to make Adam and Eve with free choice, yet never let them hear anybody else, but his voice.
If he never allowed the serpent in the Garden of Eden to actually say the contrary to what God said, then do they really have free choice or not? Therein, they chose. And we know that there is a lion, devouring, killing, destroying, and his name is Satan. And he knows his days are numbered, and he's going around destroying the world. And the bottom line, the Bible says, Glenn, very clear, black and white, we know that Jesus is coming back, when all the gospel has been preached to all the four corners of the earth. And when I was in front of Billy Graham in 2011, he said, Nick, we don't have to preach down other religions. Just preach the gospel. The gospel is powerful enough. And the Bible says, my people perish because they don't have knowledge. I also think it's Christians who are losing their faith because they're not growing in knowledge. They think, well, you know, now I'm a Christian. Now God is going to bless me, and that's it.
No, are you serious? It's about us being on the front line of God's army ambassadors, the king of kings, the lord of lords. And I'm a man without arms and legs. Being the hands and feet of Jesus, standing in front of the gates of hell and redirecting traffic. If God can use a man without arms and legs to be his hands and feet, God can use any willing heart.
GLENN: Kind of have this answer down.
(laughter)
NICK: I love you.
GLENN: I'm so glad you're here. Especially this week when we're talking about Down syndrome, and on the day that we mark the life of an exceptional man Stephen Hawking. And, you know, I see God's blessing and glory, not that he wants anybody to suffer, but I see his glory through Stephen Hawking. He was wasting his life until he realized, I may not have very much time. And it changed him fundamentally. How it changes us is -- is up to us. We'll talk some more this afternoon on TheBlaze TV. The name of the book, Be the Hands and Feet: Living Out God's Love For All Of His Children.
GLENN: I got to tell you, one of my favorite guests, is Nick Vujicic. I think he is -- does he make you feel like -- like, you know, here's a guy who has no arms and no legs. And I mean, I bet he exercises more than I do. He's in better shape than I am.
STU: Well, has he ever exercised? Because then, yes, he's exercised more than you.
GLENN: And he's just -- he's so inspiring.
If you think you can't do it, have you met Nick? I mean, it's amazing what people do when they put their minds to it and they -- they partner with -- with a higher power.
By the way, he's going to be speaking tonight in Dallas at the Fellowship Bible Church. It's at 9330 North Central Expressway. Just go to FellowshipDallas.org. He'll speak at 7 o'clock tonight. FellowshipDallas.org. He is remarkable as a speaker. One of the most powerful speakers that you'll hear.
