When You Don’t Get A Miracle, Be One

There are a thousand ways a person can be broken. It is a truth familiar to many combat veterans but not often embraced or discussed.

After eight deployments to Afghanistan as a Force Recon Marine and Department of Defense contractor, I returned with severe PTSD, panic attacks, anger, and a darkness that nearly consumed me.

What saved my life was not toughness, training, or sheer will. It was Jesus Christ.

That is why Nick Vujicic’s story is such a powerful reminder of what God can do with suffering. Nick was born without arms or legs; he has overcome the impossible and spoken to more than a billion people in 80 countries. By his own reckoning, more than 1.5 million people have come to Christ after hearing his message of hope.

I had the privilege of hosting Nick on my podcast, “The Resilient Show,” which is all about human perseverance in the face of challenges. My friend and fellow podcaster Jeremy Stalnecker (“March or Die”) was inspired by Nick’s matter-of-fact recounting of his remarkable life, how Jesus intervened to save him, and how he has shown that anyone can achieve resiliency by accepting the gift of faith.

“Faith is the fuel tank that keeps you going,” Nick told us.

Nick’s own parents were devastated when he was born without limbs. They had fled communist Yugoslavia, and Nick’s dad was a pastor who planted a church in Australia. He and Nick’s mom felt they were doing the Lord’s work and were stunned when they were handed what seemed at first to be an intolerable burden.

Through prayer and faith, they overcame their fears and surrounded Nick with the love of Christ.

I can’t think of a more powerful example of resiliency. Of course, it wasn’t easy.

“Your tears are a language God understands,” Nick said.

Nick grew up and became one of the first physically disabled children to attend a public school in Australia.

At age 17, he gave his first motivational speech and realized that the Lord might use him in a special way. About two years later, after he gave another speech to several hundred high schoolers, a girl came up to him in tears and said nobody had ever told her that they loved her before. She predicted that he would lead many, many people to Christ, a thought that astounded him at the time but later proved prescient.

Nick told us that his message is simple. If he can live a full life, anyone can. “Everybody looks at me and says, ‘I wish I could do that,’” he said, meaning his ability to inspire others.

“And you can,” he said.

What struck me most about our conversation was his steady, strong advocacy, without a hint of seeking pity. He looks and sounds like a confident guy who knows where he has been and where he’s going.

When he was young, he prayed over and over for God to give him limbs, and his family went to great lengths to find options for prosthetics. But he eventually realized that God had made him special to reach people in a way that no one else could. Citing the story in John 9 of the blind man whom Jesus heals to the glory of God, he says his signature line, “When you don’t get a miracle, you can still be one.”

At the Mighty Oaks Foundation, which I founded over 15 years ago to share the hope that I personally discovered, we have seen many miracles and restored lives. That experience is also why Nick’s story resonates so deeply with me. I know firsthand what it means to reach a point where you cannot see a way forward and discover that God is not finished with you.

Since Christ transformed my life, I have dedicated my professional skills to helping other veterans and first responders overcome PTSD. At Mighty Oaks Foundation, we believe resiliency is built by developing faith and tools to withstand life’s hardest moments before a crisis hits, not during one.

Nick Vujicic’s story fits that mission almost perfectly. That is why we are giving away 4,000 tickets to veterans and their families to see the remarkable film about his life, “No Limbs, No Limits,” that premiered last weekend in theaters around the country. I want veterans and their families to hear the same message Nick has carried around the world: Your circumstances do not determine the rest of your story.

God has a plan for each of us, even when we cannot see it. His strength carries us through life’s greatest challenges.

***

Chad Robichaux is a former Force Recon Marine, JSOC Task Force veteran, and a global humanitarian rescue operator. He led the historic evacuation of over 17,000 people during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and continues to run targeted relief operations in active conflict zones globally. Robichaux is also the founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, which helps military members suffering from PTSD, a bestselling author, and the host of The Resilient Show podcast.

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