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Nick Vujicic
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Interviewer (Sage)
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Nick Vujicic
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Interviewer (Sage)
What did the doctors say to your parents?
Nick Vujicic
We're sorry that we could have given you at least an option to abort. When you don't get a miracle, you can still be one.
Interviewer (Sage)
Who Nick Vugac is, he said, young
Nick Vujicic
man, God's going to take you all around the world and you're gonna speak. Speak about what? Your story. He said, I don't have a story.
Interviewer (Sage)
How many billions of people know you?
Nick Vujicic
3.
Interviewer (Sage)
How many speeches?
Nick Vujicic
We stopped counting at 3,587 countries tried to commit suicide. I was convinced that God's love was not real. It wasn't for me. After bullying at school again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again for years on end. And then thinking, well, I'm not going to get a job. I'm not going to get married. Even if I got married, I can't even hold my wife's hand.
Interviewer (Sage)
And then what?
Nick Vujicic
You know, I don't have to hold her hand. I just need to hold her heart. She's the best thing that ever happened to me. It was love at first sight. I looked at her, she looked at me. I couldn't feel my legs. Being married now for 14 years, a home and cows and chickens and four beautiful children. People don't understand the steps that I have to take in my brain just to do the simple stuff. It's not about the body. It's about the heart, the mind, the soul. And spirit. What moved me was not another story of another miracle.
Interviewer (Sage)
What.
Nick Vujicic
What moved me was.
Interviewer (Sage)
Well, listen, we'll take any advice you can give us, okay?
Nick Vujicic
I don't have any advice.
Interviewer (Sage)
That's not true.
Nick Vujicic
I don't have any advice. I have an expert who could potentially give you advice. But I. Over a glass of wine in 45 minutes. Let me tell you my whole journey from becoming viral in 06 with 60 million views on YouTube, to then being canceled off YouTube in 2011, to then being awarded the number one most engaging, engaging organic engaging organic growing Facebook page in the world in 2013, to then first hand seeing shadow banning and algorithms against me, to then taking my page, putting me back on. Take it. So all of this to say with 20 million social media fans, if they didn't do what they did, I would literally have 50 million. Number one. Number two, when Covid came, I tried to start a podcast. Yeah. YouTube blew up. Yeah, I got 10,000 views a week. But I was like, well, that's not enough. Some like I stopped it because I didn't think I was doing the correct thing. Then stopped it post Covid Sage. It's so hard to break into this market now. It's not funny.
Interviewer (Sage)
Why do you think it's harder?
Nick Vujicic
Saturation. Insane saturation. That's where we are right now. Honest. And any advice that anyone gives you today is irrelevant in 20 weeks.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
And I'm like, I don't want to keep on doing what exactly you tell me to do and do this and do that and that piece of music that's related to something else that this. There is some rails that I just. I have no clue about this world anymore, to tell you the truth. So I'm going into film. That's exactly what I'm doing.
Interviewer (Sage)
Because that world, because I get that world.
Nick Vujicic
And that's very slow.
Interviewer (Sage)
And that's very slow compared to this. But also that can be ugly in its own way.
Nick Vujicic
Not if you hold all the cards. We ain't doing nothing without holding all the cards. And if that means you have to raise 30 million, you raise 30 million and then your problem, there's no other problems. If you got all the cash, then you have the say, I'm done. Flip everyone else off. Everyone. You're all done.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay.
Nick Vujicic
Because I've been hijacked by my own Christian friends. It's been insane. So if you hold the cash, you hold the cards. So now we're raising the cash. Not now, but next year. 30 million.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah. So animation, TV series, documentaries, short film, short film festivals, feature films. I've already got some scripts. That's what we're doing. How.
Interviewer (Sage)
How are you doing all of this with a wife and four kids?
Nick Vujicic
Yeah. I sometimes ask myself the same question.
Interviewer (Sage)
What the heck am I doing with my life? But do you know exactly what you're doing with your life?
Nick Vujicic
I think so.
Interviewer (Sage)
That's the way it comes across. And I.
Nick Vujicic
That's how I believe I'm living that way.
Interviewer (Sage)
Well, and we have to. Right. But you have goals, aspirations, and then you have your faith, which is the reverse order, hopefully. But you follow if you listen.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah, I'm fasting right now for another four days. I've done three without food. Why this giant Kind of just big, big, good and bad and good. Just like need. Like, that's the stillness. That's the listening. That's the detox. So before I got married that, you know, I used to fast 65 days a year with no food. Totally. Because you're on the front line and you need to listen. So I just wanted to exemplify that you have to listen and then be okay to fail along the way.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, goodness gracious. Why are you getting so deep so fast? You're gonna make me emotional.
Nick Vujicic
I love you anyway. We can go wherever you want to go.
Interviewer (Sage)
We are. And this is gonna go all over the place because I am so grateful. Cause I have gotten to know you first before. Sometimes when I know, sit down with people. I've never met them before. And you admire them. I'm not going to have anybody on that I don't admire or am super curious about. Whatever. Well, I get to say that I admire you based on watching over the last several months speaking. And not the speaking part. It's the behind the scenes. It's what happens behind the scenes. And of course, I had seen you, I guess one of your 60 million views at the get from the early 2000s at the beginning. But it's different to see someone and then just to talk to them in person. You started off with the edited version of the journey, when it's okay, 60 million views. I mean, it's been a real roller coaster.
Nick Vujicic
It has been.
Interviewer (Sage)
So for those who have been under a rock and are seeing you for the first time in person, I say, nick Vayachich, you need to watch this show. And they say, why? I'm like, okay, let me tell you about this, man. What would you say if you're in my shoes, about who Nick Vujicic is
Nick Vujicic
first and Foremost, I love you. Give me a hug. Can I give you a hug? You are awesome. Congratulations. Getting married seven months ago. Thank you for having me here in the studio. Congratulations on what the Lord is doing.
Interviewer (Sage)
The important move you've made. To do this for me means a lot. You're all over the world, so thank you.
Nick Vujicic
It's important. It's important. I love you and congratulations and hello everyone. If it was one sentence, it would be. If you've ever doubted that God has a plan or a purpose for your life, or you ever doubted that he can't use your broken pieces, it might challenge you to actually have faith and ask God to help your unbelief. After meeting Nick, that's the only thing I want. I want people to. To actually believe what God says in the Bible and to follow his voice.
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Interviewer (Sage)
when did you believe what God said?
Nick Vujicic
I believed at age 15, after quite a journey, suicidal. At age 10, tried to commit suicide. I was convinced that God's love was not real or wasn't for me or that he just. He just was unfair. Being born without limbs, I had questions. Why was I born this way? And I remember one day wishing. I just wish I could see Jesus and just ask him why. We all have broken pieces. I've been now around the world and written out 106 different ways in how the Human being can suffer, and you can't compare someone's brokenness to anyone else's. It's not about the body. It's about the heart, the mind, the soul, and the spirit. But what was so fascinating that despite me growing up in church, going to Sunday services, you know, pretty much all my life, I never came across John Chapter 9 until age 15 and we were at church and it's about a man who was born blind. And people asked Jesus, why was he born with his disability? And Jesus said it was done so that the works of God would be revealed through him. And he spits in the dirt, makes clay, puts it on the blind man's face, and then the dude goes to wash and he sees. What moved me was not another story of another miracle. What moved me was the revealing of my big disability, which was unbelief, because I wanted a plan. God, if you give me a plan, then I trust that you have that plan. But show me what the plan is. Tell me what you're going to do, and then I'll tell you if I trust you. And the blind man didn't even do that. Like, he was silent, he was listening, he wasn't deaf. And the blind man had every right and ability and chance to say, hey, who are you? As someone spitting in the dirt and then giving you a facial without permission, no warning. I loved the faith of the blind man. And I realized, God, it ain't about sight, it ain't about arms and legs. Give me arms and legs, please. I believe you can, but if you don't, use my pain. But I know that more than arms and legs, I need my soul saved, my heart healed, my mind renewed, and I know you're going to use me one day. And then people ask me like, well, how did you become a speaker? After that, it was actually the janitor at my high school who saw me speak in front of all of my 1400 fellow students. I was vice president of my high school, and I liked oral presentations. It was something I could compete in. And I was okay at it. I was nervous, my palms are sweaty, my knees were shaking. But the janitor came up the next day and he said, are you a Christian? I said, yeah. He said, I thought so. He said, young man, God's going to take you all around the world and you're going to speak. And I laughed. I said, speak about what? He said, your story. I said, I don't have a story. In the end, he convinced me to do it. And I just shared from my heart three Things. Who I was before I met Christ, My thoughts, my feelings, my hopelessness. How I met Jesus and what that means for me today. And people were crying, and then people started calling me, can you speak here? Can you speak there?
Interviewer (Sage)
And you're a teenager.
Nick Vujicic
17. So I started speaking at 17. So I'm 43 today. Unbelievable how many times we stopped counting. At 3,587 countries, 11 million people have heard the gospel in person, and 1.5 million responded by getting out of their seats hearing the gospel presented correctly.
Interviewer (Sage)
I love what you said. My disability had nothing to do with being born with no limbs. It was my disbelief.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
I still feel like 15 is a young age to realize that, you know, I mean, I know a lot of people my age who are in their 50s who are still struggling to understand the why behind things, even if it isn't something as serious or limiting as a disability. What a moment at 15. And was your. Did you share that with your parents? What did you do with that information right away?
Nick Vujicic
So I had a fast track of maturity because I had to think of the bigger questions of Life. At age 8, I came to this realization that my teacher's not there for fun at the class. She actually has a job. Mom and dad have a job. People ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know. My dad told me, at age 8, no one's going to employ you. You're not going to be an employee. You have to be an employer. So my parents prepared me well to start thinking about it. And he pushed me really hard in mathematics and chess, and I became number one at my school on my age group. Yeah. And so the mind was what we invested in. He said, get employees, and they can be your hands and feet. God didn't give you arms and legs, but he gave you a brain. Use your brain. At age 15, when I gave my life to Jesus, we actually were raised in a very ultra conservative church. You would call us a conservative Baptist branch.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay.
Nick Vujicic
Which we were not. Are not. They're not. But we were like that. So when you tell someone that you have given your life to Jesus in that church, you're under the microscope for 12 months and people watch you to see if you actually gave your life to Jesus. And you go through kind of this discipleship class, which is great, but under a microscope with some interesting rules as well. So I didn't tell anyone. I just didn't tell anyone that I gave my life to Jesus.
Interviewer (Sage)
You just kept it to yourself?
Nick Vujicic
Kept it to myself in my family at age 17, 18 started, you know, telling people I'm a Christian, they know I'm a Christian. But yeah, then I got baptized at age 19 and that was when I knew that I knew that I knew. You see there's, there's different things if you, if you want to expand on that word disbelief or belief. I was just doing a devotional the other day. Four words. You've got. You've got belief or faith. Let's call it faith. You've got disbelief, you've got. I know and I now forgot the fourth word but manifestation. There is this thing where you hope for and we kind of bracket belief or faith as I hope that this happens compared to I know that I can ask God anything I want as I desire to ask and I know that he's got my back and will provide every need and his grace is sufficient through it all and that I know of his faithfulness and that whatever that is, God's perfect will be done will happen. Okay, as long as you're hungry and thriving, thirsting for righteousness. Age 19 I had an incredible year in 2002. It changed my life. Came to America for a real estate boot camp of which I started then real estate investing back in Australia as a teenager and went to Africa and went to the poor, gave back to the poor and met a couple people along the way that confirmed I was supposed to go to the world. So I told everyone I'm a Christian, I'm an evangelist. They didn't know what to do with Nick as he went to other churches which was not really allowed in our church you're not allowed to fraternize but Nick sharing his story and all that kind of stuff. But really that's when I bought www.sevenbillionsouls.org that was the world's population back then and that's why I bought that URL. So I got ordained as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and went out there and started at age 19 as an ordained minister. Finished college in three years. I did accounting and financial planning. As soon as I graduated at 21, I came to America one way ticket alone. Yeah, I had some family relatives in California and that's a whole new story. But they encouraged me to come and my uncle Batha, he was like my dad, pretty much my dad, my dad's cousin and he said if you want to reach the wall for Jesus, you can't do that from Australia. So he said I'll set up a non profit and if it's blessed. It's blessed. So I pretty much started coming out in 03 and officially came in 05 and we just celebrated our 20th anniversary as a ministry.
Interviewer (Sage)
My goodness.
Nick Vujicic
That's that story.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes. The Cliff Notes version maybe.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
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Interviewer (Sage)
Show and tell them I sent I'm picturing as a parent now of a 19 almost 20 year old and 22 and 24. My son went to Japan a year ago for a May Master in between his junior and senior year of college and I was a mess. And this is for one month with a 6 foot 4 inch strapping young man. Arms, legs, all the physical like your parents watching their son fly across the world to start a new life. Alone.
Nick Vujicic
Mm.
Interviewer (Sage)
No limbs. Different world.
Nick Vujicic
Yes.
Interviewer (Sage)
Not as accepting. Probably. I'm guessing I don't know. Probably never was in many ways and never will be fully. But compared to today, I'm guessing maybe not. You tell me. I Am trying to put myself in their shoes, and I'm like, hell, no. Excuse me? I'm like, hell, no. Are you crazy? What was that conversation like? And were they fully supportive?
Nick Vujicic
Well, in our conservative denomination, that's. They wouldn't have said, hell, no.
Interviewer (Sage)
I'm sorry, but no, that's okay.
Nick Vujicic
It's all good. I. In our. In our. In our very small denomination, there were more. Way more churches of our denomination in America than in Australia.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay?
Nick Vujicic
And there is a special thing about that. And there's trust. Straight up. It's a very small. But it was also family. So I'm a Serbian. Yeah. So I have 24 first cousins and probably about 200 third cousins, of which at least 35 to 40% of them are in America. So now I have to tell you this story.
Interviewer (Sage)
Please.
Nick Vujicic
So, Sage, when Uncle Bata and my dad, their dads were neighbors, their grandfathers were born in those homes. They were born in those homes, okay? Their dads were born. My dads were born. Him and his dad were in a very small village in Yugoslavia. Communism, okay? 1960s. They fled. Okay? So Uncle Batu went to California. My dad went to Australia. My dad never forgave his dad for choosing Australia instead of America. My dad's dream, Sage, was to come to America. So in 1994, we packed up everything and actually went to California. I was 12. I went to a middle school in Southern California in Lindero Canyon, Middle School in Westlake there. And we couldn't stick it out. The immigration lawyers told my parents that there is a problem. It will be a bump in the road to have a disabled son seen by the USCIS as a burden to the welfare of the American government. Wow. And thus therein, your green card application may actually be rejected. Because of that, we were all young. I was 12, and we missed Australia badly. So we decided to go back. That was 1994. I came back as an adult at age 19. I saw Uncle Batha. We connected. He said, come back. I went to our church camp later that year, the denomination church camp. And I fell in love with America, fell in love with Uncle Bata, fell in love with California. And I could smell it in the air. I'm supposed to move. Thank God for George and Elizabeth, who were the first two people who believed with Bata, this is supposed to happen. So George became my caregiver, my road manager, basically helping me around to start everything. So these kinds of things started lining up, and in the end, I got my green card on my own. By the grace of God. They called me an alien of extraordinary talent. I came in a work visa based on my education and executive leadership in the ministry. Got my green card, sponsored my parents, sponsored my sister, sponsored my brother. They're all in the States. So my dad and mom were retired at 2011 when they came, and they got their permanent residency through their limbless son who was a bump in the road in 1994. So my mom said, hell, no.
Interviewer (Sage)
Still, yes.
Nick Vujicic
My dad said, go. And actually, two years after moving, I called my dad, I said, dad, I think I'm going to come back home. And you know what he said? Don't you dare give up. And I'm so glad I didn't.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, my goodness. That's beautiful. And so that makes sense. You did obviously, have a support system there. But for them to have tried it and then not stay for.
Nick Vujicic
I could talk about an hour. Just my mom or just my dad. I can't imagine how God really gave them the wisdom and the guidance. I mean, when I even looked at my own son for the first time and just staring at him the first time like, that's my son. Wait, what? You feel so overwhelmed, so unqualified. So all of that, right. As a first parent, and I'm like, oh, my God. And he's got arms and legs. Like, how on earth did my parents do this? And he's got limbs. So, yeah, now I understand.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah, it is.
Nick Vujicic
It's a miracle. It's God's grace. It is God's grace.
Interviewer (Sage)
Do you view yourself as a miracle?
Nick Vujicic
No. No, I. I'm a vessel where miracles are shown and displayed. And I'm not the light, not the source. I'm not the miracle. I point to the miracle giver. Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
After years, like decades of being a
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Interviewer (Sage)
this airs, your, your movie will be out, right?
Nick Vujicic
Oh, when are you airing?
Interviewer (Sage)
Within the next month, six weeks or
Nick Vujicic
is this airing till September?
Interviewer (Sage)
That's right. I knew that.
Nick Vujicic
But there is something active if you
Interviewer (Sage)
want to ask me about no limbs, no limits. First of all, I want to make sure that I say the name of it.
Nick Vujicic
Documentary Film.
Interviewer (Sage)
Documentary film. See, I need my terminology correct.
Nick Vujicic
Got it.
Interviewer (Sage)
And I've seen snippets of it in the trailer, et cetera. And it's beautiful and incredible and really goes back to the beginning. Right. And tells the story. The video of you as a baby, as a toddler, as a 6, 7, 8 year old was beautiful and I think necessary for people to see this, this evolution. Can you here give a little bit of, a little bit away from the beginning and because I believe that no one knew, no one knew when your mother was giving birth to you.
Nick Vujicic
Correct.
Interviewer (Sage)
That you had no limbs.
Nick Vujicic
Correct.
Interviewer (Sage)
So you're born.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
In 1983. Excuse me, 82. See, listen, everyone's younger than me, so whatever.
Nick Vujicic
That's so good.
Interviewer (Sage)
And what did the doctors say to your parents?
Nick Vujicic
We're sorry, we're sorry that we didn't see this on the sonograms. And we could have given you at least an option to abort your child, who will be a vegetable. He will never walk, he will not have a quality of life, he will not go to school. We're sorry we didn't pick this up. That's what the doctor said. And then my mom being a nurse, actually she was a midwife, a practitioner, who actually at that time was the head of the birth suite department of a whole hospital. And in Australia, the medical stuff is very different than the American. I mean, this midwife nurse, like even does the epidurals, like everything from soup to nuts. That's what the nurses do in Australia. Okay, so she did all of that she's seen hundreds of births. And I think the grievance is like, I mean, from all the emotions of the shock and grieving the child she did not have. She's very raw on the documentary and I'm so glad that she said yes to being on it because it was like, that was a miracle that she said yes to it because it really brings out the rawness of how difficult that moment was for her, for my dad and even me as a teenager when I felt ready to actually ask her what actually happened that day? What went through your head? What did the doctor say? What about dad? What did he do? What did he say? Because you only hear bits and I'm like, I don't think I'm ready for it. And at age 13, I asked her and we had a two hour conversation and it was hard. It was really, really hard. Yet I put myself in her shoes. I would have done the same thing, thought the same thing, felt the same way. Can't imagine, you know, and then the courage to have a second child after me. Now, coming from a medical background, I was an anomaly. I mean, this is an anomaly. Like, this doesn't happen. It wasn't because of the drug, the morning sickness drug, what do you call it? Thalidomide. She didn't do that. She didn't even take caffeine. Forget about alcohol, not even caffeine. She was so careful with her first pregnancy. And so, yeah, it was just an anomaly. So she knew medically, like to have two children back to Mech. Now, that is insane.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes.
Nick Vujicic
But Aaron was named Aaron to help Moses and he had arms and legs. And then a sister after him. I have, and. And it's amazing, really. The documentary has a lot of home footage rawness. My brother and sister are interviewed there. The janitor that was used by God is interviewed there. My uncle Batha actually was interviewed there.
Interviewer (Sage)
Wow.
Nick Vujicic
And that was actually his last day before he knew that he. It was the day that he did the interview. It was the last day that he did not know that he had cancer. And later that day found out he had cancer that day after the shot. And he's no longer with us either. So my dad and uncle Batha graduated to heaven and looking down at me. And the loss of my father is very much in the documentary, the Ministry journey. Me going around the world and then meeting my wife. My wife's on there. And, you know, it was love at first sight. I looked at her, she looked at me. I couldn't feel my legs. And she's Japanese, Mexican. We call that Japsican. And we have been married now for 14 years. And we live in north of Dallas area. We have some land and a home and cows and chickens and four beautiful children.
Interviewer (Sage)
And they are beautiful. Twin girls.
Nick Vujicic
Twin girls. They're 8 years old. And then a son who's 10, and then our oldest son who's 13. And we are so blessed. We're so blessed that. Look, I'm in my mid-40s, right. Normally when you get a documentary, you're normally dead at that time. Right. I'm in my mid-40s, and me and my wife had the privilege of meeting Billy Graham at his home while we were engaged. We got 45 minutes with Billy Graham behind a oxygen mask and he talked the whole time and it was phenomenal. And we're all Billy Graham. That's the point. There are no limits to what God can do.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes.
Nick Vujicic
With your broken pieces until you give him a chance. And if you've ever doubted that God can ever use a man without arms. Sorry, ever use you. If God can use a man without arms and legs to be his hands and feet, then God can use any willing heart. And I think I know that the young generations, they're not going to believe in Jesus until it's real for them, but they're not going to make it real for them until they actually authentically see it real in others.
Interviewer (Sage)
Right.
Nick Vujicic
So there's a lot of distractions that actually stumble people along the way to heaven and then send them to hell. One of the biggest stumbling blocks of Christians, and the reason why I'm going there, is to help people understand that whole prosperity gospel that you're praying along within the lines of the will of God. And you can basically make God a genie in my words. And you can't do that. You're not God. I thank God that I didn't get healed at 24 years old when I met a little boy with no arms, no legs. I thanked God that day. Thank you, God, for actually not giving me limbs. Do I have pairs of shoes in my closet in case it gives me arms and legs? Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
You have actual pairs of shoes?
Nick Vujicic
I do. I have a dancing pair of shoes, pair of sneakers, a pair of cowboy boots. Because I'm Texan now, and that's all I'm going to have. Just three. Okay.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay.
Nick Vujicic
Because I don't know if I'm going to run, dance or, I don't know, whatever, jump on a horse and go. But when you don't get a miracle, you can still be one. And the whole point on this side of heaven is not to have the life that you want. It's to have the life that God wants. And the epiphany is not the experience either of what that even looks like. Tangibly, physically. The epiphany of this side of heaven is to bring the greatest delight to our Father. A delight to the Father that the angels are jealous of. The angels see his glory and they praise him all day. We don't see him, yet we believe in Him. There is a unique delight that we can actually bring to the Father in heaven that we yet haven't seen. But believe and trust. Pray for something great. Pray great, wonderful. Be healed in Jesus name of cancer. Right now. I believe that with all my heart, whatever is going on, arms and legs today, whatever. But Lord, not my will. Your will and grace be sufficient. Where if I could help someone, one person, realize that Jesus loves them too, that God's got a plan for them too, I mean, arms and legs for 90 years, or that one hug in heaven of someone weeping for joy, me hugging them, them hugging me and saying, thank you for helping me believe that this place called heaven was real. And I don't take credit for that. We say thank God. Thank God because it's all him. So it's in him, through him, for him.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes. And I love that you can so clearly say that now. Gosh, despite where you came from and that broken little boy who tried to take his own life at what, age?
Nick Vujicic
10?
Interviewer (Sage)
Why?
Nick Vujicic
Because I convinced myself that there was no hope. I convinced myself that either God was not real or he owed me an explanation. I wanted an answer. And after bullying at school again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again for years on end and then thinking, well, I'm not going to get a job. I'm not going to get married. 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. What kind of a father can I be? No way. I'm just a burden to my parents. So if I'm a burden to my parents and I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life and no one actually understands me, maybe I could see myself maybe just getting through college or just before college, but not the whole life. But I think I was really triggered that day with some bullying that day. And I've been thinking how to end my life for two years and came up with all sorts of ways to do it. There was one way to do it properly, which was drown myself with no one there enough time that I would be dead enough.
Interviewer (Sage)
Dead enough?
Nick Vujicic
Yeah, dead enough.
Interviewer (Sage)
Why do you say properly?
Nick Vujicic
Well, because. Love your questions. Because I used to love watching. It was therapeutic for me, watching my mom cook. And I had good balance. I got a good core. And I just loved watching her cook. So I thought to myself, well, maybe I can just pretend that I fall off and go head first into the tiles. But then I know JONI eareckson tata story she snapped her neck, became a quadriplegic, thinking, well, I'd be then paralyzed. And just ahead. And my mom would know it's not an accident. My mom's pretty smart. So instead tried to drown myself in a bathtub. I've had chronic pain in my back since age 8. And hot water helps me. And so I would soak in the bathtub. And so I told my dad, hey, dad, can I have a bath? Filled it up with six inches of water. I used to float since before I even remember, actually. My dad taught me how to float. I don't even remember how young I was. So I have half the body, full lungs, so I'm buoyant. They call me Bob when I swim. And so they knew it was safe. And I had enough shoulder and neck to get out of 6 inches. So it wasn't that. But I deliberately started inhaling water. And then I got scared, so I flipped over. And then I, like, come on. Flip over again. Try to choke myself and swallow the water. Then try to breathe it in and then turn over and cough. And I got so angry at myself. I remember this actually, like it was yesterday. I yelled at myself in my head, come on, Nick. Get it done. Do it. Swallowed. And I'm about to inhale. And one quick millisecond in my brain. What actually happens to mom and dad after this? What actually, if I do go through with this. And I saw a picture in my mind of my mom and my dad crying out my grave, wishing I could have done something more. Wishing they could have done something more. And look, they did nothing but love on me. Nick, you're beautiful. God's got a plan for you. You're special. We love you. I loved them more than. I hated my pain at that point. But I was not talking to God. I didn't say one prayer between ages 8 and 12.
Interviewer (Sage)
That moment you stopped, right? You stopped trying to die.
Nick Vujicic
Correct.
Interviewer (Sage)
And then what?
Nick Vujicic
Depressed? Isolated. Secretly sad?
Interviewer (Sage)
Did anyone know you had Done that?
Nick Vujicic
No. In fact. In fact, my parents didn't even know that till I was in my 20s and actually shared it on 60 Minutes Australia. And that's actually how my mom and dad found out. And I forgot. I never told them.
Interviewer (Sage)
What did they say to you?
Nick Vujicic
My mom came over. She said, what's this? What's this about? I'm sorry. She's like, you should have told me. But that's how they found out on national news. Yeah, I forgot. I didn't tell him.
Interviewer (Sage)
How often do you think about that moment?
Nick Vujicic
Suicide? That moment, that whole thing, that moment that you.
Interviewer (Sage)
That you tried and then you couldn't do it. You yelled at yourself and.
Nick Vujicic
No, I hardly. I don't. I only think about it when I have to think about it in interviews.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay.
Nick Vujicic
What I'm going through today, it's interesting. There is a relentless pursuit against me, and it just changes its form. So if the devil had his way, he would kill us all. He nearly did.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yep.
Nick Vujicic
Since stepping on the front lines of the battlefield to preach the gospel and meet presidents and go to 87 countries and preach the gospel to 11 million people and see 1.5 million give their life to Jesus Christ and preaching the gospel to a billion people. On top of that, a billion in China know me without limbs. On top of that, a billion people in India. Know me without limbs. I'm in their English subject mandatory textbook. Every grade seven student has to do an exam on Nick voyage. We're talking 3 billion people at 43 years of age. Okay. Right. It's providentially divine. It's awesome. Right? We have a lot of opposition even to this day. I mean, I just told my wife, I think I'm going to go through counseling in August this year when some dust settles. Yeah. Last time I went through counseling was 2021, after a very traumatic two years in America. Wasn't my marriage, it wasn't my children. It was attacks and a lot of attack. And once we moved to Texas, out of California, I went through counseling and I needed 10 hours of counseling. Just people. That person asking me what happened? How'd that make you feel? Is there anything else you want to say about that? What's amazing, Sage, is it was the first time I realized I did not heal from some things. There was one issue that I needed six hours of counseling on six weeks in a row, one hour each, and then I needed four more, and then I felt pretty good. It was amazing healing just to be able to talk to someone with actually what happened. Not that you know that other people know. It's not that it's talking it out
Interviewer (Sage)
what kind of attacks we had.
Nick Vujicic
Before I get there, I just want to say I'm not thinking of the suicide stuff because where we are today, even this very day, I'm fasting without food. Seven days without food. Because there were some things that can break spiritual strongholds through fasting that prayer cannot break. So these are the current things and recent things that continue on outside of the attacks in 2019. But 2019 attacks included a very viral gay magazine published article about me being anti LGBTQ and falsely framing me for firing an employee for being gay, which was completely false at that time. The management of that magazine made it happen that management of that magazine moved on. I was waiting to see if there'd be any lawsuits from some people. I had to wait three and a half years, four years. New management came in and I waited for the four year thing to pass. And I called him, he said, I'm so sorry, we're not out there in the business to cancel people like you. So they took it down that day. But that article killed me. Every American corporate gig canceled. We got emails from Google, Yahoo, I got debanked from Chase, JP Morgan. We had a grenade in our property. We had a bomb squad. We had a two day drone spying over us. And that's when we knew that maybe we should move out of California. She does a lot for your family. Mother's Day is your chance to show her you see it with a gift from a brand trusted for generations to help people get the moment right. 1-800-flowers with double blooms from 1-800-flowers buy one dozen roses and get another dozen for free. It's a bigger Gesture backed by 50 years of experience delivering fresh flowers. So you can feel confident sending something that lands. Show up for her with Double blooms at 1-800-FLowers.com podcast. That's 1-800-FLowers. Com podcast.
Interviewer (Sage)
So sad.
Nick Vujicic
So that was. That was 2019 and then shutdown happened. I'm a speaker.
Interviewer (Sage)
There's no speeches, no speeches during COVID
Nick Vujicic
But it's all good.
Interviewer (Sage)
Great.
Nick Vujicic
You know, now I can say that I'm still going through a lot. I'm a serial entrepreneur in. I've learned how to time manage, prioritize, delegate and birth. And it's just been a rough couple years in many aspects. But I know that everything I'm doing is exactly what God wants me to do. And my wife believes me and knows it. And she prays for me and she just hugs me extra long like she did two days ago when we found out someone else was withholding truth for five months from me.
Interviewer (Sage)
So that's when it comes down to your faith and your support system.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
You said many things about when you were a kid and things people said to you, you'll never, never, never do this or this or this. And I, I, I'm guessing the not getting married and not having kids part was probably the most difficult at a young age to consider. Maybe not believe, but consider. So did you ever lose hope for that?
Nick Vujicic
That I never get married?
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
Hell yeah. Yeah. There's a story there. There was a girl that I was interested in before I met my wife and we didn't get the blessing of the parents.
Interviewer (Sage)
Her parents.
Nick Vujicic
Her parents. And that's when I realized that, you know what? I don't think I'm ever going to get married.
Interviewer (Sage)
Did they talk to you or was she the one that told you, mom
Nick Vujicic
and dad say no, I'd rather not expand because.
Interviewer (Sage)
But that broke that.
Nick Vujicic
It killed me. It killed me. And there were some other things there, but yeah, it was hard. And then two years after that, I met my wife. So she is exceedingly, abundantly more than I can ever ask, imagine or attain. And I've had the closure, as much closure as one can have from before, from the prior. Yeah, yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
Helpful when you meet your wife, I'm sure. Right.
Nick Vujicic
To kind of very helpful.
Interviewer (Sage)
Validate all this is why. Ah, right.
Nick Vujicic
And she is amazing.
Interviewer (Sage)
How did you propose?
Nick Vujicic
I love that story. So she is smart. She's smart. I'm smart. But she's smarter and she can feel stuff in the air before it happens. Right. I needed to surprise her, like big time surprise her. Someone blurted out to her that I already bought the ring, so I had to fast track it. Stupid. So annoyed at that. We were dating for 12 months and I was going to propose four months later. So I pushed it forward, got a mum, mum met my parents. They loved each other. All good. And then I'm like, hey, come back. And then I'm going to propose. So we came up with all these funny, funny, funny ideas, me and my caregivers, because I don't want help to propose to my wife. That's just not cool. Yeah. So I decided to give the very nice ring. Not as nice as your ring.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, goodness.
Nick Vujicic
To the local bakery and put it in a cream puff. You know the cream puffs? Yeah, yeah. And one of them has powdered sugar on it. Yeah. Sugarcane. And that's the one with the ring. So I got It Friday, got it. Saturday morning. And I'm still like, what am I going to do? How am I going to do it? So I'm like, I woke up, I'm like, I know I'm going to get a boat. So I rented a boat in Santa Barbara, a nice 39 foot Catalina, and made it happen by the grace of God. Took the cream puffs out and I said, hey, let's go out on a boat with your mum. I didn't speak a lick of Spanish. She didn't speak a lick. Her mum, when you spoke Spanish at the time? I didn't speak a lick of Spanish. She didn't speak English. So I connected my wife's sister to say, hey, she's coming on. When I give her the signal, go to the back of the boat and take photos. That was it. So we're on this boat. Long story short, I asked her, hey, honey, can you feed me the cream puff? That. Which one? That one. There was like 30 of them. It was giant. I was so scared, Sage. There was so many. Bigger than my mouth. I got a big mouth. Okay, it's bigger than my mouth. Like, shoot. What if I, like, bite in the ring? What if it, you know, what if I choke on the ring? Oh, my. Like always. And it was pretty wavy and I was actually scared that the cream puffs are gonna actually jump off. And. And I actually said, hey, bring that. She's like, why are you worried about the cream puffs? She said, baby, let me kiss your hand. I looked deliberately to her left hand, left hand. And I said to her, hey, baby, let me kiss your hand. So it took me about two minutes to actually finish the cream puff, tried to polish it off as much as possible and then positioned it correctly in my mouth.
Interviewer (Sage)
So you're.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah, it's all done. I had to turn away because, like, cream came out. It was that big. And. Yeah. So anyway, so then I kissed her hand and then I went down on her finger and she thought I was getting kinky because I went really deep. And obviously it was the correct finger. It was the ring finger. And I slide on the ring and then pull back and she feels something on her finger and she's just shocked.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, my gosh.
Nick Vujicic
And I said, baby, I love you with all my heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you please marry me? And she was silent for two. Two minutes. She was just crying.
Interviewer (Sage)
Two minutes crying, that's an eternity.
Nick Vujicic
Like, it felt like two minutes for me. Maybe it was only. It was only One minute. I don't know. But it was freaking long time. Forever. I'm like. So I actually had to say. So.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
There was that much of a pause. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. And grabbed me and kissed me like crazy. It was awesome. And, you know, I don't have to hold her hand.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
I just need to hold her heart. And she's the strongest, most incredible, beautiful woman I'll ever meet in my life. And she's amazing. She's amazing.
Interviewer (Sage)
How do you hold her heart?
Nick Vujicic
So I need to pursue her. And so the way we pursue each other, not just the normal things that people think is we keep very much intentionally engaged. You know, if your wife ain't having sex with you, you know, every six weeks, eight weeks, there is something very wrong. Very, very wrong. And I don't want to talk about what a healthy rhythm would be for anyone else out there. But I'm just going to say, if there's a problem, there's a problem. Generally in marriage, when both of the couple individual feels that each of you are giving more than the other, it's about right. But it's interesting. In business, we always ask three questions at the end of every annual P and L board member, whatever. So what are we doing as a business that we need to stop doing? What is a business we need to start doing that we're not doing? What are we doing? Well, to keep on doing it. What if we did that with our marriage? What if we did that with our parenting? What if we actually sat down with them and said, hey, I want to be a better dad. What am I doing? That just pisses you off and then shut up and listen. It's hard. Very hard. Parenting's harder.
Interviewer (Sage)
I agree.
Nick Vujicic
Marriage is easier. Not saying it's easy, right? It's easier 100%. But to hear from my wife what she would like me to stop doing, start doing and keep doing. And then for me to be able to have that space to tell her what I feel like she should start doing, stop doing, keep doing and do that monthly. Dude, you continue to grow in love.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
If you don't grow in faith with God, you shrink in faith with God. Same thing with marriage. If you don't grow in love with your wife or your husband, you shrink in love, period. That's how it is. And it's not that you want to earn her love, just like we don't want to earn God's love because we can't earn his love. But it's the love that makes you do the hard Stuff. And if you think that sounds hard, just remember what Jesus did for you.
Interviewer (Sage)
Right.
Nick Vujicic
Extreme. Yeah. Extreme love. Jesus. It's all real.
Interviewer (Sage)
Is there a. And I know that if I don't ask it right, or if it's too much, you'll tell me.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
If there's. Is there. Was there like a grief period, whether it was with your wife or as a father? Because you've said it so beautifully about, I can't hold your hand, but I can hold your heart. I can't end with your children.
Nick Vujicic
I've got a beautiful answer for that. Keep going.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah. Because what you say, how you say it matters so much, sometimes more than just a pat on the back or the shoulder, whatever. But you knew from day one that you wouldn't be able to. It isn't maybe as if you lost your limbs as a teenager and are missing that per se, but I. I imagine that knowing you the way I do now and depth of you and your heart, that that has always been something that you long for or.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Or not.
Interviewer (Sage)
Am I wrong?
Nick Vujicic
So don't get me wrong.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah. Like, I'm not a freaking saint. Yeah. And I'm not somebody that says, I would like to suffer to get closer to God.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
That's not in the Bible. So with that understanding, I grieve almost every day. Because I'm reminded every day of what I can't do. Yesterday, for instance, I couldn't even watch them for long. My son, he has a brother. One's playing basketball, one's playing baseball. And his brother didn't want to throw him the ball after three hits that he got. And I. It's fine. So then he threw it up and did that for a bit. And I asked my wife, I said, hey, do you mind throwing a ball? I can't. So as a family, we grieve together though, too, because my son grieves that daddy can't play. My wife grieves that the son's looking right and then she's grieving that I'm grieving. It's a daily long suffering which keeps me humble. People don't understand, like the steps that I have to take in my brain just to do the simple stuff and depend on another human being. And it's a daily grievance. Yet I look at my hero. Joni Eareckson Tada. If you ever want to anything about suffering and long suffering and grace of God and joy in the midst of suffering. Joni Eareckson Tata living unbelievable, providentially divine, beautiful woman of God who Snapped her neck in her teens. She's doing a documentary right now about her life, a docu series. Her book was read by my mom, was the first book to change my mom's heart. And I got to meet Joni, and Joni gave us a free office space when I first came to California in her new International Disability center in Agore Hills, California, she though, is accustomed to levels of suffering that I will never be able to understand
Interviewer (Sage)
because she experienced the loss from having it to not having.
Nick Vujicic
Correct.
Interviewer (Sage)
So it's a different level you feel than yours.
Nick Vujicic
All the pain that she continued to have over decades and having to depend on people and knowing what it meant to have arms and legs to, to then losing it to, then all of that. And she married Kentada, an incredible Japanese dude too. And just beautiful ministry, beautiful marriage, and her story is just beautiful. But to go back to, I have written out 106 different ways on how the human being could suffer. And you can't say, well, at least I'm not a human trafficked four year old who was sold by my mother for $700, which I've met. I met. What do you tell her?
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah, at the same time, you know, I say this to my kids too. Why are we. It's not fair to compare. Yours is real, your suffering is real, even if it's different from his or hers. Correct perspective, certainly. But don't ignore your suffering because it's not as bad as someone else's.
Nick Vujicic
That's a fine line, 100%. It's the heart and mind. It's the heart and mind. That's where the healing, the freedom, the power or disability is.
Interviewer (Sage)
Who are your people? And we know it's your wife, we know it's your kids, but when you talk about having to literally depend on others
Nick Vujicic
spiritually. I go to church every week. I love Pastor Jeff. I got my friends, I do Bible study here and there. But really the core friends that I have are apart from the team who I consider very, very close to me. One of them is one of three people, Carla, Marianne and Steve. And I've known them since I was 19. They've been with me through thick and thin. They know everything, they see everything. And I also have a friend called Brian. And so when I went through the shutdown and the anxiety and the stress and looking over my shoulder, who's actually out to kill me, I called them once a week, alternating weeks. And so two friends of mine, Steve and Brian, amongst Marianne and Carla, close friends, means a lot to me. Loyal team members Means a lot to me. I mean, you can imagine one of the positions I need to fill is a caregiver who comes right in it. Right in the inner. Inner. In the inner circle. Yeah. And 96% of the time, we get it right.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
And we're blessed. But it's always like. It's rough. Who are my people? My wife and four good friends around us that were in driving distance. A friend of ours. They're all in Dallas. They're all in close proximity and relatively now new friendships, actually, which is really nice. I've seen over the seasons, the seasons changing of mentors always having accountability.
Interviewer (Sage)
Right.
Nick Vujicic
We have that. We have accountability for me on a board level and all that. On uprightness and righteousness, as much as a human being can have. Woe to me if I fall and fail and one goes to hell because of my failure. But as much as we are striving, we're striving and God hears our prayers. That's all I want to say. God hears our prayers. And for me, we're all different. I don't really listen to worship music much. There are very minimal times. I will listen to a whole album on a plane, at church. I don't really sing. I don't. I don't. I sit there and just sit. I'm not a worshiper. Don't raise my hands or anything. Do you get that?
Interviewer (Sage)
Every time you casually throw it out there? The hard part is sometimes you're so in tune. Tone doesn't change. You just keep going right through.
Nick Vujicic
But I. I read the Bible. I take a lot of notes. I feel like just taking notes as he speaks to me or encourages me.
Interviewer (Sage)
How do you take notes?
Nick Vujicic
Oh, with my foot. With my little smartphone in toe. And then I've got some incredible prayer warrior intercessors. Yeah, very good. About 24 of us on a group text, really, When I'm about to have a big meeting, I can't even disclose, even to the most trusted people, what meeting it is. I just say I'm having a meeting. Pray for me. I need to make two big decisions. Pray for me. And I made the first one. They're like praying for the second one. So prayer is giant. And One of those 24 have actually 150 people praying.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, that's.
Nick Vujicic
So we have hundreds of people, actually. Yeah, yeah.
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Interviewer (Sage)
The. The things you've been able to do are. I mean, it's really endless. It's incredible. Which is another reason why I'm excited for people to see no limbs, no limits.
Nick Vujicic
Thank you.
Interviewer (Sage)
You're going to detail that in, in your documentary. What is the thing that you have awed yourself with the most, like physically that you. That you've been able to do that?
Nick Vujicic
Maybe you thought what was impossible. Yeah, I lifted £300 like this. There's one.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay, I'm looking for. I'm looking for backup here. Like. See, you never know how seriously to take this one.
Nick Vujicic
No, no, no. This is for real. And then I held my breath once.
Interviewer (Sage)
No, wait, you can't.
Nick Vujicic
What?
Interviewer (Sage)
£300?
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
How?
Nick Vujicic
Well, you were in a gym. You know, the laying down the bench press. I just went up to it and I went like this. Well, it wasn't that easy, but I did it. I did this far.
Interviewer (Sage)
Is there video proof?
Nick Vujicic
No, but I can do it next week if you want. With Tim Tebow.
Interviewer (Sage)
With Tebow?
Nick Vujicic
No, no. This day was. This day was back in the day in Australia. But I have bench press people. So. You know the Benham brothers?
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes.
Nick Vujicic
I had one guy on this side. One guy on this side. And I was on the floor. Yeah. And I have my shoulders back and I can bench press them. Pushing into me like this, no problem. So I have. I have strong strength.
Interviewer (Sage)
Well, you talked about that. But your core strength, incredible core as well, is big.
Nick Vujicic
The other thing was I can hold my breath longer than most people because I have half the body to supply oxygen to and I have bigger lungs. Actually, on the left side, I'm a bigger lung than the right because of. I have a scoliosis. Long story. So I can hold my breath now for. Yeah, My average is 2 minutes and 11 seconds.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
What average?
Nick Vujicic
The average. The longest. You won't believe me, so I should.
Interviewer (Sage)
Tell me.
Nick Vujicic
I have a witness. Martin Poljack was there. My cousin, first cousin. In a jacuzzi in a hotel in gold coast. Okay. 4 minutes and 9 seconds.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Oh, my gosh.
Nick Vujicic
So anyway, that's really good. So, you know, that was fun. I love though, driving my boat. I have a. Just a simple 22 footer pontoon with the 90 on the back. Recreational things that I can do by myself.
Interviewer (Sage)
By yourself.
Nick Vujicic
I love it. Yeah. But then we put the kids on the tube in the back on the lake in Texas, and I drive them and. And we go fishing and we love it. And that's what we'll be doing a couple weeks again. Now it's warmer, so I love that stuff. And then I'm going to be learning how to add. I'm adapting again, a fishing rod that I can fish with my boys. And then I'm also in the in touch with this dude. He's only got one elbow, and he's got 12,000 followers on Instagram. And he's a fisherman, and he does these crazy fishing knots in his mouth. Like, I can't. Like, I'm not asking him to teach me that, but I want to know how he drives a car. I've driven a car before in different adaptions. I didn't like the setup.
Interviewer (Sage)
Okay, so is it. Is it something that comes from the steering wheel and they put around your shoulder?
Nick Vujicic
Yeah, it was kind of like it was with my foot, believe it or not. But, yeah, But I want to now. I'm 40. I'm in my 40s, but I need to treat myself like I'm in my 60s. I'm not saying that I'm dying soon, but my body is slowing down. I do have pain. I do have to be careful with my body as I'm getting older. My bones, my structure, and we're getting weaker as we get older.
Interviewer (Sage)
Sure.
Nick Vujicic
I've just done a lot more wear and tear. Like, imagine all the wear and tear on your arms and legs. Now put that on your torso. That's basically what happened to me. So I have to be careful when your kids. So I want to have fun now. Yeah, more fun now. More fun now.
Interviewer (Sage)
Let's go. Yolo. When your kids see you driving the boat with them on the tube behind,
Nick Vujicic
it's normal to them.
Interviewer (Sage)
But, I mean, that must bring you such joy to see their smiles, probably. And then when they're little kids, I mean, initially, they're probably like, well, dad can't do it. Oh, Dad's doing it.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
Like, you obviously are teaching them so much by doing the impossible.
Nick Vujicic
Correct. It's awesome. It's the best. And then when I can be on par with other dads, can't maybe throw a baseball, but I'm going to buy a machine that throws the dude a baseball. Right. I'll buy it. Right. No problem. We're buying it. This Week. It hurt me that bad. I'm like, I'm going to find one and. But you know, we like fishing, we all like fishing. And you know, my son caught an 8 pound bass in 20 minutes fishing with dad. He was 8 years old. Which 8 year old fishes for 20 minutes and gets an 8 pound bass? A largemouth bass.
Interviewer (Sage)
Not fair.
Nick Vujicic
If you know anything about fishing, it's quite fun.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
So God knows, like at the right moments, you know, when, just when you go through difficult things, remember this God will give you just enough of a little bit of glimpse of his glory just to keep you going from time to time. And when he doesn't, just take one day at a time. And remember Philippians 4, 13. It doesn't say, I can achieve all things through Christ who strengthens me. Which is the often translated version of that verse. It really should be, I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me. And God is the God of the mountain, who is the God of the valley. And he will always teach us if we allow him to, and if we're listening. But can I just tell you, we are so more prideful, so more greedy, so more lustful than we think we are. We're not perfect. We go through the mountains and the valleys. There are things that I will never learn on a mountain, that I'll learn in the valley. So you got to thank God for the valley. And that's when the devil actually loses, understand? Like he couldn't care less if I have no arms. If I can just get Nick's joy. If I can just make him give up on God because of that Christian, he'll try. But if I say, you know what? Forgive that person.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
And I forgive you. Now let's move on. Don't necessarily need to be your friend, but I gotta forgive him. Unforgiveness is a cancer. You're already dead.
Interviewer (Sage)
It is. It takes a toll.
Nick Vujicic
It'll rot your soul. So many people, sage, are saved. But on their way to the grave, they're bleeding on their way to their physical death. A bleeding that God doesn't want. So I stand complete, lacking nothing. Not because of money, not because of fame, not because of opportunity, not because of a ministry, not because of an identity, not because of the perception of the world about Nick Vujicic, not because I'm married, not because I've got kids, not because of anything of that I'm complete and lacking nothing. Because he completes me. And he continues to work on something I'll never be perfect at. Patience. That patience have its perfect work in you, so that you would be perfect and lacking nothing. And that's why what he began with you, he'll complete it. Not yet. When is he completed? In your last breath. Until the day of Jesus Christ, Rapture or your last breath. Meaning you're never going to be perfect, you're never going to be complete. And it's always a strive, always a journey. Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
We talked earlier about what you grieve every day.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
What do you celebrate every day?
Nick Vujicic
My wife. My wife, she's the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
It's beautiful.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah. You know, and I do thank God for the many people who gave life to Jesus. I do thank God for my kids. But of course, if it's one thing, it's my wife.
Interviewer (Sage)
What do you think is the reason why you have such a strong marriage?
Nick Vujicic
She was raised in a difficult. She had a difficult childhood. She was forced to be strong. I was forced to be strong. Going into it. My. It's in the documentary, actually. There were three couples. Two couples apart from my mom and dad, who, without me knowing, they set her in a corner and grilled her and wanted to know, why does she love me? Is it because of the money? Do you realize that he has no limbs? Do you realize that your kids will maybe have no limbs? She gave all the real sincere, perfect answers. And I love the one about the kids. She was like, oh, I don't care. Four or five. Our kids have no limbs. At least they got a good role model. That's what she said.
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Nick Vujicic
And what's interesting about the money question? It's so funny, I have to add this. When we just started dating, I lost all my money. So I said, hey, babe, I just lost all my money. That's all right. I'll get a nursing job and support the both of us. She's just amazing, right? We're already dating, but the bottom line of why we're so strong is we've seen, you know, there's a God when you've seen the devil. And when, when, when, when, when there are opportunities to come. I mean, you should see. I mean, I, I would not be who she is. When I tell her, hey, there's a phone call coming up and I need you on this phone call. And she hears the phone call and she's like, oh, that's big an opportunity. I Had to decide. I can't tell you what it is. And I need to make a decision within three hours. And it actually affects one nation, entire population of a nation outside the US we always have to be poised. Yeah, I know how God speaks to me. I always have to sleep on things. I've learned earlier now, thank God that the bigger decisions, I have to do it with my wife, not separate. 15 to team. We're a team.
Interviewer (Sage)
You're a team.
Nick Vujicic
So I think we realize we're a team.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah, that's why it's the key. People talk all the time about, you know, did you get cancer?
Sponsor/Ad Voice
And why.
Interviewer (Sage)
Why me? And then others are so impressed when people don't ask that there's not a right or wrong way. But I have a feeling you know, why God put you on this earth the exact way that he did. Yeah. Why did he put you on this Earth? Why is Nick Vujicic perfect the way he is and the way he chooses to share with the world?
Nick Vujicic
In 2008, I went to India, went to a rehab camp for the rescued human trafficked slaves who were sold by their mothers for US$700 at four years of age. They find God healing, restitution for their own souls. Find a job, save up money. 700 bucks. Not for a car, not for a bike. They go and rescue another slave, adopt that child as their sister. I've seen it with my own eyes. So parallel to me now, in contrast, texture, it's the same thing. Ish, but not. There are doctrinal questions of why does God really allow everyone to suffer? And what happens to the people that never hear about Jesus? Are they really going to hell? I believe there is a special grace for the people who've never heard for me. Why do I believe he put me on planet Earth? Because he delights in me. He knew my name before the earth began. He has more precious thoughts than me, than all the grains of sand in the world. He formed me, my mother's womb. I actually believe that God knew exactly what he was doing with Joseph in the prison. I know that God knew what he was doing with Moses and King David. As a shepherd, he delights in the kids. I now, as a parent, understand what that is. And it's individual and uniquely divinely delightful. You get to learn four different ways on how to parent when you have four different kids. So from a perspective as a heavenly father, to me, as an adopted son, I think he has a plan for everyone. Just the plan that he had for me. Had a couple more zeros of impact along the way with people hearing about Jesus.
Interviewer (Sage)
But you chose to listen. That was a choice.
Nick Vujicic
By his grace. By his grace, I heard by his grace. I heard by his grace. My heart was not hardened by his grace. I even knew the truth. To then feel the Holy Spirit's conviction By his grace, despite my hate towards him and not speaking to him for five years, if he was in front of me, I'd spit in his face. That was the hatred I had.
Interviewer (Sage)
Wow.
Nick Vujicic
Despite that, his grace upon grace upon grace to then eventually, in his own way, take me to a Sunday morning Bible study, read John chapter 9 and say yes to then by his grace, go into the correct school to have that spoken over me by the janitor. To then have the correct parents who would allow me to go to South Africa in a very dangerous time in Johannesburg, to go there in 19 years of age 2002, to give $30,000 cash to the poor and needy and speak 36 times in nine days. Because my DVD went viral in South Africa and I had a lot of churches asking me to come to on and on and on and on. It's God's grace. Yes. He doesn't make the choice for me. He gives us free will as he does everyone. But it was by his grace. And then it's up to us, do we listen or do we not? And how much do we listen? How much do we surrender and then three hours later, take it back?
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
It's the daily beautiful thing that I continue to be matured in.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes. How many billions of people know you three? Give or take. Give or take a few billion people.
Nick Vujicic
The Chinese government allows me to fill stadiums before all this sanction. Can't preach, but they put me on tv. A billion people know who I am in China. A billion people. You know what's crazy?
Interviewer (Sage)
India.
Nick Vujicic
India. Sage, do you know India? Have you been to India?
Interviewer (Sage)
The most densely populated.
Nick Vujicic
It's a beautiful country, beautiful people, most kind people. But they have, I think 330 million gods. And, and I know why I'm Christian. I know why I'm not Islam. I know why I'm not atheist. I'm a Shinto Buddhist. I know why I'm not. I looked it up and I put my disability in that box. Very interesting contrast. When you put a disabled or a poor person in any of those things, it's very, very different from what you understand is, oh, everyone's going to a good place, everyone's loving. So India, A human trafficked person in India under their religion is still purposeful in fact, there is a sex God to appease. So if I'm poor in India, just so you understand, if I'm poor in India and I have a daughter and a son, I am supposed to. If I'm a diligent religious person within that religion, I am to offer the sex God, my daughter as a prostitute to appease the sex God because I'm poor. That's what I'm supposed to do. And then my son's supposed to be the pimp. It's generally what happens. Okay? This is the religion there. So in their religion, a prostitute still has purpose. In their religion, I don't. I should be buried. And there's 55 countries in the world today. 55, sage. 55. That under freedom of religious freedom, under the Constitution of 55 nations, kill children that are disabled right after they're born because of tribal beliefs. They think that I'm a contagious curse. My mother's supposed to be ostracized, never spoken to ever again. Literally bury me alive under dirt for contagious reasons. I'm not joking. In that country. Sage. I'm in their English subject textbooks. The first six pages of their English textbook mandatorily needed an exam. And the word God is in it. Capital G. I can't even say God in a school. Here they class me as a terrorist.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
And the sentence says, you see a photo of me and surfing and swimming, and it's a whole bio of me as they're learning English. He attributes all of his joy, faith, joy, hope and strength in his faith in God. Tell me that's not miraculous, right?
Interviewer (Sage)
Yep.
Nick Vujicic
You know, I can't go to an Indian restaurant in America. Someone who said we had to study. You, sir. We know you, sir. They call me Soho. They're beautiful. So China, India. Yeah. And the Jews. Trust me, I've been on Al Jazeera. I'm one of the few evangelists that actually preach the gospel to 200 million people in Al Jazeera. I've been on Oman. I've been to Qatar. I've been in Iran in 2018, not long ago.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, wow.
Nick Vujicic
Okay. Lovely people all around the world, different religions. I love everyone. I do. I love everyone. We should love everyone. One of the most trusted Christians by the Jewish people. I love the Jews. I love everyone. I hate, hate.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yeah.
Nick Vujicic
But I'm here to just shine the light where I can and not curse the darkness. But it is surreal. And even this documentary, why are we doing it? To say, wow, we achieved something or got Somewhere or whatever. Nah, we're here to do it because we want people to be stirred. We want people to be stirred to then say a prayer out of their mouth right after the film to say, okay, God, if you got a plan for Nick, yeah, you got a plan for me, too.
Interviewer (Sage)
That's the thing. And your why is very clear to me, but it's. They're all choices, and that's what I hope people really take and understand. Every aspect of your life has been a decision. A decision that has been dark in some ways, but so much more light. And now billions of people get to see it and hear it and hopefully change. Have their lives changed.
Nick Vujicic
Amen.
Interviewer (Sage)
Like, it's. That's a miracle.
Nick Vujicic
Amen.
Interviewer (Sage)
That's beautiful.
Nick Vujicic
Amen. I still would like arms and legs. That would be cool. Can you imagine 3 billion people now waking up to the news, Nick's got arms and legs. Oh, it's AI. No, it's not. It's God. Okay. We don't know what God's got. It'd be cool to wake up. It'd be awesome.
Interviewer (Sage)
I will send you whatever pair of shoes you want. You have the cowboy boots covered, right? You have your dancing shoes covered. I have a feeling it would. They would be loud. They would be. They would be making a statement. Oh, they'd be like, I will.
Nick Vujicic
I'll wait for those.
Interviewer (Sage)
Sounds velvety. You're going to be like, oh, I waited for these. I am so grateful for our friendship.
Nick Vujicic
Thank you.
Interviewer (Sage)
Sage kindness when I first met you, and just being so welcoming of us, so it means. It means the world.
Nick Vujicic
Thank you for having me. And you are such a delight. And Dave. And thank you for having me here.
Interviewer (Sage)
You talk about patience. You talk about better halves.
Nick Vujicic
Yeah.
Interviewer (Sage)
And, yeah, there's a lot of. Lot of God floating around here.
Nick Vujicic
So. Good.
Interviewer (Sage)
It's very evident.
Nick Vujicic
So I'd love to pray for your viewers, if that's okay.
Interviewer (Sage)
Oh, let's do it. That would be beautiful.
Nick Vujicic
Okay, cool.
Interviewer (Sage)
Yes.
Nick Vujicic
Dear Lord Jesus, we come before you and we thank you, Lord, that you know who is watching and who's listening. Who perhaps has their own disability that people can't see. Lord, we thank you that you are the healer and you want us free. Free of the burdens and shackles of fear and doubt, anxiety, depression, addiction, affliction. Lord, some of us are facing bullies, and some of us have become our biggest bully. And I ask in Jesus, name that right now, Holy Spirit, that you touch them, speak to them in their next breath. Give them your peace. Let them hear your voice as they seek you in prayer and also reading the Bible daily. Lord, we thank youk that when we need wisdom, we get wisdom. We get grace upon grace and mercy. And Lord, some of us are still asking why? Why me? Why aren't you fighting for me? Why did you'd forget me? It's the same words that Jesus had on the cross. And we correlate that biblically to know that Jesus, you know how our friends are feeling right now. We thank youk, Jesus. Comfort them, Lord. For some of us who need an encouragement, we pray, God, that yout would springboard them back up in a way of not wanting to just get back on the mountain, but to know that yout're by their side. Lord, you have a plan, a good plan, a power, a divinity like none who can take our broken pieces and do something magnificently miraculous. Do that, Lord, please. And may they take a step closer to youo in their personal walk with you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Interviewer (Sage)
Amen.
Nick Vujicic
Love you.
Interviewer (Sage)
Love you.
Nick Vujicic
You're awesome.
Interviewer (Sage)
Thank you so much.
Nick Vujicic
You're welcome.
Interviewer (Sage)
I always feel like more peaceful, more at peace after I'm around you. And I hope everybody else feels that too. No limbs, no limits. September.
Nick Vujicic
September. Go to nickvfilm.com cheers. Give me a hug.
Interviewer (Sage)
Thank you.
Nick Vujicic
You're awesome.
Episode Date: April 15, 2026
Guest: Nick Vujicic
Host: Sage Steele
This episode features a heartfelt and candid conversation between Sage Steele and Nick Vujicic, an internationally renowned speaker and evangelist born without limbs. The discussion traverses Nick’s extraordinary life journey: from the moment doctors recommended abortion to his parents, to surviving bullying, struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, finding faith, and ultimately inspiring millions globally through his message and unique outlook. The episode touches on faith, resilience, family, forgiveness, and the power of choosing purpose over circumstance.
"We're sorry, we're sorry that we didn't see this on the sonograms. And we could have given you at least an option to abort your child, who will be a vegetable. He will never walk, he will not have a quality of life, he will not go to school." — Nick Vujicic ([30:56])
“After bullying at school again and again and again and again for years on end... I was convinced that God's love was not real. It wasn't for me.” ([01:24])
“I loved them more than I hated my pain at that point. But I was not talking to God.” ([42:31])
“It ain't about sight, it ain't about arms and legs. Give me arms and legs, please... But if you don't, use my pain. But I know that more than arms and legs, I need my soul saved, my heart healed, my mind renewed, and I know you're going to use me one day.” ([12:13])
“Generally in marriage, when both of the couple individual feels that each of you are giving more than the other, it’s about right.” — Nick Vujicic ([59:44])
“Unforgiveness is a cancer. You’re already dead. It’ll rot your soul.” ([78:38])
On His Mission:
“If you’ve ever doubted that God has a plan or a purpose for your life, or you ever doubted that he can’t use your broken pieces, it might challenge you to actually have faith and ask God to help your unbelief.” — Nick Vujicic ([08:14])
On Daily Grief and Acceptance:
“I grieve almost every day. Because I’m reminded every day of what I can’t do... Yet I look at my hero Joni Eareckson Tada... She’s accustomed to levels of suffering that I will never be able to understand.” ([62:13])
On Impact:
“If God can use a man without arms and legs to be his hands and feet, then God can use any willing heart.” ([35:54])
On Forgiveness:
“Unforgiveness is a cancer. You’re already dead. It’ll rot your soul. So many people, sage, are saved. But on their way to the grave, they’re bleeding... a bleeding that God doesn’t want so I stand complete, lacking nothing. Not because of money, not because of fame... but because He completes me.” ([78:38], [79:44])
On Marriage and Partnership:
“We’re a team... I know how God speaks to me. I always have to sleep on things. I have to do it with my wife, not separate.” ([83:46])
On Miracles and Expectation:
“I still would like arms and legs. That would be cool. Can you imagine 3 billion people now waking up to the news, Nick’s got arms and legs. Oh, it’s AI. No, it’s not. It’s God.” ([93:59])
On Enduring Hardship:
“There are things that I will never learn on a mountain, that I’ll learn in the valley. So you gotta thank God for the valley.” ([77:05])
Nick Vujicic’s story illustrates not only the overcoming of physical disability, but also how purpose and faith can transform personal suffering into a vehicle for hope and inspiration on a global scale. His candor about daily grief, marriage, setbacks, and victories offers practical encouragement for anyone facing their own "impossible" circumstances. The episode closes with a moving prayer, inviting listeners to seek peace and purpose beyond visible limitations.
Documentary Note:
Nick’s new documentary, “No Limbs, No Limits,” releases September 2026. For more info, visit nickvfilm.com.