My name is Nick Vujicic (pronounced VOY-a-chich). I am twenty-seven years old. I was born without any limbs,
but I am not constrained by my circumstances. I travel the world encouraging millions of people to overcome adversity
with faith, hope, love, and courage so that they may pursue their dreams.
In this booklet I will share with you my experiences in dealing with adversity and obstacles, some of them unique to
me but most universal to us all. My goal is to encourage you to overcome your own challenges and hardships so you can find your own purpose and pathway to a great life.
To do that well, though, you need to have hope. Why is hope so important? Where do we find it? And how do we sustain hope when life brings us hard things? Time and again in my life and in my travels I have witnessed the incredible power of the human spirit. I know for certain that miracles happen, but only for those who hang on to hope.
What is hope? It is where dreams begin. It is the voice of your purpose. It speaks to you and reassures you that whatever happens to you doesn’t live within you. You may not control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond.
The late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., said, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” I know for certain that as long as you draw breath, hope is available to you. You and I are only human. We cannot see into the future. Instead, we picture the possibilities for what might be.
Only God knows how our lives will unfold. Hope is His gift to us, a window to look through. We cannot know the
future He has planned for us. Trust in Him, keep hope in your heart, and even when faced with the worst, do whatever
you can to prepare yourself for the best! Sometimes, of course, our prayers are not answered. Tragedies occur despite
our prayers and our faith. Even the best people with the purest of hearts sometimes suffer horrible losses and grief. The recent deadly earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Mexico, and China are just the most recent examples that tremendous suffering and tragedies occur every day. Thousands died in those natural catastrophes. Their hopes and dreams died with them. Many mothers lost their children. Many children lost their mothers.
How do you sustain hope amid such suffering? One thing that sustains me when I hear of these great calamities is
the fact that they always trigger incredible caring from other human beings. Just when you wonder why, amid such senseless suffering, people would still have hope, hundreds of selfless volunteers pour into those regions. Students, doctors, engineers, and other rescuers and rebuilders give of themselves and their talents to help those who have survived.
Hope appears even in the worst of times to give us proof of God’s presence. My own suffering seems so slight in comparison to the trials endured by so many people I’ve met. I’ve also grieved the loss of a loved one. Our family lost my cousin Roy to cancer at the age of twenty-seven, despite the fervent prayers of all the devout Christians in our family, church, and community. Losing someone so close to you is heartbreaking and difficult to understand, which is why having hope is so important to me. You see, my hope extends beyond our worldly existence.
Copyright © 2012 by Nick Vujicic. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
