Life without limbs

Yesterday morning I awoke to a text message from a classmate telling me that my Sports Medicine class would be held in the chapel instead of our normal classroom.  I thought this was strange, and for a moment I even thought that perhaps somebody was just playing a trick on me!  But the more I thought about it I realized I was just being paranoid, so I got ready for class and then headed towards the chapel.  Before I reached the chapel however, my phone rang and it was my Sports Medicine professor, Justin.  He asked if I knew where class was meeting today and when I told him the chapel he corrected me and said to come to the auditorium.  When I got there it was packed with students!  I spotted a few of my classmates and sat down with them on the second floor.  I realized quickly that a church service was just ending, and that's why my classmate had said "come to chapel".  I arrived during the transition between the church service to a university-wide presentation by a man named Nick Vujicic.

Nick Vujicic has no arms and no legs.  He is limbless!  He developed a program called "Life Without Limbs" and travels around the world giving presentations and motivational speeches.  Many other classes were present for his speech, along with many faculty members, and the auditorium was almost full.  The audience seemed to enjoy it for the most part but I was bothered by a lot of what he said, or rather how he said it.

Nick's tiny body stood on a table as he spoke and a translator accompanied him.  He spoke about how he was born this way and how he's met many other limbless people who have ended up that way through injury, disease, or even from a brutal attack.  He explained how he's thankful for how much he as and he accredits God and Christ to his success and motivation in life. Nick is extremely religious and he incorporates much of his views on Christianity and Jesus Christ into his speech.  At times he went so far that I almost felt as if he was preaching to the audience, rather than speaking to us.  This was the first time that the University's Christian influence was really apparent to me.

The part that I disagreed with most was when he literally was shouting to the audience about how we all live our life in sin unless we believe in the power of Christ.  Now, I totally realize and respect the fact that this is a popular Christian notion, but I believe his speech could've still been heartfelt and powerful without all the Christianity references.  I wish that he had gone more into detail about some of the amazing experiences that he said he's had, like traveling around the world and even learning how to surf and golf.

Here is a picture I took from the presentation, Nick is the one on the table. Remember, you can click on a picture to get a bigger view.