Spotlight - "Life without limbs"

So, last night was not the typical evening encounter with my dad. "Hey Jon come watch this guy with no arms or no legs on tv talking about God". So, I figured hmm that's a little out of the ordinary small-talk, so I went and checked it out...

Meet Nick Vujicic, born in Melbourne, Australia, with the extremely rare Tetra-Amelia Syndrome (the failure of any arms or legs developing before birth) having only 2 functional toes which protrude from his left thigh. Only a few incidents have been reported worldwide, and most are born dead or die shortly after birth. Nick, however, survived, and as you can guess endured an incredibly harsh childhood. On the tv special being shown on the chinese network I get at my house, he was talking about how he even tried to drown himself in a tub when he was 8 years old, because he felt like his life did not serve a purpose. Amazingly, during his teenage years he began realizing that people drew hope from watching his ability to overcome his struggles, and eventually started his non-profit organization Life Without Limbs. He later began his travels as a motivational speaker after graduating from college at 21 with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning.

Now, how incredible is it to see a man, born with arguably the greatest of disabilities, speaking about purpose and hope? As I look around me, I see so much complaining and ungratefulness that it honestly makes me ill. It is as if people in today's society cannot be satisfied with the gift of life. If one area of our lives does not meet our high expectations (job, health, school, money, vacations, relationships, etc) we feel like we have the right to be upset or unsatisfied.

A man with NO arms and NO legs was able to discover his purpose in life and has made a bigger impact on the world in 8 years than you and I have done in our entire lives!

This man has to struggle to turn on a friggin' light switch!
We, in our incredibly gifted and healthy state, choose to dismiss our gifts and live selfish and mundane lives seeking educational and career success as society defines it. We all need to stop living in a box and realize that the gift of life in itself is good enough. We have to start deciding how we will choose to use that incredible gift, regardless of our petty obstacles.