The Dr. Jeff Show Ep. 78 – Daniel Ritchie

Episode 78: Summary & Transcript

Disclaimer: Please note that this is an automatically generated transcript. Although the transcription is largely accurate, it may be incomplete or inaccurate in some cases due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Dr. Jeff interviews author and speaker Daniel Ritchie on the topic of resilience. Daniel, who was born without arms, shares his personal story of overcoming the emotional and spiritual struggles of his youth, highlighting a “tipping point” at age 15 when he found his identity in Christ. He discusses how his physical limitations cultivated humility and a reliance on God and the community of believers.

The conversation explores the cultural trend of fragility, the importance of abiding in Christ during difficult times, and the biblical concept of endurance. Daniel also introduces his new book, Endure, which was born from his own struggles in 2020, and shares his encouragement about the spiritual hunger of the younger generation.

Episode Transcript

Ryan Dobson (00:00):
Hi everyone. Ryan Dobson here for the Dr. Jeff Show. Summit camps are in full swing and kids are having a blast. In fact, my own son Lincoln is attending right now. There are so many kids who want to go to camp at Summit, but they just need a little help. A generous donor has agreed to match every donation to the Summit summer programs. Will you help a child learn the foundations of a Christian worldview at Summit? Donate online at summit.org/match and every tax-free donation will be doubled. Again, you can find that at summit.org/match. God bless, and let’s join the Dr. Jeff Show.

Dr. Jeff Myers (00:39):
You know what I hear all the time? People are fragile. What we really need is resilience. That’s a message that’s been really important to a guy named Daniel Ritchie, who was born without arms. And we’re going to learn from him today how you can endure in life and in your faith.

Welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show podcast for this week. You can get this show on Apple, Google, Spotify, Edifi, Liftable, wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave a review if you’ve got something nice to say. And also tell your friends about the show because this is the show where I interview major thought leaders to demonstrate how worldview changes everything.

Daniel Ritchie has written two books now. He speaks to thousands of people every year. It’s amazing to see what God is doing through his life, and it’s my pleasure to welcome Daniel Ritchie to the show today. Daniel Ritchie, welcome to the Dr. Jeff Show podcast.

Daniel Ritchie (01:39):
Hey, what’s up, man? How are you?

Dr. Jeff Myers (01:40):
I’m doing really well. Thank you. Good. I’m so grateful for your coming out to speak at Summit Ministries this summer. The students have really enjoyed their time with you.

Daniel Ritchie (01:50):
Oh man, it’s definitely been my honor. I mean, number one, just to spend time with the students, but then number two, Manitou is not a bad place to spend a couple days in the summer. So I have zero complaints on my part, that’s for sure.

Dr. Jeff Myers (02:04):
Yeah. Well, it’s been great. You’ve been here a couple of times. Well, the first time, the second time I was actually out of town, I think my son and I were on our father-son scuba diving trip. And you were here.

Daniel Ritchie (02:16):
Oh, that’s a good reason to be gone.

Dr. Jeff Myers (02:19):
It was a good reason to be gone. Yeah. I saw the video afterward. And then in May, you were here and Stephanie and I had a chance to sit down with you for lunch and just kind of catch up. But I’m really looking forward to you telling your story a little bit on the show today.

And our topic is going to be resilience because a lot of people feel pretty fragile right now in these times. And I’m not just saying faith fragile. I’m saying fragile in terms of, what is my purpose? What am I doing here? How do I make it through difficult situations? Things are going against me right now and I’m not as strong as I know I need to be. So how do you endure? And you’re the guy I wanted to talk to about this, so this is just perfect.

Daniel Ritchie (03:11):
Hey, man. Well, absolutely. Grateful to talk around. I think what, to your point, is an incredibly important subject matter that I think every single one of us are there. So yeah, I’m excited to talk about it.

Dr. Jeff Myers (03:26):
Well, tell us a little of your story, Daniel, and then we can dig into our topic and see what kind of lessons we can draw to have more courage to be able to stand strong.

Daniel Ritchie (03:38):
Growing up, yeah, sure, was learning how to eat with your feet or write with your feet. Problematic, yeah, absolutely. But I think my greater struggle, just like that doctor’s perspective of me in the midst of all of that, my greater struggle was how the world saw me. And more often than not, it was not an incredibly favorable perspective for sure. And so I really struggled underneath that growing up. I struggled with bullying in school. I struggled with the looks I would get from the outside world.

And so what that started to bubble up within me is that I’m not good enough. And then on top of that was, man, people are terrible. Nobody loves me. Nobody appreciates me. But then I think in a very earthly scorecard sort of way, I think I saw God’s view of me tinged by that. I figured in my own heart, well, why doesn’t God love me like God loves all of you guys with your two arms and 10 fingers? And so I get into my teens and for me, it wasn’t a crisis of faith. It was a crisis of everything.

(04:57):
I’m not good enough. People are terrible. God doesn’t love me. And man, as a 15-year-old, God used that crisis of faith, that Christ is truthfully of life. And to show me more of himself through the gospel and to trust and rest in Christ as a 15-year-old, man, that changed the dynamic of everything for me.

That allowed me to not only view myself, but to view others and truthfully to see God all on God’s terms and not mine, all in the midst of his grace and not my circumstances, which I think for me was the tipping point from 15 on to where I am now, that it’s like it allows me in a world that’s very broken and at times just it seems like body blow after body blow, the grace of God can still dominate my life regardless of my circumstances.

Dr. Jeff Myers (06:01):
Yeah. Yeah. This is hitting me at a deep level and it’s convicting because I think there’s so many times where I assume that my physical circumstances dictate to me what my perspective on life should be. It’s like I default to this materialist view that only the material world exists, that’s all that’s relevant. And there are a number of areas in which that’s catastrophic. Whether you’ve got a disability or whether you’re just dealing with everyday life, tell me about, you used the term tipping point to describe what happened to you at age 15. And I’m really curious to hear what happened and what that was like.

Daniel Ritchie (06:58):
Yeah. So I mean, growing up, I think I overvalued people’s opinions of me. And so in that, I rode this maybe personal value rollercoaster of I’m as good as people think I’m an inspiration or people think I’m a freak or I’m a weirdo or I’m just messed up. And so that just created all sorts of highs and lows in my life until I came to Christ. But then at 15, as I started to grow in Christ, I mean, was it like, did I wake up the day after I was saved and was just like, “Oh man, this is so much better. I don’t have to worry about things anymore. I can just move on. This is fine.” No, not at all.

But I mean, I think to your point, the scale started to tip the other way because there was now another voice in my life, a voice more valuable than the crowd of other criticisms that were in my life to have God tell me that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, that I’m not a mistake, I’m not a mutation, I’m not an accident, I’m an image bearer designed to display the glory of God in just this life he’s given me.

(08:16):
And so for me to have that moving forward, to have this voice of God, quote unquote, through his word, through his promises, through just him laying out who he is through his word, and to have a voice that isn’t distant or at times even intermittent, but just this voice that can always be ever present, that as the Psalmist says in Psalm 119, God, can I hide your word in my heart to bury that promise, to bury that hope in my heart for those times when those circumstances really do seem overwhelming or the criticism does get incredibly pointed and hot.

And so for me, it began, I think, that path in just, man, building foundationally from what Christ had done to build up all of these promises to insulate my life with.

Dr. Jeff Myers (09:15):
Daniel, when you face life circumstances, you and I have talked about this a couple of times, just what everyday life is like, not having arms, even things like you can’t be in TSA precheck because you have to put your fingerprints on file. Things that I would never even consider are obstacles that you face every day. Did your relationship with Christ give you a new perspective on those obstacles as well as your value as a person?

Daniel Ritchie (09:57):
Yeah. I think interestingly enough, I think God used those obstacles. To your point, the moments that I’m just completely limited when it comes to submitting fingerprints or when I fly, I can’t buckle my seatbelt on the plane or if I’m in the grocery store, I can’t reach the top two shelves in the store. By default, I have to ask for help to get it done.

(10:28):
And God is using, I think, my shortcomings in a lot of ways to help cultivate humility. And I think for me to realize just, I mean, obviously we’re all finite, but I think even in the midst of my struggles and my trial and affliction, it really helps me realize, I think in a very real world sort of scenario that I can’t do this by myself. But I think it’s the glimpse of what I also have to do as a believer. I can’t be a lone wolf. I can’t just pick myself up by my bootstraps and think that I can just grind through this life and be fine.

Not only do I need the grace of God, but I need others around me who are speaking truth, who are challenging me, who are encouraging me, who are praying for me. I think a lot of times the fragile nature of the human life is the constant reminder that if we try to do this by ourselves, we’re doomed to fail But if we’re not only seeking the help and grace of God and the help and grace of others, I mean, that’s really what allows us as people to flourish in the ways that God has designed us for.

Dr. Jeff Myers (11:39):
Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 talk about the body of Christ and it strikes me. I remember my pastor years and years ago, Bernie Kuiper saying, “Christianity is a team sport. There are no lone rangers in this.”

Daniel Ritchie (11:59):
That’s good.

Dr. Jeff Myers (12:02):
But if you can make it on your own, you will. I mean, that’s just kind of human nature. I’ll ask you for your help when I need your help, otherwise I’m going to try to do this myself. At least that’s kind of how I think. I want to try it myself. And part of it’s just the challenge. I want to see if I can do this. Let me try it. I want to see if I can do this. But the impulse of a believer should be, how is my limitation and opportunity to invite the body of Christ to be the body of Christ?

Daniel Ritchie (12:43):
I think for us in seeing just that picture, like you’re saying in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, that I have my function, I have my gifting, but then I also have my failings. I mean, it’s like Paul says over and over, the ear can’t be an eye, the nose can’t be a hand. It’s like for me to realize that God’s placed me where I am for a reason, but God has also surrounded me with people who can do what I can’t, who can thrive in what I can’t.

I think for us, it’s to not take the bait that Adam and Eve took in the garden, that I can be God. I can’t. I can’t be God. I am not all sufficient. And I think even within the body of Christ, we get that picture of just our opportunity to be reminded, “I’m not going to be able to do this by myself, but God has given me grace to endure. God has given me the grace to move forward by giving me an opportunity to lean on others who are gifted for what I’m not.

Dr. Jeff Myers (13:49):
Yeah. This is powerful. I wonder how much of our feelings of fragility that I think are in the culture. I’m not prepared to actually give poll numbers or anything like that right now, but I see it and most people see it, that we feel that we lack resilience. It’s just, we sort of have come to believe that if it’s meant to be, it’ll be easy. And if you’re having to work too hard at it, it’s because the universe doesn’t want you to do that or whatever.

So we end up not pursuing resilience and then sort of fragility, living in fragility is kind of the default. I don’t know exactly where I wanted to go with that. I’m just reflecting aloud that what people face, I mean, these are real obstacles. Anxiety is an obstacle. It’s a real obstacle or somebody experiencing depression or somebody experiencing aimlessness when the people around them seem to have a track to run on. Yeah. They’re legitimate obstacles.

Daniel Ritchie (15:07):
And I think the problem with where we’re at as a culture now is just, I think there’s this collective weariness that we’re all walking through. And I mean, again, I’m not even quite 40 yet, so it’s not like I have a tremendous amount of wisdom or experience in this, but I think the interconnected age that we live in, that now we can just be constantly beaten up by either bad news or criticism of the outside world or frustration or whatever.

Whereas it’s like 20 years ago, if we wanted the bad news out of our life, we just shut off the TV. We didn’t have to worry about text messages. We didn’t have to worry about social media. We didn’t have to worry about the onslaught of not great news flooding into our life. And so I think that there is this weariness. There is this just like, man, I think to your point, fragility that’s going on, just because it’s like we’re under constant assault.

(16:14):
And again, I mean, I think if there’s anybody in my life that I just look to, at least from afar, I mean, just the apostle Paul, I think it’s like that Pauline pain in so many ways, but it’s that Pauline looking towards grace. And I love what Paul says to the Galatian church as he wraps up his letter to them. He says, listen, don’t grow weary of doing good.

(16:36):
But we will reap a harvest in due season if – and it’s a really big if – we don’t give up. And I think for the listeners today, as weary as you are, man, don’t stop leaning into Christ. I think the good news for us is that giving up, it’s not like I’ve got to do this all by myself. I mean, truthfully, I mean, Jesus says that in John 15, the beckon is just for us to abide, to lean into him, to trust him, to settle down into him and he’ll bear us along. He’ll bring that fruit. He’ll bring that harvest into place, but we just have to, man, keep chasing after him, even if it’s breath by breath, step by step, word by word.

So for those listening, man, realize it is not a, you’ve got to be like humpty-dumpty, stitching yourself all back together. Christ will take care of that and he’s just asking you to not stop trusting him and he’ll take care of the rest.

Dr. Jeff Myers (17:38):
I know there are a lot of people watching and listening to the show who are from all over the world and many of them, because I know where people are listening and where they’re downloading it from and all of that. Some of them live in places, Daniel, where everyday life is more difficult to navigate. There are more papers to fill out. There’s more bureaucracy. Nothing is simple. Nothing is straightforward. And everyday life can be a challenge to people.

And I wonder if you’d speak to that for a minute. I mean, when I think about abiding in Christ, I think, yes, that’s it. Jesus said, “I am the vine you or the branches, abide in me. ” And I think, but how on earth am I going to do that in this circumstance where I feel like I just don’t, I don’t know. I mean, I think my best option is to escape my circumstances.

(18:41):
I don’t see how working through this and abiding is actually possible. I mean, do you ever have times like that and how do you process through it?

Daniel Ritchie (18:50):
Yeah. Yeah. I think the hard reality for me is, I mean, truthfully, my circumstances are inescapable just in terms of my disability. I mean, it’s either I keep fighting or I just literally have to quit. And everything about my life is complicated far more than a lot of people. I mean, I even think if I open a door in a public place, I have to walk up to the door, I take the shoe off my right foot, I’ll reach up with my right foot and open the door, grab the handle or whatever, and I’ve got to fling it open.

And as I fling it open, in one failed swoop, I have to get the shoe back on my foot and get through the door all before the door closes. And it’s just like, man, there are quite a few times where it’s like I’m out in public and I’m like, man, do I really have to do this?

(19:46):
Do I really have to go through this whole song and dance? But I realize for me, it’s like my hard is someone else’s easy, but the same is just as much true for me. The things that I do and walk through are far more simplistic than people who are paraplegics or quadriplegics. The picture of God’s grace in our life is always present even when things are complicated. I love, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “It’s by the grace of God that I am who I am.”

(20:22):
And I think it’s crazy that it’s like Paul writes that on the heels of persecution and beatings and jailings and criticisms and things that you and I as believers, at least here in 2022 in the United States, we don’t have to deal with. But yeah, Paul can still say, even in the midst of all of those things, it’s brought the grace of God that I’ve arrived where I’m at. And so for us, I think no matter how complicated the scenario is, no matter how incredibly difficult our lives are, grace is still present. And I think do we choose consciously, do we choose to acknowledge the grace or do we just choose to very much so just focus on the pain.

(21:09):
Focus on all the things that don’t go according to our plan or on our timeline, or am I just going to keep pursuing Christ and watch him work what he does? I mean, it’s the picture of Joseph, all the injustice that Joseph faces in Genesis, and yet God uses him to save up people, to continue the promise that he made in Genesis chapter three, but by keeping the Jewish people alive because he was unjustly thrown into slavery and thrown into prison and raised up to where he was in the Egyptian hierarchy.

All of that came not on Joseph’s timeline, but it sure came on God’s timeline by God’s, I mean, truthfully, very difficult means. And so I think the same is true for us. Our difficulties, and even at times our complicated lives, more often than not, speak to the grace of God more than it does our sufficiency as people or as humans.

Dr. Jeff Myers (22:08):
I love the way you put that. Speaks more to the grace of God than our sufficiency. Tell us about your new book, Endure, because I think this might be, there are a handful of times where I think this is the book for this moment and your book and also there are others too. One of our friends has just written, actually, two different friends of Summit have written books recently on resilience and that are, I think, either out or coming out as well. But man, I can’t think of a more important topic at this moment. Tell us a little bit about what you approach in the book and what you want readers to take away from it.

Daniel Ritchie (22:53):
Yeah. I mean, for me, Endure was birthed out of the very infamous year of 2020. I’m a professional speaker by trade. I didn’t speak for seven months when the world shut down and gathering in a group of people wasn’t exactly in vogue. I just really struggled. I was having a hard time feeling like, “Man, I’m not a good provider. I don’t feel like I’m doing what I loved or what I was passionate about.”

And so I was just like, I think you used the point earlier in our conversation, I was just really fragile and just beaten up and downtrodden. And so for me, I just really started preaching to myself as a guy who’s been in ministry for two decades. I was like, “Man, how do I get through this?” And just started through prayer, through time in scripture, through pursuing community, through being discipled and discipling others. For me, that was the seven month path out of just my frustration and my hurt.

(23:57):
And I was like, “Man, how many other believers need this? ” And so I wrote this book very practically speaking. Each chapter is divided up into ways that for us as believers, we can have just a vibrant, long-lasting faith. And it’s through things that fuel us up, like time in the word or time in prayer, time in biblical community. But then also, I think some of the things that the Lord calls us to do, like to disciple, to lead our families well, to be in biblical community.

But then I also, I look at three different characters in scripture that God used, I think, as pictures for us of how we can endure. And so we already talked about Joseph. Joseph was one of the guys I spent a whole chapter talking about, but then I also talked about Abraham and then Paul. And again, I talked a little bit about just Paul’s, how much Paul means to me just personally as a believer.

(24:57):
But then also Abraham, here’s a guy that again, you want to talk about a man that God just simply made wait, that he had to wait for the promise fulfilled. And I think in our instantaneous culture, that W word is a cuss word. It’s like we can get anything we want in a matter of minutes, whether we’re talking DoorDash or Google an answer for a question that we might have or to be able to call or text friends that are on the other side of the planet instantly, we don’t have to wait very much.

But a lot of times when it either comes to God working, moving or answering just our needs or our prayers, sometimes it doesn’t always come at the timeline that our convenience oriented hearts want things to go. And so Abraham’s just such a perfect picture of that. But man, I try not to be overly wordy. This book is just literally, it’s an encouragement and it’s a battle plan. Man, it’s super practical like, hey, take these few things.

(26:03):
This isn’t prescriptive as much as it is descriptive, but just it’s my prayer that people will take some of the things that I talk about in the book, put them to life in their own lives, and to just watch God not only grow them, but then to use them as well.

Dr. Jeff Myers (26:19):
Yeah. I was interviewing Tim Barnett who works with Greg Koukl and teaching tactics to defend your faith through the organization Stand to Reason about Acts chapter 17 and about the Apostle Paul meeting the religious and philosophical leaders of Athens and having the opportunity to address their little society at the Areopagus. And he pointed out something that I had never thought about before.

And it was the very beginning of that passage is while Paul was waiting for his colleagues to join him, it was in the waiting moment that he got busy talking to people, dialoguing with the God-fearing Greeks, with the Jews, with the people in the marketplace, and ultimately with the epicorean and stoic philosophers. But I’d never thought about that before. And your point about Abraham being a case study and waiting, I don’t know about anybody else, but this is a message for me right now. I mean, wait is my least favorite four letter word in the English language. Yeah.

Daniel Ritchie (27:32):
Yeah. I love that picture though in Acts 17 that Paul’s just waiting and yet he sees this opportunity that he can just go and proclaim truth. And it’s like, I don’t know how statistically relevant or true it is, but it’s like, I know for me, the most personally encouraging and the people that God has used most in my life were people that invested in me away from church hours or away from hours at school or hours where it’s like we’re quote unquote on. Yes.

(28:09):
It was in those times when it’s like in the unexpected, when people stepped into my life in ways that I needed and didn’t realize it, those are the people that God I think used the most to draw me closer to him. And so it’s like, I think if we can flip that logic on its head, then for us as the church, we’ll make the greatest difference away from church hours and the Sunday service.

Then when I see that opportunity, just like Paul did when he spoke in the Areopagus, when the opportunity stands right in front of me, am I willing to walk through it? Or truthfully, it’s like, am I too busy? Am I too much in a hurry that I miss the opportunities that God has placed right in front of us?

Dr. Jeff Myers (28:53):
Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Well, can you, as we get ready to kind of wrap up the show, can you tell us a little bit about when you speak at Summit Ministries, what the potential is that you’re seeing in this rising generation? You speak to a lot of different groups, you’re all over the place. Your schedule makes me tired and yet.

Daniel Ritchie (29:17):
My schedule makes me tired, bro.

Dr. Jeff Myers (29:23):
So I wanted you to talk about the potential of the students and what your message to them this particular summer has been.

Daniel Ritchie (29:30):
Man, to me, it was just, I think even in preparation, looking at what summit students go through in a two-week time period, I’m personally jealous that they get to experience those two weeks and hear from the guys and girls that come and speak at Summit. I mean, it’s so incredibly impressive, just the volume of wisdom and understanding that they get in two weeks. And so to watch the students, but then to see the We need to see the hunger.

I mean, you don’t go to a lot of places where there’s teaching and lecturing and preaching where a room of 180 teenage students are sitting with their notebooks open, scribbling away, nodding, making notations in their Bibles. These kids are hungry. And to me, to see a room like that, it is the reminder that as much as we want to see these guys as the church of tomorrow, they’re the church of right now.

(30:36):
God is working and moving in them. God is using them. God is preparing them not only for the years to come, but man, he’s preparing them for when they pack up and go home from Summit. I think God is readying a generation already for a world that’s in desperate need of hope. And this generation, man, can step right in. And these kids, they’re passionate, but I think after their two weeks at Summit, they’re equipped to be able to channel that passion, I think, through the right avenue. So it’s just like for me as one who just gets to watch them from afar, man, it’s always encouraging those few hours I get to spend with the students at Summit.

Dr. Jeff Myers (31:19):
Yeah. Cool. Well, listen, Daniel, I appreciate your investing in them. I appreciate your investing in me and the people who are watching and listening to the show. I’m going to pray that it’s an encouragement because I know there are people right now who maybe even this week are thinking, “How am I going to make it? How am I going to make it?” And your message, and this show has been so powerful. So thank you for taking the time to share.

Daniel Ritchie (31:47):
Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, for sure.

Dr. Jeff Myers (31:51):
Thank you to my guest today, Daniel Ritchie, for being on the Dr. Jeff Show podcast. You can find him at Daniel Ritchie, and that’s R-I-T-C-H-I-E, danielritchie.com. There, you can purchase his new book, Endure. You can also follow him on Twitter @DanielRitchie. When Jesus’ disciples asked why a certain man had a disability, Jesus responded, “This happens so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” God’s works are being displayed in Daniel. And you know what? God’s works are being displayed in you, in your story and in my story. I hope that encourages you and inspires you. Thanks for joining on the show this week, and we’ll see you soon.

Ryan Dobson (32:37):
Thanks for listening to the Dr. Jeff Show. And don’t forget, you can help a child attend Summit summer session by going to summit.org/match. All your donations that are tax deductible will be doubled. God bless, have a great week, and we’ll see you next time for another Dr. Jeff Show.

Dr. Jeff Myers (32:55):
Listeners, I want you to know that our podcast is on Edifi, which is a truly powerful app that brings together thousands of the best Christian podcasts in one place. For your listening enjoyment, you can download it at edifi.app. Be sure to share this show if you have enjoyed listening to it, and leave a review, if you would, on the site where you download the show, that helps more people know about the Dr. Jeff Show, and I’ll look forward to seeing you next week.