Dennehy Says God Created Everyone With A PurposeWINONA LAKE – God created you on purpose exactly the way you are and has a plan and purpose for you and no one is exempt from this, "That Armless Guy" George Dennehy said Tuesday.
Dennehy spoke to Grace College students and community members during a Grace College chapel service at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center, 610 Wooster Road, Winona Lake.
People go through things in life and it’s often easier for them to think that God is absent in their lives, he said. Dennehy used his life as an example.
He was born Jan. 19, 1994, in Romania without arms. His birth family was impoverished, so straight from birth, Dennehy was put into an orphanage. He said he was neglected, not loved or held because the orphanage workers thought he had an evil spirit living inside him because he didn’t have arms.
“They thought I was cursed by God and if they were to hold me, I would curse them,” he said. He said he was left for dead at the orphanage.
“The good news is God did not leave me there to die,” he said.
He was adopted when he was 1-1/2 years old and weighed 9 pounds. He said the adoption saved his life, giving his life a new trajectory. His parents had three biological children. After they adopted Dennehy, they adopted nine more children.
“So we were one big, sometimes happy family,” he said. He said he was blessed to have the family he had.
Dennehy said his parents were “pretty strict” and didn’t help him with a whole lot of things.
“My first thought, my natural thought when I was a kid was I can’t do this, I can’t do that. I can’t button my shirt, I can’t wash my hair, I can’t ...,” he said. He said his parents weren’t experts but knew God made him without arms so he would figure things out. They pushed him to figure things out, to use what he had, which were his feet.
He does a lot of things other people do like driving, he just does it differently.
“We all know different doesn’t mean less,” he said. His parents prepared him to be independent.
What his parents couldn’t prepare him for were the hardships of life. Middle and high school were some of the hardest times of his life. He realized kids were treating him differently because he was different. Kids were mean and cruel, he said.
Throughout his life, he said he got used to the stares, glances, pointing, whispers and questions people would give him. One of the people included a woman who was sitting next to him on a flight and a girl that went up to him on a beach, both asking him what happened to him. His answer was a plane crash and he didn’t eat his vegetables when he was the girl’s age, respectively.
He grew up going to church, listening to all the stories and songs.
When he was a kid, he questioned the meaning of it all, the purpose behind it all, he said. He questioned why God made him without arms. He said he felt meaningless, like he didn’t matter. He asked how a loving God allowed him to be born without arms.
Challenges come in all shapes and sizes and they all matter, he said. Challenges affect people.
In high school, he found himself in a very dark state of mind and he isolated himself. He was angry and depressed and believed his life didn’t matter.
“We’re human. We only see what’s happening right in front of us, what’s happening today,” he said.
Dennehy said he even started bargaining God for arms.
“That is not faith,” he said.
He said a miracle did happen in his life. God didn’t fix Dennehy’s body. God fixed his heart.
He was sitting in youth group and the youth pastor was talking about John Chapter 9 when Jesus and his disciples are walking on the road when they see a blind man. The disciples asked Jesus what happened to the blind man. Jesus said the man was born blind so the work of God can be done through him, so that God could use the blind man.
Dennehy was sitting in youth group and something changed. He thought if God could use the blind man, maybe He could use him, too. His attitude changed. Dennehy started asking God why he chose him to go through his experience and how God wanted to work through him.
He said him not having arms is not a disability. He said everyone struggles with things. He said a disability is something that could possibly hinder a person from their God-given potential.
“What’s that called? Sin,” he said. Everyone lives in a sinful, broken world.
Dennehy said he’s not disabled because he doesn’t have arms. He’s disabled because he gets anxious, angry, hurt, upset, nervous and has doubts. He’s disabled because of things on the inside.
When people get in the mindset of they can’t do something, they lose sight of what’s important, he said.
“We live on the other side of the Resurrection,” he said. People have to trust God has a plan and purpose for their life. And that should give people hope for the future.
“The future can be scary, but, again, God is in control of your future,” he said.
