Chad Robichaux first burst onto the scene when he became a professional MMA World Champion. Prior to his Mixed Martial Arts career, he served in the military as a Special Operations Force Recon Marine. Chad now focuses his time on helping veterans recover from PTSD through the Mighty Oaks Foundation, which he founded with his wife, Kathy. Chad’s new book, An Unfair Advantage, releases July, 2017.
Key Questions:
How did you go from being a special ops marine and mixed martial arts world champion to a ministry leader?
Tell us about your experience with PTSD and your consequent approach to ministering to those suffering from it.
How can churches effectively minister to those in the military?
Key Quotes:
“I believe that’s a lie that many men believe today—not just in combat, but just in life—that somehow Christian men are week or you have to trade your masculinity for Christianity.”
“There is nothing more strong or more courageous than a man of God who stands up to the things of this world that need to be stood up to.”
“Learning what had happened to these people, my heart went from wanting to retaliate for 9/11 to really wanting to make what had happened to these people right.”
“[When I was diagnosed with PTSD], I felt very ashamed; I was very scared….I felt like not only did I fail, but I was going to die at any moment because the physiological symptoms were so overwhelming.”
“The truth is you can have something that’s really good for you and you can abuse it.”
“I feel like I’m living testimony of the answered prayers of the power of a praying wife.”
“While I had been successful at professional things, when it came to the most important things in my life—being a husband, being a father, being that 17-year-old kid that had a brand new chance at life and wanting to do something important with it—the reality was I had quit. I had quit at all those things, including my own health.”
“If what you’re doing isn’t working, then why not try something different?”
“It didn’t mean the anger went away; it meant when I got angry I responded differently. It didn’t mean the anxiety went away at the beginning, but I responded differently.”
“There’s an 85 percent divorce rate in military veterans. There are 20 plus suicides a day.”
“[When it comes to ministering to veterans,] that attempt to honor them can sometimes be enabling and block us from being able to give them the help they need.”
“We’ve had 1,652 graduates [of our Core Legacy Program], many who were really struggling with suicide and divorce when they came—we’ve had zero suicides.”
“A lot of times when we see these military guys at a point of hopelessness and despair to where they go through a divorce—or even worse take their life—if you really look backwards from the incident of suicide, you see a pattern of really deliberate isolation.”
“We get really selfish in ministry and we feel like we have to be the one…to see the results. But the truth is, if we really look at the process of ministering to someone broken, to see them come to full restoration, you have a process of someone who plants the seed, someone who waters the seed, and someone that harvests the seed. You rarely get to be all three.”
Mentioned in the Show:
An Unfair Advantage
Giveaway Instructions:
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