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On April 3rd, 2001, Chad Hymas, a 27-year-old rancher, was involved in an accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Working on the ranch had been Chad's lifelong dream, and suddenly it had turned into a nightmare scenario or so it must have seemed at the time. But in the years since, Hymas has found that his accident led to dreams he didn't even know he had and his challenges.

Continue to push him to improve. Chad Hymas is an internationally acclaimed speaker, bestselling author, and passionate advocate for safety, awareness, and personal empowerment. Chad has shared his personal message and entertained many audiences from organizations such as Wells Fargo, blue Cross, blue Shield Ford, IHC, Coca-Cola, and the Utah Jazz.

In 2003, Chad set a world record by wheeling his chair 513 miles from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. He maintains his hobby and dream of managing a 5,000 plus acre elk preserve with his father Kelly. Chad's greatest accomplishment is that he remains a devoted husband to his loving wife, Shandell, and a proud father to their four children.

This is All In an LDS Living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? I'm Morgan Pearson, and I am so honored to have Chad Hymas on the line with me today. Chad, welcome. Thank you so much, Morgan. Appreciate it. Well, I will start by saying, I, Chad, I've seen your name many times, but it was not until I saw a reel that was on Instagram.

And it was a, it was a real that you posted that, that highlighted different things that doctors told you following the accident that you went through telling you things that you would never be able to do, and accompanying each one of [00:02:00] those things you had a picture of yourself doing. Those things, which I thought was so powerful and I just couldn't get it outta my head.

So I had to reach out to you, and I'm excited to learn from you today. But I wanted to start out, you have shared this experience many, many times, but for those who are not familiar with your story, take me back to that day on your ranch and what happened. Happy to do that. Can I clarify one? Absolutely. So, yeah, I think that you, you said that you, you said that the, that the doctor said that I would not be able to do, and I made a clarifying statement in that same reel.

If you look down, which is there, that has gotten several comments. The doctor's very optimistic and the physical therapists, the occupational therapist, all the people in the hospital were there to uplift and bo bolster up. The naysayers are those that are around us. It's not the physicians, it's the people that maybe are envious because maybe we're.

Trying to do things or maybe we're put in a stigma or a place or a placard. And so the naysayers for me haven't, wasn't necessarily the doctor saying, you can't do this, you can't do this. Or there might have been some things I didn't wanna hear, like, Hey, you're gonna be paralyzed, or, right, but, but they definitely didn't say they, the occupation is, they're there to help create an event, be innovative.

And help create tools and opportunity so that you can create a world in which people like me can thrive and not just survive. And so I wanted to make sure that our listeners, you know, understand that we really dictate our future. And, and that said, I'm happy to share with that, but I just wanna make that that point that I.

Boy, I was surrounded by some incredible God fearing God, loving God, believing people that that really wanted the best for me. And while I didn't like the outcome, and I didn't like the blessing that I received from Elder Maxwell, 'cause I expected to be healed, I, I understand it today and the true naysayers sometimes are ourselves.

It's not other [00:04:00] people, you know, it, it could be ourselves. So with that said, maybe just a quick little brief backdrop. Is that kinda what you're looking for? That's super, that's super helpful. So I, maybe I'll just start by, I, I, I, I grew up in West Jordan, so not too far from kind of, kind of where you're located, from what I understand today, and I've always wanted to be a rancher and a farmer.

My, I served my uncle on his ranch, so I didn't have a farm growing up as a kid in West Jordan. But I, I did have the opportunity to go out and serve my uncle. During the summers and, and work during high school when I wasn't playing ball. And then after high school, I immediately went and served in Bangkok, Thailand.

That's where I served my mission and came home. And I married the girl that I dated in high school. She says that she waited Morgan, but I think she fished. I just wanna clarify that on a podcast I do things, she, she fished a little bit so Morgan. Well, but that, that she, she can hear this on my podcast and we'll see how she responds.

But, but that's, we ended up getting married. Four, four short months after I got back and they, I knew I wanted to be like my uncle. So I, well, we moved outta West Jordan and I started my own company in the Salt Lake Valley. We were able to purchase some ground up in the mountains in the Stansberry Range, which is runs parallel to the Rockies, but combines them with the Rocky Mountains, and that's where you started the dream.

So I was a contractor by day, farmer by night. Six years into our marriage, at the age of 27, I received so Shandal and I had shared two boys at that time. Ace, uh, his name is Christian, but we call him Ace. He was three and the other boy, the younger boy, had just turned one. His name is Kyler. I. I got a phone call while working in Salt Lake that the younger boy had just taken his first two steps and Shandell asked me if I could leave work early and, and get home to teach him how to do his first layup.

So our family motto was BFFF basketball, farming family first. I mean that, that's our motto. So our, so we're very, very athletic family and we enjoy that and we love to. Farm and ranch, and we raise elk out on the ranch and Shandell has horses. It's just, it's just kind always been my dream to be like my uncle and, and to have a farm and to be a rancher.

Just tough, tough to [00:06:00] make a living at it. So that, that's, that's kind of the, they're your synopsis. So I, I, I get home, I leave about 112 employees behind, get home, and I, I hit head out to the field first before going home. So that I wouldn't have to go back out. I hopped onto a backhoe, a, a tractor with forks, and I loaded up a bale of hay that weighs more than most vehicles, most SUVs, and I lifted that bale up 15 feet to put it in the feeder.

And I saw a problem with my tractor. There was a red light flashing. Morgan, I still can't believe that I did this, but, but it's, it's probably for the better. There was a red light flashing and I, I ignored it. The red light was an indicator warning sign that my hydraulics were low, and I ignored that red light and in a matter of milliseconds, because I didn't listen to the warning sign, which I.

Would've enabled me to fix the hydraulic problem and hold the bale in place. That bale broke free because there wasn't enough oil in the pan to keep that bale in place, and it rolled over backwards, landed on my head, and it punched my head through the steering wheel, and the shaft is what went through my mouth and it broke everything in its path.

My mouth has been redone. The pallet's been redone. My nose has been redone, the jaw's been redone. My teeth have been the, they're all, you know, everything's been redone. The ribs have been repaired. I, I broke, I broke all seven bones of my neck, and I severed my spinal cord at the C four, C five level, so the doctors were able to fix everything.

I had 12 different surgeons, and my main surgeon was David Riser. They were able to fix everything but one thing, and that was my spinal cord, and so that left me where I at. I'm a complete injury, so I, I lost the use of my feet. I lost my legs. I lost the midsection. I lost my stomach muscles. I lost two outta my three chest muscles so I can breathe on my own.

That took months to get off of the trach and I lost my complete use of my fingers. In my hands. [00:08:00] The movement that I have is strictly shoulders. So I am in a manual wheelchair, but I push using friction with my, with my palms against tires that look like mountain bike tires. And I keep my weight unimaginable weight so that I, I can, I can travel, you know, alone, but that's where my new life was to begin.

And I think there's a message there, Morgan. I, I don't mean to over talk or talk too much. I don't wanna do that. I I, no, please. This is, this is what you do, Chad. Well, no, the message is, is I think that, I think that God sends us warnings all the time and sometimes, you know, we don't heed those and we have to reap the rewards of our choices or sometimes face the consequences of our choices.

And. I believe that we're given warning signs left and right that come through the Holy Ghost or come through the way of other people. And maybe it's the teachings of our parents to not look at bad things on the website or not spend too much time on social media, whatever that warning is, you know, whatever that might be.

And we don't listen to it. And we don't listen to it again. And we become so used to it that it becomes a belief that we can get away with it. And I'm sitting because I got away with it so many times, that's why I sit. I'm not sitting because I'm stupid. I don't think that God would call me stupid. I'm not sitting because I'm a bad person.

I don't think God punished me. I'm sitting because I made a choice and now I need to do what I can to make better on that choice. 'cause some choices can't be reversed. And I'm in that state. And so that's something that I think we should all kind of pay very close attention to and do what our primary children's thing about and try and choose the right when we're given those choices.

That's why I sit, I chose to not do that. And so that's the foundational principle of why, why I sit, you know, yes, I'm making the state, but try to make better on that. So. That's powerful. Chad, I, as I was kind of reading up on your, your experience, I had a had a couple questions as a follow up [00:10:00] to what you just described.

First, who found you? Fair. And, and is it true that you tried to get, that those people who were the first responders to your accident to cut the bale of hay? So I couldn't talk 'cause the mouth was broke. So I'm gonna answer your second question first. Everything was busted fully conscious, breathing to the blood pockets.

My nose, the mouth was numb, so while blood was drowning my lungs, I didn't have much time to live. It also contains oxygen and I was conscious. The person that found me 48 minutes after the bail struck me is the way they figured. By the way, the sunset was my wife, because I wasn't answering my cell phone and she was wondering, so she came up, she was kind of frustrated because I tend to say that I'll be home, but then I get caught up on the ranch doing chores and I never on time.

And so she was kind of coming up there because. Hey, Chad's got caught doing water or he is out playing with the elk or messing around or fishing a little bit or, and he didn't keep his words, so she had the two kids in their car seats behind her and that's who found me. And obviously with several thousand pounds of hay on you, you know she's helpless and she sees the blood on the right front tire as you read Chando's Journal, that's the first thing that she sees aside from the bail.

And she thinks that I'm gone. In truth, I was still breathing through the blood pockets and I could hear her screaming. The headlights disappeared in the darkness and the first responders, you know, arrived. So I had five ranchers show up. We don't have a fire station out where I live, at least not it's, it's all volunteer based.

So five ranchers showed up and three patrolmen got here from Stansberry. So they got here within 28 minutes. The five cowboys got there within two minutes, maybe three, and they had a massive problem. The bale weighs more than you know, a truck, and they don't have a hoist or a jack or a, you know, they don't have another set of forks and eight men, so three cops and five cowboys were able to lift that off my body.

You talked about cutting the strings. I couldn't verbalize that. [00:12:00] It's chapter seven in my book. And I tie that into a principle of cutting the strings and letting go of some of the things in our life and trying to use our losses to, to honor our losses by the way that we live moving forward. That's the message of cutting the strings.

But in my mind, I kept saying to them, cut the string. Just cut the strings. The reason why they didn't do that is because the shaft was in my mouth. And they thought by cutting the strings, so I later found this out right? By cutting the strings, they would've lost my entire head. They wanted to remove it as a whole and then use a Sawzall to cut the shaft, which is what they did, tape that around my neck and then have it surgically removed to the hospital if I survived to get there.

That was the idea, so to not let me bleed out. But if they cut the strings, they lose me altogether. Right. They lose side of me. They lose control. So they, the eight men lifted that up, which then allows me to ask you a question if I can. We're gonna, yes, please. We're gonna flip this. Morgan, how do you think I was asked this on a national syn, on an international television?

On a on, on a, and I wasn't prepped for this. I was asked by the host, how were eight men? That don't necessarily go to the gym every day, able to lift over 500 pounds each off my body. That'd be like me asking you, Morgan, to pick seven of your friends, whoever you want, and let's go outside your front door, find an SUV in the neighborhood and pick that thing up.

And I would just ask if you have an answer for that. I guess. I guess the first thing that comes to my mind is just the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, but I don't know. So you're gonna say divinity God. Yeah. Yeah. So could I respond back to that? Yeah. Is it a fair question? Even though we don't understand everything, is it a fair question to assume or to ask?

Why would God save Chad Jaus and not the innocent children that were killed in Ukraine with bombings last night? Why would God save Chad Hymes and not the depressed man [00:14:00] who takes his life, because maybe he's going through a hard time. Why did God save Chad and not the dozens of people that were run over in Canada last week at the Filipino fe?

Is that, is that, I'm not saying, is that a fair question for the general population? Yeah. I think it's absolutely a fair question, and I have an answer that Elder Maxwell gave me in the hospital. Because I have that same question. So here's the answer that Elder Maxwell gave me, and it comes to us in the New Testament.

It says that I don't, it says lean not until they don't under understanding. So I don't have to understand or even ask that question. I don't need to know the answer to that. And four verses down, it says, my ways aren't your ways. And so I don't have to understand. The why or not that I don't believe in God.

I totally do, but I don't have to understand why some make it. Some and some don't. We learned of a drowning that took place in our, in, in Utah just two, two nights ago of a, of a young boy, sixth grade that took place in Saratoga Springs, and he's fighting for his life. I, I'm just saying, I. It can be asked by many, many people, why did God say something?

And, and the answer is, we don't need to know that if we're true believers and that we are, that we're all in and have faith that his will will be done and not ours. And so whether or not people believe that that's their choice, I do. Which allows me to wake up every morning and have passion in what I do.

So I believe that. I believe that I don't have to understand God's will and that he has. Much more bigger things in mind for people that pass on and people that stay here. Maybe I needed more work here. Another, I don't know the answer. I just saying that I don't. Elder Maxwell taught that concept to me, and I'd heard it my whole life, but I didn't know what it meant until after I broke my neck.

Right. As a follow up to that, you've mentioned that Elder Maxwell gave you a priesthood blessing. Are you comfortable sharing anything about that? [00:16:00] I met Elder Maxwell in Thailand. I was working underneath the president and he came over to set apart the first stake in a Buddhist country. And so I was there for that and that's the first time that I ever met him personally.

The next time that I would meet him would be when I woke up, my mission president was there with my dad and, and we visited for a while. He joked about President Hinkley and how he was, you know, just some of the. How fun he was. And, and we, we talked about the prophet and, and then he talked about how he was struggling because he's called to be an apostle and serve, and he's not able to do that because he's undergoing chemo.

And so he, so I, he made himself relative to me. And then I, I will share a couple things. I, he, he spent, it wasn't long. He was there with somebody else. It wasn't a general authority that I recognized. It must have been a, maybe a security guard or maybe a member of the 70. I don't recall who it was, but it was another man in a suit.

And he asked if he could give me a blessing. And I, I, I said Sure. My wife was in the room as well and I fully expected I did. And I believed, 'cause I have faith. Elder Maxwell was gonna take care of this for me. I mean, I, I, I knew that I could walk outta that hospital. I knew that I had a, that, that I had a greater calling than this.

I, I just, I believed that and he gave me the blessing. And at the end and a blessing, he gave me a hug and he, he, he left. And I remember feeling down, not, not uplifted, not like you would feel after blessing or, I mean, I was grateful, but I just wasn't. And my dad escorted Elder Maxwell out. My wife did and I was just kind of left there.

I think someone came and checked my blood pulse or something like that. And then my wife came in and she was, she was excited, but I was not, 'cause I was still numb and I was not, I was still, you know, just, I just, I still felt empty. I, I felt like he didn't answer my [00:18:00] prayer. I, I really felt like he was there to heal me.

And my wife said, are, did you hear what he said? And I said, yes, I, but nothing's changed. I'm still in the circumstance. I, I, I mean, I know this guy can help me. I mean, I, I know that he has the power to do it. And she said he did. And I said, I don't know what you're talking about. I, I don't think you understand.

And she pulled out a yellow notepad where she had been taking some notes during his blessing. Which is probably why I didn't get healed 'cause she had her eyes open and she was cheating while writing notes down during the blood. But she read this back to me and I'll, I'll show. She said, elder Maxwell said that I could do five things with this.

I could be a better father to my two little boys. I could be a better husband with no hands and no legs. I could be a better farmer without riding a tractor. I could be a better disciple of Christ and I could be a better contributor to my community. And I thought that was a joke because how does somebody farm when they can't get on a tractor mount a horse herd cattle.

Move water, drive a backhoe, feed the animals. I mean, I'm just, how does someone, how does someone be a husband to a wife when I can't even hold their hand? I'm, I'm just, I that just let alone all the other, you know, things that we take for granted in this world today. I'm just saying I can't even hold their hand and feel it.

How does someone teach kids or be better father when they can't do a live? So I started to question her. And over the course of time, I have discovered, as you know, that I don't need to ride a horse to be a farmer. Today. I travel the world, which is much bigger than the farm that I live on, and I'm farming people.

I have taught my kids who are now 27 and 25 how to play ball. I just taught 'em a different way. Sean Dell and I just celebrated 30 years. I've been in a wheelchair for 25 of them. That doesn't make sense to me. I can't, I can't. I'm still worldly. I, I, I don't understand, actually, I can't [00:20:00] answer that. I asked Chandle what Goddess of 30 years I did.

I asked her that I. She said that she didn't marry me for my body. I didn't like that answer. My wife, I didn't like that. 'cause that, that wasn't the, you know, I just, I thought that was kind of, you know, unnecessary. But, but she has this, she has this inness that I, she said that's not the reason that she, she married me and so she's got this.

This understanding of God's plan away on a much higher level than I do, and I've decided that I, you know, I, I, I've understood that I could contribute to my community as well. So Elder Maxwell was right. I just, I just didn't need to have my hands or my legs to do it. And so I've been able to, I. To, to, to take care of Shondell and the kids.

We have two more children as well. They're both adopted and so one just got home from a mission and she's from Guatemala and she's headed back to college. And then we have a boy from Ethiopia who's 16. So we have a four children now, and it's been 25 years since the accident occurred. Wow. Well, thank you for sharing that.

I want to follow up with, with a question about your wife. You said in one of your posts on Instagram, and I'll read this directly, she took her vows seriously, and I thought that was such a compliment. I think that. Somebody that that values the promises that they make, especially from the perspective of somebody of our faith where we believe in making covenants.

I think that's about the highest compliment you can give someone. And so I wondered, how has your wife shown that over your 30 plus years together, and why would you say that her support has been so critical to what you're able to do today? So let's hit that. Let's hit the vows thing, because I've thought about this long and hard.

What's different between our vows and the vows that are taken in a civil marriage?

A lot. What's, what's the biggest one? I mean, we're married for time and all eternity. Yep. And when you [00:22:00] get civilly married, you're married for time, right? Right. And in a civil ceremony, towards the end they say, for better or for. Have you heard that before? Yeah. Till death do you park? Yep. Yep, yep. I've heard the same thing.

Right. And yeah, my, I've got a lot of my family are Catholic. They're gonna be listening to this podcast for sure, and we're gonna get them all in, but for sure they are. So, they, they married for, for time. And we believe that our, that our relationships and that our families last for forever, and that we are sealed and bonded forever.

And that that's one of the greatest blessings, if not the crescendo of the plan as we know. Honest Earth. Here's the challenge with that. Okay, here's the challenge. When we get married civilly, we, or even as we get married in the temple, we get married for better or for worse, through, through, you know, sickness and in health and, and to death, to us part if you get married civilly, but you don't plan on Morgan, the person that you're married to, helping you with the most intricate details of your personal life, right?

Shower, bathroom care, I. Getting dressed, which I've learned to do that stuff on my own. Uh, mo most of it, but not all of it, but most of it. And so Chandelle, she took her vow seriously because none of that phases her. And she's asked me if the roles were reversed, would I do that? Absolutely. I would hope to my heavenly father that I would do that and serve my wife that way, and that I would be that devoted in that.

That had that mindset that I am not leaving her side, that I have that much, but to be on the receiving end of that kind of service. And so if you look at my Instagram page or my Facebook page, I don't have it mastered. And you know this because I have spent the better half of 24 years, 28, 27 days a month in a hotel, traveling the world, preaching a message.[00:24:00]

Because I don't like my wife's help. I didn't say I'm not grateful. Morgan, please hear that. I'm very grateful. I just have not brought myself to say, you know what I really like Shon helping me out with when I'm on the road, I travel alone. People that I love, God loving people that don't even go to my church or have this, they help me out.

That's how I get on, I meet two strangers at the airport. Airport. I bet you in one day of travel going to Florida, or if I'm going out of the country and I'm going out of the country, there'll be at least 40 people that help me, that I meet 40 people that I love, but I'm not in love with them. I, I don't know 'em on a, I'm not married to them.

Mm-hmm. When I'm at home. Does not like me to get myself dressed. It takes me two hours to do that. I don't mind that. I, I, it's exercise for me. It's not a bad thing with no hands. It takes me about two hours as long as the shirt is not buttoned. So you you, I'm wearing a zipper shirt up today and I just zip it up with my teeth, you know, and I'm wearing, that's two sizes too big and my jeans are two size too big.

And I wear shoes that are two sizes too big, and it just makes it easier for me to get dressed. And no one else would know that they would, they would never ever know that. Right. When I'm on the road, I, I find strangers, I'm sizing people up to help me get into an Uber, to get me outta the Uber, to get me to the hotel room, to get me, you know, and then if I shower, which I do every two nights, Shandell, I have a nurse that comes in.

I used to do that by myself until six years ago when I fell at the Mirage in Las Vegas. And so Shandell has asked me to have someone come in. So someone does come in every two nights and they help me shower so I don't fall fine. I'm, I'm cool with that. I'm, I love that nurse, whoever that is. I just, I'm not married to that person when I'm at home.

Who does all of that? Shandell does. That's why I say that because she has asked me to understand what her love language is in life, and that is Shandell is service. She loves the temple. She loves to serve, and if [00:26:00] she can't do that to her husband and she does that for everybody else, she feels that she has gained nothing in this life.

My wife wants to serve me and I need to show her my gracious acceptance, which is not easy for me, and I hope that I'm not alone brethren out there, but it's hard for men to accept that, and I need to surrender to that. So over the last year, I have tried to be home 15 days a month, and I have done better at that.

I have, I've done better at that, but for 20 plus years, I've run away from that. And because I, you know, I, I wanted to provide, and I didn't miss the kids' games, but I would fly out at midnight. I mean, there'd be a helicopter waiting for me at the gym, and I would get to the airport and catch the plane and go.

I mean, I would go. And so it's just, it was a way for me to have some freedom and still feel like I was providing, and not have to have shandell, you know. Take, take care of me. And, and so that tells you what my greatest, perhaps one of my greatest weaknesses is. I, I have a lot of pride, Morgan. I do have a lot of pride and, and I know that my heavenly father knows that, but I am getting better.

I do know that. So well that's, that's the goal for all of us I think. I think first of all, recognizing where we can be better and then trying to improve. That's all that the Lord asks of us. So I admire you for sharing that. I know that life following an accident like this has to feel like an emotional rollercoaster of the nth degree.

I've had friends who have gone through. Similar things to you, Chad, and have observed from a distance the grief that is associated with losing a part of your body. And so I wondered how did you experience grief and, and how did you avoid letting it, letting yourself stay in that place of grief? So I would tell you that [00:28:00] I'm still not over the grief and I don't know that I'll be over it my entire life.

Here's the catch. I don't want to stay. There's a time to mourn. It says that we read that in the scriptures and that time to mourn doesn't have a time limit. It doesn't say, but there is a time, and it can be throughout our life. We just don't want to stay stuck there. So I might compare myself. To another coach or a father out playing catch with his son and get jealous.

And I might mourn and feel sorry for myself. Right? Or, and I think this happens with all of us, or we might, and we know the comparison is the thief of all of our joy. So we need to stop comparing ourselves to other people. Other people who are doing podcasts, other successful business people in the world, other people that are doing whatever they might.

Whenever I compare myself to another dad playing co playing catch with his son, I'm a very bad dad. Whenever I compare myself to another husband holding his wife's hand, I'm a very bad husband. But when I focus on what I still have, I'm honoring that loss. So the answer to your question is, is I'm okay to grieve.

I just don't wanna stay stuck there, and I need to focus on what God has still given me. How many wheelchairs do you think have been able to go to 89 countries? By that, I'm just, I'm not saying that to brag. I'm just saying I'm living a dream that God gave me that I never dreamt. My life is incredibly blessed.

I still have a farm. I have four beautiful children. I have a gorgeous wife. I mean, I'm just saying I have so much, and when I think about that, I tend to mourn less. So it's all about mindset and focusing on what God wants. Focus on what I have, and then I like to stay busy. I'm at my worst when I'm alone.

I am, I'm at my best when I'm talking to you on a podcast 'cause I don't have time to think about what I lost. My mind is focused on you and your questions, not on what I lost. So me being busy has been a huge remedy for me. [00:30:00] It's been a great bandaid. It's been a great fix because I, when I'm traveling, I'm always thinking, okay, plane lands, I gotta get to the next plane.

I gotta find this person. I gotta, alright, I gotta find, I'm looking for people. My mind is constantly going. And sometimes when I'm at home and I see Shandelle out there waiting with the kids, or I'll mourn a little bit because I'll see her out there maybe in the snowy weather, feeding the horses and she doesn't mind that she's not complaining.

She loves it. I just wanna be by her side. So that would be a morning period, right? So I need to it, it's okay to be there. I just don't wanna stay stuck there when she comes in. Hey, Hondo, you know, how, how are the horses doing? Instead of saying, I wish I could go out there and help you. That's never solved my problem.

That's never, I don't wanna say that anymore. I wish I could go out there. It's never done us any good. But when I say, Hey, how are the horses doing? How, you know, how, how are you doing? How's it, it leads to a better conversation rather than saying, I sure wish you didn't have to do this, Sean. I sure wish I could.

That's not gonna go anywhere. So I think it's okay for all us to mourn throughout our lives. Over a circumstance that might have happened several years ago. As long as we don't stay there and then we get focused back on God's plan quickly. Well, I think when you were first talking, Chad, it reminded me of the idea of abundance versus scarcity mentality.

You're so right, and I think that that is one of the biggest keys to happiness in this life is just approaching things from a place of abundance and recognizing that somebody else's success doesn't detract from ours or our opportunity. And so I, I appreciate your. Your attitude of abundance. I wondered as I was going through your, your Instagram and your website, you had two little boys at the time of the accident, and how did your sons handle this change in their father?

Do they even remember you before the accident? And, and how did you and your wife navigate [00:32:00] that? That's a beautiful question, Morgan, and very well articulated. One that catches me off guard when I hear it because the boys have never, ever. I mean, you watch the videos on YouTube of when they first gotta see me.

They were prepared. At least the older boy was and, and knows and remembers. And you see him when he first sees me. It's recorded. My mom, my, my mother recorded it. I mean, when I first gotta see them. And that boy is dressed up in his cowboy clothes and he runs to my side and he says, dad, mom said your legs don't work.

We don't care. He promised you would coach us and ball dad. And he proceeds to take off my hospital gown, put my Michigan State sweats on me, and you see it on the you. You can see it on the video. He takes off my hospital gown, sees me in a completely humble and vulnerable state, doesn't care about the body, puts on my basketball clothes, and then the little boy sits on my feet in the ICU unit.

The upper boy is sitting up here. I'm long sitting. He's sitting up here on my stomach in the midsection area and they're playing basketball catch back and forth, helping me use my hands to play catch best therapy in the world. And that has gone on for 25 years. In fact, I remember having a morning and a pity party after I got home.

Months afterwards, I was sitting in my front room in my wheelchair. I looked out the front window. My wife is playing kickball with my kid. Just, they're, they're, they're the little boy, the younger boy, the one that started to walk, so he was maybe two or maybe three, and Ace was maybe five. She's playing soccer with him.

Morgan out on the front lawn, and I just start getting, I mean, I get, I'm getting lit. I'm talking to God. This is not right. I, it should be out there. I, I'm, I'm just upset. I wanna be out there playing with them and. I'm just frustrated and for whatever reason, I go, I wheel my chair out the front [00:34:00] door over the threshold.

There's a ramp that goes down to the grass and I stay up on that, that, you know, up on that little platform, not going down the ramp. And I say this to Seandell and the little boy, I don't dunno where the other boy's at, she's just playing with ki, the littler one. I, I said, Hey, can I watch you play soccer with mom?

And he said, no. I thought, that's perfectly fine. I'm already mad as it is, it's rejection. I turned my chair around to go back in the house to my pity party, and before I could get back in the front door over the threshold, I'm pushing with numb hands, but I'm not going over the threshold with some something's going on.

I, I can't figure it out. I'm looking at the chair, I'm looking at my tires. I'm seeing what's going, and I'm pushing and there's a little tiny boy behind me holding onto the bar, pulling me back, and I look behind and it's Kyler. He's pulling me back to go down the ramp and I said, what are you doing? He said, I don't want you to watch me.

I want you to play. And I said, I don't wanna play. I just wanna watch. And when you're in a wheelchair, you don't have any say about what they do with you. It's, it's unreal. That little three-year-old kid pushed me down the ramp onto the grass with his mother's help. He ran into the shed, grabbed two orange cones.

Put one by my right tire, one by my left tire, and said, dad, you're gonna be the goalie. Mom said, you're numb. So whenever I kick the ball, it shouldn't hurt. Dad. You're gonna be the best goalie in the world. No one will ever score on you. And the only difference Morgan, between him and you is you just laughed at that.

And he was dead serious, right? Yes. And I never missed a game after that. Uh, God got hit me. I, I got the message I, and I, and I got it right from God. I, I, it hit me. The kid doesn't need me to kick, he wants me in his life. And so I never missed a game that I, I haven't, my kid, I, I won't miss not any of my kids.

I, I, I just don't miss, and my boys will tell you that. My daughter will tell you. I just don't, I'm not saying that to be arrogant. I just, they need me in their [00:36:00] life and I need to be there for them. And so the boys have just, and Gracie, you know, the, my kids have just, they're my. And says that the kids are better because of me and I I understand it Well, because, but because the circumstance, I mean, they're.

They're part of the all amazing pageant out where they go to high school. They're the ones that started that with their teacher. That's just a special, not one special ed kid left behind at Homecoming Prom. Girls' Choice, Sadie, all the dances that take place. My kids, they're during one class every day.

They're in the special ed department and they started that program. They use our bus 'cause my bus has a wheelchair lift. And there's not one wheelchair and not one special ed down syndrome, ms. Maybe they don't talk, maybe they can't talk, whatever their, whatever. There's not one special ed student left behind that does not go to those dances, and I love that about my kids.

So Shandell says that this has taught them to be more. Empathetic that God gives us those people to help us to serve, to love. Have you ever met a Down syndrome person that's not happy? They bring so much joy in our lives. They, they have so much to give, so much happiness that we, so that's what my kids have learned.

Not from me, but maybe from the experience. And so I'm, if that's, if that's my only role, Morgan, if that is all my role is, I'll take it. I will take that. Because it benefit those other, it benefits those other kids, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And you, and you and I, we would go through some, we would go through hell and back.

We would go through challenges. For the benefit of other, I'll just ask you, would you do things for others that you wouldn't do for yourself? Yes or no? Yes. Me too. Me too. I'm like you. I would too. So if that means this, then I guess that makes us like the savior, [00:38:00] because even he himself said. Please remove this cup from me.

He said, so that tells you it doesn't mean he is not perfect. It just means he was struggling. He was struggling big time and he's perfect. And he said, please take this. This is too much. And then he said, nevertheless, not my will, but thy will. I need to remember that. I need to remember that, and I hope our listeners today remember that when they're going through adversity and challenges and asking themselves why, or, you know, whatever it might be, they're going through that, that this too will pass.

Stay on course. Remain faithful. And, and find someone to serve. Get out. That's the best. Go find someone to help. Go find someone, to introduce yourself, to go, go get out and find someone to, so you get your focus off of yourself. That is the best fix for me in the world. It's, it's better than any drug. It's the best drug in the world.

It's to find someone to serve. Yeah. Chad, I found it interesting as I was preparing for this. I have interviewed someone before who was in a similar accident to yours and lost use of their legs and much of their, their torso as well. And I had a really unique experience and I've shared this. Before, but in the interview, I had this thought, come to me, ask him if he would do it all over again.

And my initial instinct was like, I'm not asking that question. You know, like, that's, that's a rude question. I'm not asking that question. And it just, I couldn't shake that feeling. And so finally, very timidly, I said, if you could go back, would you do it again? The person shared with me, Josh Pack is his name shared with me that, you know, if he could go back, he's like, part of me would love to press that button that makes all of this go away.

But I also recognize I. The person that I'm becoming as a result. And I found [00:40:00] it interesting that you've said something similar, that you recognize that you would never go back and change what happened because through the challenges and the pain of life, we discover our potential. I love that. And I wondered if you could go back to yourself as a young husband and father in a hospital bed.

What would you tell yourself immediately following your accident? Knowing what I know now, it would be to, it's taken me a long time to get to where I I'm at. At least I, you know, with my understanding, I, I'm very slow to understand God's will. 'cause I want it to happen today. You know, I want, we all are right.

I, I, I'm very slow to understand it and that's his timing. His, his timing is not our timing. He's not on the same time schedule that we're on. And it takes time. I guess if it was my timing, everybody in this world would understand the fullness of the gospel, right? And stop saying that Mormons are cults and things like that.

You know? Then they would understand the full and understand that we're, we're not bad people. We do a lot of good, that that's, that's not God's way. You look at the story of Joseph Smith, the pioneers. He could have easily, you know, they had to go through those challenges to make their weaknesses, their strengths.

I would hope that I would be able to tell myself that have greater vision in God's plan and let everything happen on his time clock, even though I've heard that once you start to live it and you go through things and it doesn't happen as fast for you, you begin to wish that things were different and change.

And so for me, I'm, I'm similar to that gentleman that you talked to, the, the, the young man that you interviewed. I, I wouldn't change it either. It doesn't mean I don't miss it. But if I were to change it, I would have to give up everything that I've learned in that 25 year time span. And I'm not doing that.

I am not because I've, I've learned so much about possibilities and been able to help and visit and feel that I have self-worth, you know, and be a [00:42:00] farmer in such a way that I ever dreamed. I mean, these tires on my chair have taken me to more places than my feet would've ever taken me. Who would've ever thought that I, I'm saying it seems absurd.

It seems crazy to me. And so I, I think that we don't see the potential that God gives us. You talked about abundance. I don't think that there's a better word, the law of abundance. You nailed it, and it's right in front of us for the taking. Because of choices that we make. We either get to receive that abundance or we don't.

Morgan, you're absolutely right. You're, you're spot on. And I feel the same way. That's what I would tell myself is to be more on God's time clock and allow that doesn't have to understand God's plan. Just trust and show faith. And if you read the New Testament and read about God and Christ and the Book of Mormon, the doctrine coves, the New Testament, the Old Testament.

God loves our faith more than anything else. Christ loves our faith more than anything else and we put our total faith in him, even if it's just a little bit, maybe it's not totality, maybe it's just a little bit. He relishes that faith loves it. Without having to be healed, without having to be healed.

You know, everybody has a story about, you know, yeah, I was able to walk again and I didn't have to go through that, and that's great. How many people have the story? Well, we've seen this on the movie, the Chosen, I love the chosen series, my wife. You see that about Little James. You know how many people have the story where they have to go through with something challenging and they still have faith after the challenge.

Not too many people have that story, and that becomes a remarkable testimony to move his work forward. Absolutely. I could not agree more. Chad, it has been a delight to talk with you. My last question for you is, what does it mean to you to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? I. I don't have to be all perfect.

I don't. He loves me all in and I don't have to be all perfect. So well said. Chad, [00:44:00] thank you so much. You are so humble and kind, and I just, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and, and for all you're doing to share a message of hope and, and I just wish you all the best. Thank you, Morgan.

Thanks so much for allowing me to be part of this. It's been an absolute joy.

We are so grateful to Chad Hymas for joining us on today's episode. You can learn more about Chad by visiting ChadHymas.com. Big thanks as always to Derek Campbell of Mix at six studios for his help with this and every episode of this podcast, we'll look forward to being with you again next week.