What motivates you?

The other day I turned on the TV in our bedroom to kick back and catch up on my quota of mindless entertainment. Somehow I ended up watching a short movie on the documentary channel.

The movie followed three disabled men, Erik Weihenmayer and Andy Holzer, both are blind and the third, Hugh Herr, is a double-leg amputee. The movie is called Mountains without Barriers. I would recommend watching it, if you get the chance.

When I first started watching, they were focusing on Hugh. Hugh was a rock climber who had both of his legs amputated. Back in 1982 he was in New Hampshire climbing Mt. Washington in the winter. And after climbing a 1000 foot ice face, a huge storm hit and he and his climbing partner became disoriented in the white out conditions near the summit.

To make a long story short, a day outing turned into four days. Temperatures reached 20-degrees below zero. They didn't have a sleeping bag or a tent, and no food. To survive they dug into the snow, and then hugged each other to stay warm. Though they both survived, Hugh got frost bite on his lower legs, and after two months in the hospital the doctors amputated them just below the knee.

Today, he not only walks around on artificial legs but he still does technical rock climbing and mountaineering. Watching as a double amputee and two blind men summit one of the three freestanding limestone towers known as the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in Italy, made me really stop and think about my own life.

It would have been so easy for them to not even try or to even quit and give up when the going got tough. Who would have blamed them? They have “limitations” that the majority of us don’t nor won’t experience. But instead of accepting their life as limited and living by the excuse “I can’t” they try anyway and at times succeed.

But yet, I find myself making excuses why I can’t do things that really aren’t that great of a struggle or sacrifice for me. I realize that the majority of the time it is simply because I am comfortable. It is too hot or too cold, too early or to late or too busy or I just don’t want too right now, maybe later. I have found that “later” never really happens.
The real difference between me and those three guys has nothing to do with being able bodied or disabled but being motivated.

What motivates you? I will be honest, for me, right now; it is something I am in the process of redeveloping. But I do know how I have to begin…just taking that first step.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others; I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.