Give me a break

"If you try, you'll fail. So don't try, do." This is some of the best advice that can be given. To persevere in the face in seemingly insurmountable odds is what makes us human, right? To see the positive needle in the negative haystack. To walk the fiery trials and not get so much as a blister.

A German missionary and a Tibetan monk were walking up the path to the monastery in the worst blizzard imaginable. The temperature was below zero. Harsh winds. Visibility limited to a few feet in front them. As they scaled upwards along the narrow way they heard the cries of a man, after a short while they happened upon an gentleman in his fifties, exhausted, weak, and seemingly distraught. The missionary and the monk knew that his man had no hope if they left him. As the missionary delayed, the monk went on along the path. His argument was that if they carried this poor fellow they would all end up exhausted and fall victim to the storm.

The monk left them and went ahead. So the missionary labored with the weak man carrying most of his weight as the relentless and merciless winds did their best to knock him down. When they were nearing the monastery, the missionary and his new friend stumbled and tripped over a what seemed to be a rock in the middle of the road. This rock turned out to be the monk that had collapsed and frozen from exhaustion. The missionary, along with the now unconscious elderly man continued on to the monastery. Surprisingly, the monk had collapsed a mere 100 feet from the monastery. The missionary knew that it was because he was not alone that he survived. The body heat from the weakened gentleman allowed them both to live.

Next time you have to deal with what you believe to be something that does not concern you. Think of how it might help you become a better person. Only by sacrificing do we understand what it means to really give.