Against All Odds

One leg climber conquer Elbrus (5642 m) - the highest mountain in Europe
I read this article when I browsed www.kompas.com last Sunday. What a super achievement! Realising that a normal two legged person, like me, would climb even a hill is unthinkable.

How impossible it may seem...but it happened and has already written in history. Sabar Gorky became the first one-legged person who conquered Elbrus on 17 August 2011. Conquering the highest mountain in Europe from the north route known as the toughest route, with stick on his right hand and Indonesian red & white flag on his left hand.

Mount Elbrus-Russia

Against all odds Sabar defeated his physical limitations, harsh weather..it was minus 15 Celsius degree, raucous mountain wind, and general opinion that climbing mountain is only for physically normal person.

An extraordinary achievement that made me feel ashamed about how ungrateful I am against the odds, that I should now consider normal against what Sabar had to go through.


The next evening I watch Precious DVD with my good friend. It told a story about 16 year old girl who faced so many unimaginable terrible things in her life. She was obese, two times pregnant from his own father, living with abusive mother that abuse her not only physically but also verbally. The whole mom and daughter conversation  was filled with so many f*** words, that surely gonna be cut in Indonesian cinemas and would certainly remove the whole conversation scenes.  Contrary to all the horrible things happened in her life, the girl name was Precious. At the ending of the film, she came to know that she got HIV from her father and she broke. She cried to her teacher Ms. Rain how "love" got her HIV, abused her, never had any boyfriend but got two children.

The film ended with Precious holding the hand of Mongo her first down-syndrome daughter, carried her new born baby Abdul, walked confidently down the street. She had determined to improve her life for herself and her children. Cutting ties with her mother, she planned to continue her education until college.

Although this was not base on a true story, this movie gave lessons that no matter how unfortunate the circumstances around us, we still have freedom of choice..either to keep on going against all odds or to give up on hope.

My life may posses some challenges that I have to face daily. Compared with all the odds that Sabar and Precious had gone through, it all seems so insignificant. God knows our own limitations and whatever He allow us to experience, He is confident enough that we can go through them all with high marks.

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He'll never let you be pushed past your limit; He'll always be there to help you come through it.  (1 Corinthians 10:13)