by Hans Johnson

Today hundreds of millions worldwide will commemorate the greatest sacrifice there ever was or ever could be. It’s a good day to reflect on what we are willing to give up for the lives of others.

Would we speak up on behalf of those in peril, at the cost of vilificatiion or arrest?

Would we give up our own dream of a lifetime? Donald Mazur of Olympia, Washington was two hours from the summit of Mt. Everest by the formidable north side, when he came across Lincoln Hall, a British climber with no gloves, hat, sleeping bag, or oxygen bottles – given up for dead by his party a day earlier. Passing hikers refused to stop and help, as had dozens who left another man to die days earlier – so reminiscent of certain storied Levites.

By the time the Sherpas they radioed for arrived, they were too exhausted to make the final assault. Mazur said, “We all looked at the summit and then returned. We all agreed there was no choice.” Adding, “You can always go back to the summit but you only have one life to live. If we had left the man to die, that would have always been on my mind… How could you live with yourself?”

In another example of self-sacrifice,

Ashley Bridges was not only willing to “give up Everest,” but her very life for that of her child Paisley, when she put off chemotherapy. CNN reports this story of one mother’s ultimate love and sacrifice:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/4qRzqQi77Dk[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.