JANUARY 1

A Devastating Rescue

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Snow covered Bavaria like a fresh dusting of powdered sugar. On the banks of the icy Inn River, children were playing a game of "cowboys and Indians." The frosty air was filled with Sioux war cries and shouts of "Bang, bang! You're dead." Among the "cowboys and Indians" was a four-year-old boy. He was sickly and frail, small for his age, and wearing thick glasses. Yet he ran with determination, trying desperately to keep up with the galloping herd of children — until he tripped and fell over the embankment. His eyeglasses flew through the air as he broke through the thin sheet of ice. Unable to swim, the frantic boy was swept downriver toward certain death.

Johann Kuehberger was only five years old. But when he heard his playmate scream for help, he jumped into the icy waters and pulled him to safety. Little Johann was proclaimed a hero by the local newspaper in the town of Passau. No one was surprised when this courageous child grew up to be a priest. Johann Kuehberger would spend the rest of his life trying to save those in distress. But saving that childhood playmate from drowning would haunt him to his dying day. A fellow priest, Max Tremmel, revealed that Father Johann spent many sleepless nights obsessing over that rescue in the winter of 1894.

Little Johann might have grown up to serve God, but the child he saved went on to become one of history's most diabolical monsters. If only five-year-old Johann could have seen the future in that split second before he jumped into the river, he might have stopped dead in his tracks. Surely countless millions would have been spared terror and death — if only little Adolf Hitler had drowned that day.

Hitler often reminisced about his childhood games of "cowboys and Indians" on the banks of the Inn River. But he never mentioned the near drowning. He wasn't about to spoil the Nazi myth of a superman Fuhrer by admitting that he had been saved by a future priest of a religion he despised. Yet reporters have uncovered the story of his rescue from old files in Passau. A recent program on Bavarian radio got folks thinking: What if Hitler had drowned?

Every act has consequences. We can never know what the future will do with our decisions and actions. Sadly, Father Johann wasted far too many nights second-guessing himself. Ultimately, we cannot control the outcomes of our acts. But we can worry too much. Maybe you're filled with regrets or bitterness for the painful consequences of yesterday's choices. Or perhaps you hesitate to make decisions today for fear of how they will play out tomorrow. You might find some freedom from the paralysis of analysis if you remember this:

Do the best you can do, and leave the results to God.

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Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. PROVERBS 16:3

JANUARY 2

The Most Courageous Man in America

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In 1986 Italian runner Gianni Poli won the New York City Marathon in two hours and eleven minutes. In 2003, Mark Yatich of Kenya triumphed at the Los Angeles Marathon in a time of two hours and ten minutes.

But the greatest marathons of all time may have been run by the guy who finished dead last in both races, in the slowest times ever recorded. In 1986 he completed the New York City race in about ninety-eight hours. It took him a little more than 173 hours to cross the finish line at Los Angeles in 2003.

Before you write Bob Wieland off, you need to know that he completed both marathons using only his arms and torso. Bob has no legs. In 1969, while trying to rescue a fallen buddy in Vietnam, he stepped on a mortar round designed to destroy tanks. He sent this short note to his parents:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm in the hospital. Everything is going to be okay. The people here are taking good care of me.

Love, Bob P.S. I think I lost my legs.

Bob could have shriveled up in a wheelchair. Instead, he walked across America on his hands. That exploit took three years, eight months, and six days. He's the only double-amputee ever to complete the Iron Man Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii, without a wheelchair. He swam 2.4 miles, then biked 112 miles, and finished up with a 26.2- mile marathon using only his arms. He twice made a 6,200- mile round-trip bike ride across America and has amassed four world records in weight lifting, including a 570- pound bench press!

It's no wonder Bob Wieland is called "Mr. Inspiration." The NFL Players Association awarded him the title "The Most Courageous Man in America." People magazine dubbed him "one of the six most amazing Americans." After he took more than a week to complete the Los Angeles Marathon while walking on his hands at age fifty-seven, Bob told the Associated Press, "This was supernatural. It was done by the grace of God." He then summed up life without legs: "I do it one step at a time."

Bob Wieland reminds us that the race of life isn't won by the fastest. It's always good to remember that by perseverance and patience the snail made it to Noah's ark before the Flood. Most victories in life are won by plodders. And only the persistent learn to run on their arms after their legs are gone. Maybe the wear and tear of life has put you on the ragged edge of giving up before the race is over. The story of Bob Wieland reminds us that when our legs are gone and our arms are worn to nubs, we can still make it. Bob would agree with something Robert W. Service once wrote:

It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones who win in the lifelong race.

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I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. ECCLESIASTES 9:11

JANUARY 3

The Irresistible Power of Courage

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Winter blew frigid cold across the plains of Armenia. Yet while locals shivered before their fires, legionnaires marched into the maelstrom of icy winds. Theirs was the famous Legio XII Fulminata — the Thundering Legion. These elite storm troopers had carried black shields, each emblazoned with a lightning bolt, across the world to form a wall between Rome and invading Persians.

But a more insidious danger faced decaying Rome: the rise of Christianity. So a frightened emperor decreed that his legions sacrifice to the pagan gods. When his orders were delivered to the Thundering Legion, forty legionnaires refused. Their superiors angrily responded, "You alone of all Caesar's troops defy him. Think of the disgrace you bring upon your legion." They replied, "To disgrace the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is more terrible still."

The forty were dragged to flogging posts and beaten with whips. When they didn't break, they were flayed with hooks. When they still refused to deny Christ, their commanding general ordered them stripped naked and taken onto an ice-covered lake.

On a bitter winter's day in AD 320, they joyfully stripped off their clothes and ran out onto the ice. Their commander ordered tubs of heated water placed on the banks of the lake to entice them to give up. But the freezing Christians prayed, "Lord, there are forty of us engaged in this battle; grant that forty may be crowned and not one will be missing from this sacred number."

It seemed that forty...