All of us, at one time or another, have been exhorted to plow forward through life's oncoming challenges with the simple yet profound phrase "one foot at a time."

It's a good message, a powerfully true concept, a worthwhile encouragement! But, what if you don't have one foot to follow the other? What if one foot is truly missing?

Such was the stark reality facing Tom Whittaker. His story appeared in the Los Angeles Times on October 8, 2000, in an article entitled "Aiming High Despite Life's Lows," written by Times staff writer Susan Vaughn. It is the story of a man who climbed Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on earth, with just one natural foot. The other foot was a prosthesis or "artificial foot."

How many nations, cities, communities, schools, congregations, families or individuals excuse themselves from meeting the challenges before them, because of perceived or very real disabilities or liabilities?

Isaiah 2:3 speaks of a time when all nations and individuals will cry, "let us go up to the mountain of the LORD." Have you ever considered how many handicaps they will possess at that time? Their future climb is our present one.

Let's look at the remarkable story of Tom Whittaker, so we can measure how well we are dealing with difficulties in our climb through life.

"I had to reinvent myself"

Susan Vaughn begins by sharing the past exploits of Tom Whittaker before he lost his foot. He had scaled Mt. McKinley, El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, kayaked the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and climbed frozen waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies. Originally from Britain, he emigrated to the United States to make adventure sports and education his full-time career. But in 1979, a distracted motorist struck Whittaker's Volkswagen van head on, crushing both his feet and shattering his right knee.

There was so much that he had planned to do! He pleaded with surgeons not to amputate his feet. They were able to save the left foot, but the right foot and kneecap were shattered beyond repair. The foot had to go! For the moment, Whittaker was crestfallen. Vaughn gives Whittaker voice by sharing his very real sentiments at the time: "I lost my foot, my life savings and my means of making a living. Now I had to reinvent myself and come up with a new plan. I didn't come to the United States to live a small life. I came to do something big."

Whittaker moved into an abandoned apartment building and took the first job offered him. Of all places it was a shoe store. Unable to afford a prosthetic foot, Whittaker crafted one from a cigar box and lashed it to his leg with an elastic bandage. From that humble beginning would be his steady sequential climb nearly 20 years later towards Mt. Everest. He did not change his goals, but only how he would reach them. When he stated to friends that he would one day climb again, it caught them off guard. They would begin to shuffle, lose eye contact or simply dismiss his new goals as merely delusional dreams.

But step-by-step, literally one foot at a time, he reinvented his life. He kayaked down the Snake River in Idaho with crutches tucked in his boat. When he could finally afford a quality prosthesis, he resumed his backpacking and spelunking activities. He also completed a master's degree in athletic administration and founded the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group to offer disabled individuals a chance to experience challenging outdoor activities. Yes, he had been sidelined, but not stopped in pursuit of a meaningful existence. As each step led to greater accomplishments, he moved towards his goal literally one foot at a time. A friend eventually challenged him to be the first amputee to ascend the loftiest perch on earth.

Susan Vaughn graphically shares the daunting statistics regarding Mt. Everest. "In the last 100 years, more than 150 climbers have died on Mt. Everest's slopes. Countless others have been repelled by the mountain's 100 mph winds, violent storms, wind-chill temperatures that reach 140 below zero, and oxygen-thin air."

In spite of the dangers, Whittaker told Vaughn, "Once it was suggested, I couldn't think of anything else." Two tremendous obstacles faced him that didn't necessarily face other would-be climbers. First, would be the raw reality that without his kneecap he had only about 50 percent muscle function in his right leg. If his stump were to swell during the ascent and he was unable to reattach his prosthesis, there was a chance he might not make it down the mountain alive.

Secondly, just getting the financial sponsorship of $300,000 for such an expedition was almost more challenging than the climb. Due to recent climbing catastrophes on Everest's slopes, sponsors were hard to come by-even without considering Whittaker's disability. With that additional factor, imagine the public relations disaster for any potential sponsor if Tom Whittaker had died!

But, Whittaker moved forward one foot at a time, and one climb at a time. It took him three separate attempts over a period of nine years to accomplish his goal. In 1989, his party was buffeted by a storm that took the lives of five people on other expeditions. Down he went. In 1995, he came to within 1,500 feet of the summit, only to be chased away by storms again.

Finally in 1998, he set skyward one more time. As his party ascended towards the goal before them, their tents and equipment were destroyed by 100 mph winds. Whittaker became gravely ill with a serious accumulation of fluid in his lungs. A physician urged him to leave the mountain. He simply would not hear of it. As a friend related, "I think part of his motivation came from hearing so many people tell him he couldn't do it. He's got a big ego, but he's also got a big heart." After his symptoms subsided, Whittaker, a colleague and four Sherpa guides made history on May 27, 1998. The first amputee to climb Everest stood at the top of the world. Amputating part of his body did not amputate his life.

Going after your dreams

When he is not scaling mountains, Whittaker works as a corporate motivational speaker. He has also founded a nonprofit organization, which supports other people with disabilities in reaching their goals. He offers "Five Tips for Going After Your Dreams."

Many of our World News and Prophecy readers not only dream, but long for the reality of the Kingdom of God to come to this earth. Do we focus on the "mountain of the Lord," or on the difficult challenges between here and there? Allow Whittaker's "Five Tips for Going After Your Dreams" and a few of my thoughts to help show the way.

1) Make sure your goals come from within. Internal motivation is much more powerful than external motivation.

Remember how Whittaker stated, "I had to reinvent myself.... I didn't come to the United States to live a small life, I came to do something big!" Relate that to what Elijah came to understand from God. True power was not in an earthquake, wind or fire, but a "still small voice" that challenged him personally with: "What are you doing here?" Elijah had lost hope, crawled into a cave and kept talking about what he had done, rather than focusing on what God had yet in store for him to accomplish (1 Kings 19:11-15).

Each of us needs to answer: "What am I doing here?" What are we truly about? God works from the inside out, not the outside in. Faith will always be challenged, but it need not be conquered. A goal, the right goal, the goal of God's Kingdom, will give you both roots and wings. Roots to stabilize you in traumatic times, and wings to lift you to new horizons. But you must own the goal. The story of God's Kingdom must be bigger than your story, and tucked deep inside.

2) Develop a credo, based on your life values, principles and sense of self. Don't allow others to define these things for you-define yourself.

Know who you are, what you are about and be about doing it. People love to pigeonhole other people and keep them there. In Scripture, Goliath saw only a "boy" in David. The Sanhedrin gazing upon the apostles saw only "Galileans." On the contrary, God says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "All things have become new." God doesn't pigeonhole us; He opens new doors with new possibilities. It's interesting that this is mentioned to the Corinthians who were the "wharf rats of Attica." They could have said, "Why couldn't we be noble Athenians?" God revealed that He had something better in mind for them, but that they needed to be willing to move towards it one foot at a time. How about you?

3) Don't compromise or take shortcuts. Love the process, rather than the illusion of "winning" or "getting there." By focusing on the journey, you become a better problem solver.

All of us are well aware of the blurring speed of our present technological society. Computers are making everything quicker, faster and more immediately attainable. Be it the remote control features on our computers or on our televisions, we simply flip and zip from "there to there" without passing through "here" which lies in between. It really has influenced our society, and Christians are no exception. Everybody wants everything right now! Any delay has become a painful nuisance in our society.

Whittaker's encouragement is to recognize that there are a lot of "heres" along the way that an individual has to move through. If it's worth obtaining, it's worth plowing through one foot at a time. God has not handed us a remote control with "Kingdom-forward" features. In 1 Peter 2:21, He simply encourages us through Peter to follow Christ's steps one foot at a time.

4) Face your fears. Acknowledge them and move ahead. Don't flee from anticipated pain or injury.

When Whittaker was first moving sequentially towards the ultimate goal of climbing Mt. Everest, he confronted a smaller challenge in climbing the "Outer Limits" just outside of Yosemite Valley. Whittaker later shared the power of the moment: "As I stood at the foot of it, I realized here was the physical manifestation of all my hopes and dreams." He could have frozen in his tracks, but he didn't. He realized, as we need to realize, that recovery lies on the other side of the panic we feel.

Long ago, Shakespeare pondered the power of fear when he wrote that "cowards die a thousand deaths, but the brave only die once." Christianity is not about transference of the challenges in front of us, but the transformation of the challenge.

Psalm 18:32-36 brings this to light. "It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places. He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip." The Life Application Bible Commentary offers this thought: "God promises to give us strength to meet challenges, but he doesn't promise to eliminate them. If he gave us no rough roads to walk, no mountains to climb, or any battles to fight, we would not grow. He does not leave us alone with our challenges, however. Instead he stands beside us, teaches us and strengthens us to face them."

5) Live a big life. Set tall goals. Achieve mastery in all that is important to you.

Many years ago Longfellow penned, "If you would hit the mark, aim the bow high for every arrow that flies feels the pull of the earth." There are very real and dynamic pulls and weights on nations, communities, congregations, families and individuals that can disturb, disappoint and depress them so that they depart from the challenges they face. After climbing Mt. Everest, Whittaker said, "My belief is that if, as people with disabilities, we argue for our limitations, that is what we will have-limitations." Big thought, big story, one life and yes, one natural foot. But, he practices what he preaches. He is still setting goals that move beyond all the naysayers.

Whittaker's next goal is to climb the "Seven Summits," which are the highest peaks of each continent. As he journeys forward, we, too, in our way and time, are invited to conquer the seemingly unconquerable. Whittaker's message is simple, "It's not the falling down, but the getting up that matters."

Such a message is an echo of an age-old refrain found in Isaiah 30:21-"This is the way, walk you in it." And, if I might add, "one foot at a time, if that is all that you have."