Making front page news yesterday in France was the death of French mountain climber turned political figure Maurice Herzog. He was 93 years old.

Reading about his accomplishments in Le Figaro, I learned that he and his climbing partner were the first people to ascend a peak higher than 8000m (26000ft) when in 1950 they climbed mount Annapurna in the Himalayas. The article adds that he “paid for his victory” with the amputation of fingers and toes.

Herzog remarks, “Vous voyez ce que j’ai en moins mais, moi, je sens ce que j’ai en plus, disait-il. Et c’est incomparablement plus grand que ce que j’ai en moins,” or translated:

You see what I’m lacking, but I feel what I have gained. And it’s incomparably greater than what I lack.

The adventures we set out on in life all have a cost. They will cost us something. But what is gained by doing what one feels like one ought to do is an incomparably greater gain than what one loses. The goal of life isn’t to safeguard what one already has, but to press on for more. “Press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Phil. 3:12).

Our adventure continues in 2013. How about yours?