人生不设限·只剩一只手的冲浪女孩

I was in Hawaii for a speaking engagement in 2008 when I met the world-class surfer Bethany Hamilton. You may recall that she lost her left arm when she was attacked by a tiger shark in 2003.

她在2003年被一只虎鲨攻击，失去左手臂，那时她13岁。在鲨鱼攻击事件之前，贝诗妮在冲浪界已经很有名了;而惨剧发生后，她还是回到了这项运动中，并感恩上帝的祝福，如此勇敢的心灵与坚定的信心让她赢得国际尊敬。如今她和我一样在全球旅行，鼓舞人们，并分享她的信仰。

She was just thirteen years old when that happened. Prior to the shark attack, Bethany was well known among surfers, but after she survived that tragedy and returned to her sport praising God and thanking Him for his blessings, she became admired internationally for her courageous spirit and her amazing faith. Now, like me, she travels the globe to inspire people and to share her beliefs.

贝诗妮说她的目标只是要“告诉人们我对上帝的信心，让大家知道他爱所有人，并解释事发当天，上帝是如何看顾着我。若不是上帝，我现在根本不会站在这里，因为那天我流失了高达70%的血”。

Her goal, she said, is "just to tell about my faith in God and to let everyone know that He loves them and to explain just how much He took care of me that day. I shouldn't be here because I lost seventy percent of my blood that morning."

碰面之前，其实我对她那天的事并不完全清楚，也不知道这位令人景仰的年轻女性曾如此接近死亡。事发后，大家把她送到45分钟车程外的一家医院。她告诉我，一路上她是如何祷告，而医护人员又是如何在她耳边充满信心地喊话，鼓励她：“上帝永远不会抛弃你!”

I'd never heard the whole story of what happened that day until our meeting, and I had not realized how close this awesome young lady came to dying. She told me how she prayed as they rushed her to a hospital forty-five minutes away and how her paramedic whispered encouraging words of faith into her ear: "God will never leave you or forsake you."

情况看来很惨。当他们抵达医院，并火速准备好要替贝诗妮动手术时，才发现每一间手术室都在使用中，而贝诗妮正迅速陷入昏迷状态。但有个病人放弃自己即将进行的膝盖手术，好让他的医生可以替贝诗妮开刀。猜猜看，那个病人是谁?

Things were looking pretty grim. When they finally arrived at the hospital and hurriedly prepped her for surgery, they found that all of the operating rooms were being used. Bethany was fading fast. But one patient gave up his knee surgery, which was just about to get under way, so his doctor could operate on Bethany. Guess who it was?

贝诗妮的父亲。

Bethany's own dad!

很让人吃惊吧?当时外科医生已经准备就绪，所以医护人员直接把爸爸换成女儿，然后继续进行手术，手术救了贝诗妮一命。

Amazing, isn't it? The surgeon was prepped and ready to operate, so they just switched daughter for dad and went to work. The operation saved her life.

贝诗妮一直是个健康的运动型女孩，又有惊人的正面态度，所以复原的速度超乎医生预期。受伤后三个星期，贝诗妮又开始冲浪了。

Since she was such a healthy, athletic girl and had such an amazingly positive attitude, Bethany bounced back faster than any of her doctors expected. She was surfing again just three weeks after the attack.

和她碰面时，贝诗妮告诉我，对上帝的信心让她断定，失去手臂也是上帝对她人生计划的一部分。因此她并不自怜，而是接受这个结果，并继续往前走。受伤后的第一次比赛，贝诗妮跟来自世界各地的女性冲浪高手竞技，结果拿到第三名——她只有一只手喔。贝诗妮说失去一只手在很多方面看来都是个祝福，因为如今她参加任何比赛，若是得到不错的成绩，就能发挥激励作用，让别人知道他们的人生也可以像她一样不受限制。

During our visit Bethany told me that her faith in God led her to conclude that losing her arm was part of His plan for her life. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she just accepted it and moved on. In her first competition against many of the world's best women surfers, she finished third—with only one arm! She says that the loss of her arm is a blessing in many ways because now whenever she does well in a competition, it inspires other people that their lives have no limits!

“上帝确实回应了我想被他使用的祷告。当大家听我的故事时，上帝就在对人们说话。”贝诗妮说道，“人们告诉我，他们因此更接近上帝，开始相信上帝，并在自己的生命中找到希望，或者得到激励，以克服困境。听到这些，我就赞美神，因为我没有为这些人做什么——帮助他们的是上帝。身为上帝计划的一部分，真的让我热血沸腾!”

"God has definitely answered my prayer to use me. He speaks to people when they hear my story," she says. "People tell me that they have drawn closer to God, started to believe in God, found hope for their lives, or were inspired to overcome a diffi cult circumstance. I just praise God when I hear that because it's not me doing anything for them—God is the One Who is helping them. I'm so stoked that God would let me be a part of His plan."

贝诗妮不可思议的精神让人忍不住也变得热情洋溢。如果她受到鲨鱼攻击后就退出冲浪界，应该没什么人会怪她吧。失去一只手之后，她必须重新学习在冲浪板上保持平衡，这并没有让她却步。她相信，就算发生了什么可怕的事，还是会带来美好的结果。

You can't help but be stoked by Bethany's incredible spirit. Few would have blamed her if she'd quit surfing altogether after the shark attack. She had to learn how to balance on a surfboard all over again, but that didn't faze her either. She trusted that even though something terrible had happened to her, good could come of it.