Three Cups of Humble Tea

Greg Mortenson’s best-selling book is the basis of this discussion of what constitutes greatness.

If Greg Mortenson is motivated to do good deeds by the example of Jesus, you wouldn’t know it by reading his book. He not only makes no mention of such motivation, he makes no mention of Jesus, at least not as having anything to do with Mortenson himself. Although his parents were Lutheran missionaries in Tanzania, where Mortenson grew up, he makes no claim that he shares their faith.

Yet, if you wanted an example of someone who takes seriously Jesus’ injunction to love your neighbor as yourself, you would not go wrong looking at Mortenson.

But you’d likely have to look for him in a high-altitude neighborhood.

Born in 1957, Mortenson joined the U.S. Army as a young man and was trained as a medical corpsman. That, coupled with a love of adventure, later led to Mortenson being included on mountain-climbing teams, which were always eager to have a medic along.

In 1993, he was part of a team ascending the world’s second-highest mountain, only slightly lower than Everest. That peak, known...