Vanishing Beggar's Gold 24

A young would-be hero attempts to escape from a rugged, snow-covered mountain peak. Setting off along the most achievable route, he ends up facing death from hypothermia. Back on the mountain peak, he attempts to rescue himself by scaling the sheer cliffs on the other side. These prove too dangerous.

This man's failure makes another woman's success appear all the more startling. Having crashed in a small aircraft with her husband, she managed, in ordinary clothing and shoes, to escape from this merciless scene, after her husband's death from hypothermia.

Incidents like this cause us to stop and think. So do some of Paul's statements. They often seem like an instruction to do something that is totally impossible. When we attempt to do them, we feel like the would-be hero, trying to re-enact an impossible feat. Yet somehow, by God's grace, He empowers His people do do what is entirely unexplainable, as did the woman in our story.