CHALLENGES THAT OUTWEIGH OUR STRENGTH
by Erwin Bourne—April 17, 2002
My wife, Jean, and I were cruising along on one of the
few good roads crossing Zacatecas, Mexico. The
weather was on the stormy side. Then I spotted a
tornado forming out of a dark bellied cloud on ahead,
but off to our left about a half mile. I pulled over
and stopped not wanting to be on a collision course
with a twister. The tail grew longer and touched down
a place or two kicking up a terrific dust storm. I
stepped out of the pickup to look around, but quickly
got back in. “Jean, there’s another tornado
developing directly above us. We can’t wait here!”
We sped on down the road getting ahead of both the
dangerous clouds.
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now;
rather we look forward to what we have not yet seen.
For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the
joys to come will last forever (II Cor. 4:18 NLT). We
have been given bodies that can’t sustain our spirits.
We have bills that outnumber our funds. We have
challenges that outweigh our strength.
We will be rewarded, not for what we did,
but for what we longed to do.
The Apostle Paul’s words leave me almost speechless.
We will be reading in II Cor. 1:8 through 11 NLT. We
were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we
thought we would never live through it. In fact, we
expected to die. But as a result we learned not to
rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead.
And he did deliver us from mortal danger. And we are
confident that he will continue to deliver us. He
will rescue us because you are helping by praying for
us.
Thank God for each one who is helping share the load.
Just yesterday we received a pack of envelopes from
folks back home. Thanks for the financial gifts, and
thanks for the notes that tell us you are praying for
us. Pray that we have the strength to meet the
challenges before us.
Yours for OUTREACH AMAZON,
—Erwin and Jean Bourne
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