Speed bumps

I’ll start off today’s editorial by the reporting of a catastrophic event occurring in my life this past Monday evening.  Now I’ll admit that “catastrophic” is in the eye of the beholder, but in my eye, that’s the appropriate description.  It was this “catastrophic” occurrence that brought a word to my mind that will serve as our topic for this lesson.  In the following recitation of “the event” I’ll use the “word” thereby giving you a clue to our lesson topic.

The event.  Perhaps I should say “main event” because it has sure occupied most of my thinking and feeling since it occurred, but anyway here’s what happened.  My wife and I had taken care of some business in a large shopping center and decided to check out a new store located therein. 

As I walked around the back of my vehicle, I failed to notice a “speed bump” strategically located to slow people down.  It certainly slowed me down as I tripped over it, almost recovering my balance but then fell crashing onto the asphalt, very ungracefully I might add.  Not only was my dignity injured, so was the left side of my body.  Luckily, nothing was broken, but I’ve got some truly colorful bruises adorning certain areas of me.

Every minute of time since 6:21 PM Monday night (watch broke in fall) the pain reminds me of my failure to pay attention to important things.  Such as what’s around me that can cause me harm.  Because, as we get older, like Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes 12, the “keepers” of my “house” (body) don’t work as good as when I was younger, so I really need to pay closer attention to potentially dangerous situations.

OK, have you figured out which word in my event narrative might be our “topic word?”  If you guessed the word “almost” you hit the nail on the head.  Yep, “almost” is our operative word of the day.  As in, I almost kept from falling, but I didn’t.  I fell and mighty was the fall of it.

Well, let’s think about that word “almost” for a few moments.  It’s a word that people use in their vocabulary quite a bit, isn’t it?  And, we hear it used in a variety of ways and I’d like you to consider some of the ways we use it.  We hear someone say, “I almost made the team.”  Or, “I almost made a perfect score.”  We might even hear someone say, “I almost took the opportunity to......” or “I almost won the prize.” 

I’d like point out something here about that word “almost.”  In just about every usage of it is the indication of it having no value.  What I’m saying is, that in “almost” doing something means that we didn’t gain whatever it was that we were involved in.  We never completed it.  We just “almost” did something.

It’s my personal feeling and opinion that we regret the things we didn’t do more so than the things we did do.  The things that we missed out on.   And, when you consider the word “regret” that word doesn’t indicate anything of a positive nature either.  I happen to think that it fits very well with the negative nature of our topic word, “almost.”

The word “almost” is not used a whole lot of times in the Bible and probably the most well-known usage of it is found in Acts 26:28 where Paul, in defending himself before King Agrippa, is basically preaching him a sermon.  In response to that defense, the King told Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

Well, what do we see by King Agrippa’s statement to Paul?  In my eyes I see that he came very near to saving his soul, but not quite getting there.  He “almost” won the prize, but lost.  He “almost” made the team, but he didn’t.  See what I mean about the value of “almost?”  To Agrippa it had none.  He “almost” had the most valuable thing available to human beings - salvation - but he might as well have never  heard The Word for all the good it did him.

When one thinks about it, this lesson on “almost” doing something is also applicable to our earthly lives.  To “almost” complete something usually doesn’t cut it, does it?  It can mean that we might have tried something and failed, but more likely it means that we gave up.  Thus, we gained no benefit by our efforts.

But value-wise, it’s in the spiritual realm that we don’t want to “almost” complete a course.  We don’t “almost” want to become a Christian.  Or, “almost” be obedient to the Gospel.  Or, in what I consider to be a worse-case scenario, to fail in the last portion of life’s race to complete the course.  To “almost” make it to the finish line, but drop out of the race.

In Rev. 2:10 we find these words and thoughts.  That we’ll have things happen to us in our temporal lives that can test our faith.  That Satan will put things in our way, so to speak, that will cause some to weaken and abandon their faith.  But notice how the writer ends that verse: “be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

I don’t want to “almost” get that crown, do you?  As we close, I’ll cite to you one more place in the Bible where we find the word “almost” used.  I can only say that I wish that this verse were true last Monday evening.

    “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.”  (Psalm 73:2 - ESV)

Ron Covey