4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! – Philippians 4:4 (NASB)
What an amazing call this is! I long to spend my every moment rejoicing in Jesus. But, I don’t.
There are many things that distract me from the joy that is meant to be mine, but for me the one that seems hardest to shake at times is what I call the “Lie of Almost.”
My life is littered with experiences I see as failures, times when I almost accomplished something I think would have been extraordinary. Can you relate?
God sees all those things as they are. He sees how He has used them to shape the man I am today. I tend to see them in terms of the man I could have been. And therein lies the power of the “Lie of Almost” to rob me of the joy of living the life I actually have. How about you? Does that lie ever get at you?
I want to share a few vignettes with you from my life, twice: First, as the Lie of Almost depicts it and, second as I have come to understand how God sees it. I hope that in this sharing I can help us both choose to rejoice by seeing our lives with God’s eyes and to stop listening to the Lie of Almost and its litany of defeat.
Almost Famous
There was a young man who almost went to the USA Math Olympiad. But money stopped him.
There was a young man who almost played baseball at Stanford. But money stopped him again.
That man almost was a co-author on a transformative book about Environmental Science and Public Policy. But the death of the lead author stopped him.
A few years later, that man almost was a tenure-track professor at USC. But politics stopped him.
He almost led a search for life on Mars. But politics stopped him again.
He almost played a meaningful role in shaping TLUSA but seemingly settled for being the guy who wrote a bunch of policies and recorded the story behind the story.
That man had a dream of one day being a part of transforming education.
All of his plans almost succeeded. But almost doesn’t give you influence. He’s the only one who really listened to his almost. And so he felt like a failure.
Can you hear the Lie of Almost? Can you hear the death that the world is offering in the guise of the “almost" life?
Now, let’s see this all through God’s eyes.
God’s Loving Eyes
That Almost Prodigy spent the time and energy that would have gone into math learning how to be a friend. He learned compassion for boys who were lost.
That Almost Baseball Player went to a Bible study all through his freshman year with men who were different than any he’d met. At the end of the year, he met Jesus.
That Almost Author helped shape a tutoring ministry to children in East Palo Alto. He became a leader in a youth group to American-born Chinese kids. He learned to see, to hear, to lead, and to teach those who were lost and hurting.
That Almost Tenure-Track Professor led a Sunday school program and a small group program with his wife. He learned how to recognize what people actually need in order to learn.
That Almost Martian Biologist spent lots of time with his family. He learned how to be a loving father to a girl with special needs. He poured himself into parenting three lovely young women. He led an American Heritage Girls Troop. He led the American Heritage Girls National Board. He learned to lead his family, to lead volunteers and to lead staff in larger and larger contexts.
That Almost Shaper of Trail Life became a part of a unique Band of Brothers, their Board of Directors, for 11 years and counting. He learned to listen to a room full of brothers and discern what God was saying through and to them as a body and to share that with them as the Secretary of the Board of Directors.
What will God do with him next?
God’s Plans Versus Our Own
I wanted to change the world in my own strength. But a funny thing happened along the way. None of my plans came to fruition. We could say they almost did. But we could also say that I failed at every one of those things–and that the sum of those failures was the making of me.
And so, I am alive in Christ. I am the man He made me to be not the one I thought I wanted to be. I am dying to “almost” so that I might live to Christ. I am letting go of all the ways I fell short in my own strength so that I might live in the triumphs He has for me in His.
Do you hear your own litany of “almost” in your head and in your heart? Can you see those events with God’s eyes? Can you see His victory in what you once saw as defeat?
I invite you to join me in dying to the Lie of Almost and living to God’s plan. This is the way of rejoicing always. This is the way of life that never ends.