Almost...

“Almost” is a trick word. We use it when we don’t want to say no and can’t say yes. “Are you ready?” “Almost.” The true answer is a black or white, yes or no. We either are or we are not ready. Almost is a grey.

Under most circumstances we are comfortable to take much of our lives into the grey. It keeps us from being definitive, from choosing sides, from admitting we haven’t completed the task. Instead of asking how much longer, our kids ask “Are we there yet?” Since we are still traveling the answer is obvious, but we still say “Almost.”

We don’t want answers that state the obvious. We don’t want rigidity, we want things to remain fluid. We want to believe there’s something more, something else. A snapshot of a moment does not capture all that’s going on. It freezes time, which doesn’t really happen, and leads us to believe this picture is all there was. A picture doesn’t show preparation or progress or response. It only shows what the camera saw in one split second. We know there is more to the moment than a split second.

So why do we have such a hard time waiting on God?

Oswald Chambers taught of the “Great Not Yet.” The grey area of God’s involvement—the hope within which we face the next few minutes, hours, days or even years. It is the time from which our prayer meets with God’s response. It is our “almost.”

If God has not accomplished what concerns you, your response should not be yes or no but “almost.” Because faithful is He to do it…to complete the good work He has begun in you.