A couple of weeks ago my family went through the drive-thru of our favorite chicken restaurant on the way home from the beach. As a pastor’s family, we try to eat as much chicken as possible and rarely have any leftovers.

As we were approaching our home we saw a man on the side of the road with a sign asking for food and we took inventory and somehow we all had a lot of leftovers. I was getting ready to give this man some food when the light turned green and a car behind me honked. I didn’t want to cause anyone to miss a light and it didn’t occur to me that to pull over, which means I almost gave this man some food.

He almost had his belly full for the first time in who-knows how long. He almost had enough leftovers to take home to his family. And God almost was happy with what I did.

I have never hated the word “almost” as much as I did that day. Take out the word “almost” from the previous paragraph and it would be describing a completely different scene. I almost did the right thing, which means I failed to feed a hungry man and serve God.

I pray that all of us may live a life without the term “almost” being used in reference to our relationship with God and our service to the world. After giving us His whole Son Christ, God wants our whole hearts, lives, trust and obedience.

Lord, forgive us for the times we almost did what was right in your eyes. Open our eyes to the needs of this world and may we be the whole body of Christ to this world-His hands feeding the hungry, His feet that we might go where He would lead us, and His heart that others might fall head-over-heels in love with our Lord.