Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts 26:28
John Greenleaf Whittier, one of the famous Fireside Poets in the 1800s, is most famous for the following quote from his poem entitled Maud Muller: ‘Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’. The poem tells of a judge who stopped to ask a drink from a lovely country maiden, and stayed to chat with her awhile before riding on to his business. Both the judge and the girl go on to marry someone else, but both often wonder what they missed by not following up on their chance encounter. We have all wondered what might have happened if we had made a different decision at a particular point in our lives. For some of us, what seemed like a small decision has resulted in a radical difference from a life on the road not taken. Actually, we make choices every day, and those choices all result in different outcomes from other choices that we did not make. But no difference would be as great as the difference in Agrippa’s decision as he listened to the Gospel preacher.
Down through the endless corridors of eternity, in the weeping halls of remorse and regret, there howls a wail from a one-time king, cursing the day that he uttered the word ‘almost’ instead of ‘altogether’. Agrippa made his choice that day, and for almost two thousand years has regretted it, a regret that will never end. Paul had sought to persuade him of his need of salvation and of the Saviour Who stood ready to save him. But he failed to make it past that fateful word ‘almost’. Maybe he could not bear the great cost to his high office if he were to become a Christian. That cost looks pitifully small now. Perhaps he feared the results of such a decision on his relationship with the lovely Bernice and his buddy Festus. That fear looks so foolish now. It was a terrible decision Agrippa made, a decision with terrible consequences. How we ought to bless God for preserving us from such a decision! But we still make decisions, and we must be careful that our choices are those that do not result in tragedy and loss.
In our youth, we make decisions that determine our habits, our vocation, our life partner, our companions. Older Christians will see younger Christians make unwise decisions, and we sorrow, knowing that we made some of those same unwise decisions, and have lived to regret them. Every day we make decisions, some of them beneficial and some destructive, and it requires wisdom to make the right choices. The Word of God will provide us with the wisdom we need to make sure our decisions are the right ones. The more we read and study, the better decisions we will make. <BR> Let there be no ‘almost’ in our determination to be a faithful Christian today. An ‘almost’ could be tragic. – Jim MacIntosh