“What I Almost Was” by Eric Church
— Friday, February 10th, 2012 —
Remember that girl from algebra class back in high school? Remember how you prayed and prayed so many times, that God might bring the two of you together? Remember how he never did?
For so many of us the line from the Garth Brooks song rings true: “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
So many of us can now see how the blessings God chose to give us could not have come were he to have given us what we wanted back then. In this week’s episode of “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we’ll be looking at a newer song by a man named Eric Church called “What I Almost Was.” In this song, Church looks back on the life he had, the life he could have had, and thanks God he didn’t become who he “almost was.”
As we listen to this song about what almost was, we’ll talk about the way it points us to God’s wisdom, and his kindness and providence, and how God often spares us from what could have been if we had received what we wanted.
The song reminds me of how what we think we want is not what we really want at all. Only God knows what we really want and what will really satisfy us. By giving ourselves over to Him, He fulfills every genuine need.
Russell,
You say this so eloquently in a way that I can’t, but this is my story. I praise God every day for what the world, and I for a time, viewed as failures but they are actually blessings because they have brought me to true, genuine relationship with my Lord and for that I would give anything and am truly thankful! The hardship, pain, even the smaller things that for me didn’t go right I don’t regret because I am who God is molding me to be.
“What I almost was” clearly wasn’t an English teacher.
“(I’m thankful to) God that I (am not) what I (was almost to become).”
So true! It’s amazing how at times we “kick and scream” so to speak for things that are less than God’s best for our lives. Over the years God has saved me from relationships, jobs, and other opportunities that looking back now I realize would’ve certainly steered me off the course of His perfect and pleasing will for my life. Through dreams, personal prayer time, and the exhortation of wiser men & women in my life, God has provided ample warnings to me over the years of what was to come if I made the wrong decisions. I am thankful He knows the end from the beginning. He is a good Father and He wants to see us flourishing and prospering for His glory. We may not always get what we want, but if we stay close to Him, listen to His heartbeat concerning our lives, and do our best to obey His leading, then we will always have His best!