Almost Nearly but Not Quite Hardly

A couple of years ago, I was in London England for some teaching and band gigs. One of the great things about going to London is the opportunity to dive head first into their train and subway system to get around town.

For a guy from Joshua Texas, it’s still a thrill to try and navigate through their multi-level, underground, concrete cave system. I wouldn’t want to do it every day but its fun every now and then.

So I’m running to get to the door before it closes and within ten feet, it shuts all the way and a moment later, takes off while I am still standing on the dock. An old man who had also failed to catch the subway poked me with his cane and said something rather brilliant. “The thing about trains”, he said in a heavy British accent, “is if you only miss it by a second -you still miss it.” He tipped his hat and walked away while I tried to process what he said.

Yes there are lots of things in life where almost doesn’t count at all.

So several years later, last week in fact, I find myself in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Truckee, California and I was thinking about what that old man had said.

Horse Shoes and Hand Grenades

Just west of Truckee is a beautiful lake known today as Donner Lake and just beside it is a mountain and a pass with the same name of Donner. I was stomping around out there knowing this was the place where the famous Donner party camped out through the winter of 1846-47.

In case you don’t know it, the Donner party was a group of pioneers that got stuck there in bad weather for six months. The disaster of the Donner party rocked our nation the way the Hindenburg crash and Mount Saint Helens would later on.

Basically what happened is they rested for five days near present day Reno before attempting to summit and by the time they went to go over the pass, it was impossible. The snows had come early that year and a record 26 feet of snow fell upon those pioneers as they scrambled for pitiful shelter. Four months later most were dead and some had resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.

I stood on the very spot where several of those families had camped out. It broke my heart because when you look west you can actually see the pass, the last hill they had to get over before reaching California. For six months they looked up and saw nothing but snow. Oh If they had just gotten there a little bit earlier.

Some say they missed it by only one day. Others argue two or three days but as the old man told me in England, “If you only miss the train by a second, you still miss it.”

The Near Miss

The dictionary’s definition of almost looks like this: Adverb: very nearly; all but. I don’t think there are very many things more frustrating than almost. The Brewer hates almost. This week’s confession of a highly caffeinated Christian comes brewing with a warning label. Be very careful of almost. Do not settle for almost when you can have the real thing.

Sometimes we church leaders will settle for the general ballpark of something and the end result is a disaster like the Donner party. As much as I love having a great band for praise and worship, which we do in our church, musical talent can not be substituted for real worship of the Lord. As much as I love doing huge food outreaches, handing out food without loving the people you’re handing it too is only a near miss. As much as I love the Bible, knowing the 31,171 versus without knowing the heart of the one who wrote it is close but no cigar.

Almost-Christianity is not Christianity at all. If you miss Jesus by a little bit, you still have missed him all together, and that is not party at all.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

The Brewer on site of one of the cabins near Donner Pass California

Contact the Brewer @ www.OpenDoorMinistries.org

A Thing For Trains

I’ve had a thing for trains since I was a little kid. When I was three, my parents lived in a trailer house and I loved it because I thought it was a boxcar. Long before, of course I made my first million selling horned toads to Northerners.

So it’s been a big deal to me to ride trains all over the world. The Silverton/Durango train in Colorado, a bullet train from London to Edinburgh, Scotland and even sat on top for a four-hour ride in North East India. I have even made the perilous journey through Forrest Park on the miniature train that starts at the Ft. Worth Zoo. The Brewer’s got guts.

There’s a restaurant in Pantego, Texas called Campo Verde that has a model train running up near the ceiling and through the house as you eat. Every time I go, my A.D.D. kicks in and Leanna has to order for me. There’s something romantic and adventurous about trains to me. I tend to love things that are going places.

Circus Train

A few months ago I was at Keith Neil’s backyard for a plate of his world famous bar-b-q. His place is positioned beautifully in a mature pecan orchard and his property ends at a railroad track. While we were literally and figuratively chewing the fat, a North bound train blew by destined for parts unknown. The discussion changed to trains he had seen pass by through the years.

We talked about army trains with rockets and how I had seen The Freedom Train blow through Joshua in 1976. He topped mine by describing the Ringling Brothers Circus train and from there everything goes a little fuzzy. My wheels started spinning. I had never seen the circus train. How could I live through 41 years and never see the circus train? This had to be part of my bucket list of things to do before I assume room temperature. Right then and there I decided to go home, get on the Internet and find out when the Ringling Brothers show would rumble down the tracks in my neck of the woods.

But I didn’t. The week got hard. My life got busy and in a very little while my duty to responsibility bullied away the simple dream of chasing down something out of the usual.

So when I turned the corner last Tuesday night and saw the Ringling Brothers’ Circus train right in front of me, it was like an Elvis sighting! Man I was thrilled. Leanna and the kids were not sure what the big deal was but I was yelling, “Look, look, look!”

66 cars, I counted. The same number of books in the bible and all the while I was thinking how incredible God is that He answers the simplest of prayers. Then as we headed back towards the house, it occurred to me. I had never prayed that prayer.

Now God gets my attention when He answers prayers but He really gets my attention when He answers prayers I never even prayed. Sometimes the Lord sees stuff in our heart and brings those things to pass just because He loves us. I’ve heard Garth say thank God for unanswered prayers but I want to thank God for answering un-prayed prayers.

That makes me want to be really responsible, not just in my prayer life and thought life but also in my WANT LIFE. The things we want matter to him. King David said that out of all the things he wanted in his lifetime, it really boiled down to one thing.

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. Psalms 27:4

Like David I want to live so close with God in such a way, I see how beautiful He is every single day of my life. Even if it’s through a circus train.

Contact the Brewer @ www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com