Almost Isn’t Enough

You are not far from the kingdom of God.
                        —Mark 12:34

Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon almost got home.

On February 1, 2003, space shuttle Columbia, after sixteen days in orbit, was sixteen minutes from landing—almost home. Families huddled in Houston to welcome their space-soaring loved ones home.

Suddenly, things went terribly wrong. The shuttle, ripping the wild blue yonder at 12,500 miles per hour, burst into flames and disintegrated in the skies over Texas, scattering shuttle debris over a wide range of Texas and Louisiana. The seven astronauts died, just sixteen minutes from wheels-on-the-ground—almost home.

Almost isn’t enough. Anyone who’s lost a game by one point knows that.

Almost a win is altogether a loss.
Almost alive is altogether dead.
Almost saved is altogether lost.

If you have a choice, don’t settle for “almost.”

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