The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken," end with this famous line: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I---I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."  The imagery is clear that deciding against taking the path that most everyone else is choosing became a defining moment.  Everything unique in his life, everything worthy of note came to be because he did not follow the crowd.

His poem resonates truth to us because it reflects the truth revealed by God in Scripture.  Jesus himself said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Mt 7:13-14).

The road with the most foot traffic, though easy enogh to travel, does not pay off in the end, it falls short of reaching the goal of life.  The road most traveled instead insures life is not reached, it destroys the possibliity by thriving on banality and mediocrity.  It is not challenging and does not require we step out in faith or stretch to reach something better.

The road with the most foot traffic facilitates one aspiring to less, reaching out for less, having to settle for less.  And, in the end, having missed the opportunity for real life - the life God aspires for you.  And yet, knowing that he crowd always takes the path of least resistance and therefore of least value, the many still choose it.

We begin early on in life whinning back at our parents when they deny us something saying, "But everybody else is dong it!"  Sound familiar?  We eat at chain restaraunts and frequent the same fast food joints even knowing they are sub par.  It seems clear that we have a herd mentality even while we applaud the individualist and fantasize breaking away from the norm.

Why?  Because, contrary to the calling of God to "live by faith and not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7), we tend to want evidence before we move and seeing all the traffic going one way, we are convinced it is the safest and less difficult path.

The truth is that learning comes through the rigors of study, production comes from hard work and achievement of something great requires risking stepping away from the herd and taking the road less traveled.  Jus' Say'n.