The Road Not Taken

I was walking in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside recently, in an area I didn’t know, when the well-known poem by the American poet Robert Frost came to my mind. I couldn’t remember it all, but looked it up when I got home. I quote part of the first two verses:

‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

then took the other, just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,
because it was grassy and wanted wear’.

There are times in our Christian walk when we seem to be presented with two alternatives, both of which might look quite enticing, though perhaps one looks better, because others have taken the same path before us. It may seem to be an easier path, or perhaps a more exciting choice, but is it the one God wants us to take?

All through our lives we have choices to make, often quite hard, and our human nature usually wants us to take the easy way, despite the fact that the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit is whispering ‘this is the way, walk in it’ (Isaiah 30: 21), and pointing us down the more difficult path.

We have similar choices when it comes to sin. Sin looks attractive, otherwise we wouldn’t do it! But we need to be alert to the Lord’s prompting and walk away – down the narrow path.

Frost’s poem ends:
‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference’.

Today the distinctions between what is right and what is wrong are becoming increasingly blurred, and choosing to walk on the narrow path may not be popular with our friends, colleagues and even families, but making godly choices, however difficult they may be, makes all the difference!

Prayer: Father God, Please help me to make right decisions and to choose Your way, no matter how difficult it may seem, because I know Your way is best. Help me to have the courage to stand for what is right. In Jesus’ name, Amen.