WATCHWORD:
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14
Meditation:
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both.
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear.
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
— Robert Frost
In The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost has beautifully laid out our life dilemma, choices and acceptance or regrets. At some point in your life journey, did you choose one route over another, and did it make all the difference?
I left my advisor’s office on the campus, an 18-year-old sophomore, in tears, angry, and still lost. He had not solved my problem; he had not taken away my pain. He left me with a worthless platitude; something like, “Stanley, having experienced this difficult time, it has equipped you for some future time when you will draw on it.” Ha, some future time, indeed! I needed help, now!
It would be years later, well into my own career as a teacher and counselor on a college campus, that I began to realize the gift and the truth of that “platitude”; empathy and understanding. I began to see a key emerging, a rather obvious one, if you look in the right places. The key — Life is difficult. That is a fact and at some point, in our life journeys we must come to grips with that, accept it, and move on to addressing and resolving how the ‘difficult’ has affected our lives. Many of the college-age kids that I counselled, were much like me as an 18-year-old, wanting a solution, now, not to treat their crisis as some learning experience to be applied at some future time.
Life is difficult. That’s a reality and we know it because we experience it. It is a great truth, perhaps one of the greatest truths, for, once we truly understand and accept that fact, then life is no longer difficult, in the obstacle sense. Why? Because once that truth is accepted, that life is difficult, it no longer matters, it simply is a truth, and we move on to dealing with what follows.
We’ve often heard it said that the life of a Christian is not an easy road to follow. It is a road less traveled, but it’s one road that once you truly travel it, there is no other route you wish to be on.
The problems that cause the Christian life to be less easy, are also the problems that call us to courage and to use our wisdom; indeed, they serve to create our courage and our wisdom. It’s only because of problems and challenges, adversity and loss that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is just for that reason alone that when we were in school the teacher deliberately set problems before us to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.
It would be hard for you and I to look at the obstacles in our lives; the illness, the loss, the difficult patches, as God’s way of teaching us. But, think about that. Jesus washed his disciples feet, something that in that culture and in that time was a very difficult thing for people to accept and the disciples did not understand it, at first. I can’t tell you how many times I have drawn upon empathy born of my bad experience when I was a college student.
It’s possible that the road taken made all the difference, the one less traveled, led directly into the heart of grief, disappointment and loss, only to emerge on the other side, stronger and re-directed from the experience, with courage and understanding. May we always relish the road we travel, never alone, but always in the company of our Lord.
Closing Prayer:
Help us Lord to face the difficulties of our lives knowing You are with us, that You have a firm grip of our hand in Yours. We know Your presence will guide us through difficult waters, over high mountains of trouble, to arrive where You want us to be, blessed, and equipped to serve You, our Heavenly Father. It’s in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
