The Road

Lake Elmo, MN

Cop out … that’s what some might say about Christian decisions. They aren’t popular with the majority – perhaps because Christians tend to be in the minority.

Along life’s road, we are given so many choices. Some seem like no-brainers – “Do I have cyanide for breakfast or not?” Others are more challenging – “Should I move or stay where I am?” I’ve been told that I should follow my gut in decision-making. But my gut doesn’t always tell me to do what’s right. Actually, in most cases, when I am struggling with a decision it’s because my gut really knows the right one but I feel a pull to make the wrong one. The “gut” though likes to feel good and so many people, including Christians, choose to follow their gut and deal with the consequences later.

At 50ish, I’ve learned to slow down and think before making decisions. Does that mean I’ve lost my spontaneity? No. Eventually the spontaneity comes from the training one has done in their life in making the right decisions.

I always liked the poem called “The Road Less Traveled” by Robert Frost.

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.

Indeed, looking back on my life, I have made so many decisions that today make it easier for me to choose the path not taken – not taken because people say it’s too hard. But through the brush, the thorns, and the darkness, light appears at the end and a rejoicing heart emerges for having traveled the road less taken.

 

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