The Road Not Chosen
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” - Matthew 7:13-14 NASB
I’m not sure how or why, but this week I have been filled with nostalgia.
Maybe it’s been the music I’ve been listening to, maybe the old TV shows my family and I have watched, maybe the classic movies I’ve found while surfing for something to watch, maybe a random introduction and ensuing “small world” conversation, maybe it was the historic flashbacks on the Sports channels, maybe it’s a combination of all the above. For what ever reason, memories have been flooding back from high school and college as I think of old friends and past times and events… and life’s decisions and choices.
This morning, I find myself nostalgic again as I read through today’s passage in Matthew 7. And from it, I am reminded of a poem I was introduced to in High School… in a class that was to give me appreciation for the written word.
Then, it was just another poem that I had to analyze and make myself try to understand its depth and wrap my arms around its meaning. Today, especially in my nostalgic frame of mind, it seems all the more clear.
A reminder of choices chosen, directions gone, decisions made that have brought me where I am today.
A reminder of the road, the path, the gate, the way we should choose… the road less traveled that makes all the difference.
Keep the Faith... Carpe Diem
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 marked 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