The Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost

I'm continuing on the theme of confusion and risk (as started over in Brimas' blog Thoughts in Multitude). What is risk? What is faith? Why is there so much confusion in my life?

Maybe we need to drop our ideas of normality. As long as we think there is a 'right' way to do things I think we bring ourselves much grief over things that don't fit into our little boxes. Usually if things don't fit into my boxes I do what I can to manipulate them so they will fit or I make the decision that whatever it was that didn't fit before had no business being in my box in the first place. So I drop the matter.

But that cannot be life. If I find myself in a situation that seems abnormal, or different, or harder than other people's situations, my first reaction is to think, "there is something wrong here." But what if my first reaction is, "Wow, this is different than I thought it would be"? Doesn't that allow for God to move much more and not have to fit into our notions of normality? Isn't that what most of the Bible is about?

So back to the poem. If taking the road less traveled is the point I think we are missing it. The point isn't to be different or make things harder for ourselves. But God's ways are not man's ways and I think we will find the road less traveled to be the way of God. It will make all the difference if we try that road. And there might be confusion, in fact there WILL be confusion. What is confusion other than a failure to fit something into a pre-existing box labeled "Life"? And maybe that is the difference. If confusion is an oppurtunity to rely on God then the road less traveled is the way into salvation and true life.

Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:14

Things might be hard. But if life is our goal--true life--then it must be worth it. I hope we can do what it takes....