Life can be difficult when we are younger, because there are so many decisions that have to be made. When we are in High School the big question is, “What do I want to be when I grow up? Should I go to college or should I get married? Should I work here or there?” It is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. But it reminds me of this poem written by Robert Frost called The Road Not Taken. It is about a traveler who takes a walk in the woods and comes upon a fork in the road. The one road looked like many people had traveled it and the other like only a few. So the traveler decided to take the road less taken and keep the other for another day. And that is where we will pick up this poem.
“ 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.” The decisions that we make in our early years most likely is the road that we stay on. Two roads and yet, we can only walk on one at a time, and when that road leads you so far out, chances are you will never go back to check out that other road. How many times people say later in life, “I wish I would have become this or that, but now it is too late.”
There is a theory in Quantum Mechanics called “Many Worlds Interpretation” and it says that there are parallel universes. So whatever we find ourselves doing, whatever we choose, there are many results that could take place, and are taking place, in another universe. But we live in this universe on this planet and when we make a decision that is the decision we have to live by. If you take road A, then this could happen or it will lead you here or there. If you take road B, then this could happen to you or it will take you here or there. WOW! How complex life is when you think about it in this way. The Scriptures talk about two gates that could just as easily be two roads. Matthew 7:13-14 says this, “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it!”
Following the crowd is not the answer. It is the way that so many people think they need to go because the majority can’t be wrong. But I tell you it is the majority that gives this old saying meaning, “Misery loves company.” Each one of us is an individual and we must make our own decisions because we will be the only one who will have to live out the consequences of our decisions. The road less traveled is less traveled because people are like sheep and they just follow along, following the crowd and when you realize that you made the wrong decision, I tell you those that you followed will be nowhere to be found. Be your own person and follow your heart and ask God to lead you on the path that He has for you , for He knows the plans He has for each one of us, if we are brave enough to go it alone, instead of following the crowd. In reality, you will not be alone because God will be your guide and your companion. Remember, everything that looks good is not necessarily good and everything that we think is bad is not always bad. The people of the world love the world, but God tells us that the world will one day perish and if we love the world we will perish also. If our goal in life is to be rich and have worldly goods, Jesus tells us this in
Luke 18:25 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 16:26 says, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
You see in life, it is the end of the road that matters, but only the right road will lead you to the right place. The narrow road will lead you to God, eternal life, but the broad or the most taken road will lead to eternal death. Be like the poet and take the road less traveled and it will make all the difference.