December 2008

"Less Traveled Paths"

In the old chestnut of a poem, "The Road Not Taken," by Robert Frost, there is the wonderful verse that has become my mantra as the Director of the School of the Pilgrim, as well as an interim pastor:

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.

In life, we are often given an opporunity to make a choice between two roads - or alternatives - or even more options somtimes - and after we make the choice, we must live with the results. For example, starting in middle school throughout college, we are given choices of classes to take, and those choices can have incredible effect later on in our lives in regards to what we choose to do and be in life. When we are dating, we are given choices of women and men we date. When we are job hunting, we are given options for an employer we want to work with for the coming years. On a weekend night we have choices over what we want do do, choosing between ordering a pizza and eating in or going out to a movie.

Yet what makes this poem electric is the last line: "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Was it a "good" difference? Or was it a "bad" difference? Who knows?! But what we do know is choosing the less traveled, the less likely option, made all the difference in the life of the poet Robert Frost.

Our church knows first hand what happens when we choose to go on the road "less traveled." For months we've been talking as a Session, Sunday school classes, gatherings of office staff, over Fellowship meals, and youth events about all the changes in the life of the church. In this interim period, we are closely looking at ourselves as a church, as well as where we've been, to find out what in the "Sam hill is going on?" as we consider where God is taking us next. Options and choices are starting to emerge, and the question that will be before us in the near future is this: "is God leading us to take the road less taken?"

The answer? Probably, yes. Why? Because such is the nature of God, as we will soon be reminded of as we come into the season of Advent. It all begins with the voice of the one (John the Baptizer) crying out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!" (Mark 1:3). God has chosen for us Christians a different, less traveled path, than the one that others in the world follow and trod upon. The question before us, as always is this: are we willing to follow the Pilgrim God down that path? And this we know for sure: following the less traveled path "has made all the difference."


Pastor Brett