This Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken, speaks to me of choice – not a prescribed path we are destined to walk, but a life full of highways to pick and paths to walk. Passport’s summer theme is Follow the Road, from Jesus’ statement: “I am the way (the road), the truth and the life…” (John 14).
If the road of Jesus is a way to get somewhere, instead of a destination, then the possibility opens up for each to choose the road that seems right for them – knowing that we can follow Jesus’s way as we go.
Frost’s less traveled road has always called to me. I find a connection between this idea, and Jesus’ words about the narrow gate. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Go in through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to destruction is broad and the road wide, so many people enter through it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it.” (Matt. 7)
Some have said this narrow gate is proof that Christianity is narrow-minded; only ‘right-thinking’ and ‘right-believing’ get you in the gate. But I wonder if the wide road in our age is a Christianity Lite – some brand of religion and routine that resembles Christianity but isn’t. Many people walk toward a gate called ‘prosperity gospel’ that just isn’t found in the teachings of Jesus. It’s an attractive self-help message – the idea that if we give to God, really believe and pray, God will give more back to us. This is a wide path to destruction. God is not an ATM, nor a slot machine.
Perhaps the narrow road is more like a hidden path – worth the effort to find, but not the popular, paved, lighted and ‘safe’ road where most people walk. The narrow path does not imply that only certain types of people are invited. No, on the Jesus road, everyone is welcome – but few are willing to make the effort.
Two roads diverged in a wood; which road will you and I take?
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David Burroughs
David Burroughs is the president & founder of of Passport, Inc.