The other day I was enjoying a long bike ride. I headed out not really sure where I was headed.  I just knew I had to get out of town and into some woods where I could breathe some fresh air. Where my thoughts could get lost in the song of a bird sweetly chirping. It was as if my soul was calling out to me to connect to something bigger. Something pure.

Somewhere around the 5 mile point I realized I would eventually have to either turn around and follow the same route I had taken to get there, or, I would have to forge ahed and find my way back home. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to forge ahead. I didn’t want to take the same old boring path I had just come from. After all, I had seen it all already. I wanted the new and fresh path. The one with all the possibilites. The one that was yet unexplored.

But then a very subtle and yet familiar feeling came creeping into my mind. Fear. It whispered in my ear that it would just be easier to turn around. “Go the way you already know”it whispered. “What if it’s too hard this way?” “Too long?”

I decided to forge ahead. And as I crossed the road and pedaled my bike into the woods waiting for me I turned to see a deer standing perfectly still, staring at me. I slowed down and then stopped, staring back at it. Taking in the beauty and the wonder of the moment. We held our gaze for a while before the deer turned slowly, showed me his fluffy white tail, and bounded off down the hill.

And in that brief moment I realized that I would’ve never had that “moment” had I not chosen to forge ahead.

Life is like that too.

There’s times when the path ahead is unknown. Or perhaps it’s a rough, overgrown path. Maybe even one that requires us to get off our bikes and do some “pruning” before we can hop back on and make it through. But God has “moments” waiting for us when we choose to forge ahead. He has encouragement and hope just beyond the bend. There are blessings and answers to our prayers that lie ahead, along the path.

 The Road Not Taken

by:Robert Frost

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.

I love this poem. It captures such deep emotions. And although I am no poet, I can’t help but think he got just one little thing wrong in it. It’s not really the “road” itself that makes all the difference…it’s who you choose to “walk with” that makes the real difference.

Don’t let fear cause you to turn back. Don’t go back the way you came from. Have the faith to take the path in front of you, regardless of how it looks. Knowing that no matter what it holds, you won’t be walking it alone.

Hebrew 10:39 “But we are not those who turn back and are lost. We are people who have faith and are saved.”