Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

How many blog posts under the sun must center on Robert Frost's famous words... The Road Not Taken.  How many aspiring writers dream of penning a poem so well loved, so well remembered, so meaningful.  How many of us have claimed with pride, "YES!  That's my story!"  How many of us have slathered those words over old wounds... covered pieces of our past under that banner.  You know the one I mean...

And yet, there's a part of that poem that often gets looked over.  We claim the last three lines for our own.  "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

But what about the pause before the thunder...

"I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence..."

With a sigh.  Somehow, I don't imagine he meant a sigh of satisfaction.

Maybe a sigh of longing.  Of regret.

I can slather that picture over so many place in my life.  Places where two choices have been present.  Places where no one else has been asked to go.  Places where I have said "YES!" with all of my heart.  Places where I have had to stop and consider.  Places where I have said no.  Places where I have sat down and cried because the last road that I chose led to this one... and now there are no good options.

I wrote not too long ago that I spent some time considering what my life would have looked like at another crossroads... when the Cross intersected my path.  What might have happened had I not responded when grace was whispered.  To be honest, not responding may have been the easier choice. What if I hadn't answered when He beckoned me from my path of sin to His path of redemption?  I can imagine that ages and ages hence my sigh would have been one of mourning.

But, oh my friend.

I DID NOT CHOOSE THAT PATH.

I don't have to stand between those roads and wonder any more. Whether I turn to the right or to the left, my ears will hear a voice behind me, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.

Maybe God is calling you to something that does not look like what you expected.  Maybe you are on His path, and He is asking you to speak into the life of someone who isn't.  (Please heed that call.  Trust me, that person needs to hear His voice.)  Maybe you are the one... standing at the Cross roads.  Please drop me an email and let me know how I can pray for you. 

Please hear my heart when I tell you that ages and ages hence I. Will. Sigh.  I will sigh with joy.  With peace.  With the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.  I will sigh.  Because this road?  It has made all the difference.