Guest Post By Tim Fall

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The #1 Fact Everyone Should Know About Taking The Road Less Traveled

The road less traveled wasn’t. Wasn’t less traveled, that is.

Everyone has heard a motivational speaker, a high school valedictorian, a preacher somewhere, who has used Robert Frost’s poem’s last lines as encouragement to be bold enough to take the road less traveled as that will make all the difference in the world in your life.

That’s not what the poem says, though.

Frost was much more cynical than that. Read The Road Not Takenfor yourself and see:

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 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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Every time Frost says one path looked different from the other, he then says they were actually “just as fair”, “about the same”, or they “equally lay”. What’s all this nonsense then about taking “the one less travelled by”?

It’s about ego and a not wanting to be bothered to retrace his steps. He knows that “ages hence” he’ll look back on his moment of decision and, as happens with the passing of time, convince himself with a sigh that he took the better path even though there was not one whit of practical difference between the two. But he’ll tell himself that he chose the one “less travelled” and that his life is the better for it. His poem suggests he might even believe it himself.

Frost has done us all a favor.


The Good Old Days

 Nostalgia is an interesting lens. We may have fond memories of years gone by for good reason. Other times, our memories are faulty and we fill in gaps to cover over what actually were some not so good times.

Either way, we need to be careful of assigning over-importance to those memories.

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions. (Ecclesiastes 7:10.)

 It’s not that we are never to think of what has come before, of course. The Bible often talks of remembering. God remembers his people (for example, Exodus 2:24), and calls us to remember him (as in Exodus 7:18).

And yet God says there is a time not to remember.

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.(Hebrews10:17.)

 God promises in that verse that nothing we have done will be held against those who belong to him. How can this be? Because our sins and lawless acts  – acts which certainly deserve remembering, deserve punishment – have been taken care of by Jesus.

As John tells us, Jesus “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” (Revelation 1:5.) Did you notice that John used the past tense? That’s why God does not remember our sins, because they are no longer part of our lives.

So when you look back on your own life, whether you actually did take a road less travelled or not, remember that God looks on your life as free from sin and so should you.

***
 [Tim is a California native who changed his major three times, colleges four times, and took six years to get a Bachelor’s degree in a subject he’s never been called on to use professionally. Married for over 26 years with two kids (one in college, one graduated – woohoo!) his family is constant evidence of God’s abundant blessings in his life. He and his wife live in Northern California. He blogs, and is on Twitter and Facebook too.]
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6 Replies to “Guest Post By Tim Fall”

  1. The thing about me is that I see much more than two roads at turning points in my life. There are so many avenues to explore, and it is very difficult to choose a path sometimes. But, to maybe exhaust the metaphor beyond its intention, your response to this poem reminds me that really there are only two paths. One is under the reign of grace, and one is under the reign of sin. Thankfully, our God doesn’t make us go all the way back for a do-over, but opens the path for us right where we are. Thanks for further encouragement on what road truly is important, Tim. And because of the reign of grace, we can be free to serve to his glory, knowing that he is blessing our efforts and using everything for his purposes. No need for rewind.