Two Gates, Two Roads...

                 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

 

The Road Not Taken

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 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 traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

I know – they’re long quotes, and you’re probably familiar with at least the first two. I’ve referred to the third often enough, and I’ve blogged about the Bible verses comparatively recently. My pastor preached about the verses this morning and mentioned other Bible verses that deal with doors/gates and roads/ways. Check out Psalm 1 if you wish.

The poem and essay excerpt are things that came to my mind. Something else that came to mind was the idea that we generally think of these ideas in absolute terms of black and white or good and evil, and I’m not saying not to think in those terms. I am saying not to think in only those terms. You may look at where one gate or road seems to go and think that it’s not evil. It might seem good. It might be good. But that might not be where God is calling you. The two roads are often good and evil. But they can also be God’s specific will for you and not God’s specific will for you, or perhaps good and better or best.