A Way That Appears To Be Right

             There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 16:25)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

                                                Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

                Most of us don’t intend to go wrong. The road we take is paved, is natural, is popular, is not popular, is narrow, is wide, is windy, is straight, is level, is hilly… whatever it looks like, it looks like the road we should take. We’ve even prayed about it. Everything says it’s better than the other road.  After we’re on it for a while, it may still seem to be the right road.  It feels right. Someone may suggest otherwise. What do they know?

                More time passes, and things get tough. Were we wrong? Doubt creeps in.

                The problem here is using circumstances as our guides. Roads can look good or bad. They can turn out easy or hard. They can still be the right or the wrong road. We can follow the principles laid out in Scripture faithfully, and things may not go as we thought they would. We can’t see the whole, so we can’t know everything. I’ve read that we should search Scripture, seek the wisdom of people we respect who are in a position to know something about the issue, and add to that our perception of the circumstances, but even when all of those line up, we may choose the wrong way, or the right way may turn out to be difficult.

                This is why we have Hebrews 11. This is why we are told to live by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). Even for those who have followed God for years, a way can seem right but not be. A way can feel wrong but be right. This is why we can’t pray for guidance once and assume we’ve gotten it. It’s also why we must be careful not to assume we made a mistake just because things aren’t going well. This is why we desperately need prayer every step along the way.