Roads Taken and Roads Not Taken

Today’s blog post will simply introduce a topic. Discussion will follow in the next few days. For now, ponder the words of a song by Viktor Krauss (Alison’s brother) and Angel Snow, a poem by Robert Frost, and the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Note well how each of these phrases is used: “this road less traveled,” “two roads diverged,” “the other” road, the road “less traveled by,” “narrow gate,” “highway to hell,” and “gateway to life.”

These Days

(Performed by Angel Snow)

(Written by Viktor Krauss and Angel Snow)

These days that I got

Can't be what I'm not

Sacrifices I've made for you

One mistake can go through this life so slow

Wanna keep myself from making two

‘Cause on this road less traveled on

On a way to somewhere

And will you miss me when I'm gone

I don't know

Where do I belong

And the sun will rise

And we’ll open up our eyes

And see love

Showing what's really true

And I would go so far

Just to be where you are

Take no time

Bringing my heart to you

‘Cause on this road less traveled on

On a way to somewhere

And will you miss me when I'm gone

I don't know

I feel it all so strong

Reaching out from within

Can't tell you where I'd been

Remembering something I was told

And it's called me to go

Find my way back home

Hearing you singing a favorite song

‘Cause on this road less traveled on

On a way to somewhere

And will you miss me when I'm gone

I don't know

I won't be gone too long

‘Cause on this road less traveled on

On a way to somewhere

And will you miss me when I'm gone

I don't know

I'll be gone too long

Oooh ooh oh

The Road Not Taken

(written by Robert Frost, 1916; published in Mountain Interval)

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.

Matthew 7:13-14 New Living Translation (NLT)

“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”