The Path
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, begins “Two roads
diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler …”
The prophet Nathan
told King David of God’s promise. Through David, God would build his Temple, the
place of God’s presence. Stunned, David sat before the LORD saying: "Who
am I, LORD…. (1 Chr 17:16) that you put me on this path?
David’s Psalm of praise
is “You show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence.” (Ps 16:11)
The Lord called
Elisha to be the prophet to succeed Elijah. Elisha sat before God and asked “Who
am I, Lord?” Am I to be a prophet of God or man in the world? I have to follow
the Lord and I have my father and my mother. (1 Kings 19:16b,19-21) His father was
inheritance and position in the world; his mother responsibility. Leaving the
world is a hard thing, even to follow the path the Lord has given you.
Jesus called directly
“Follow me.” (Lk 9:51-62) Those he called
would sit there before the Lord with the same question, “Who am I, Lord?” It is
a hard decision. Many answered, I need to go back and say good bye to my old
life. I must bury my father or say
farewell to my family. (Lk 9:51-62)
Who am I Lord; do
I follow you or do I follow this world?
Psychologist tells
us that individuals search for the absolute. Our Christian faith tells us the
absolute is God. All are searching for the presence of God. Our problem is an infinite
God in our finite reality. So we become our own God, our own absolute. The
choice is follow God or follow the world.
This is the tension
between God and our hearts that prevents the perfection of absolute communion
with the presence of God through Jesus Christ. Those who get close to this
perfection are called saints. This perfection is true freedom.
Jesus’ words are
harsh; but, they offer freedom through the one who gave everything for us. To
live Jesus is to live freedom through Christ’s truth of “yes” or “no.” It is
freedom from the world that holds us back. (Gal 5:1.13-18)
At the same time,
worldliness calls to the absence of freedom. It is saying “no” to the presence
of God. We get better at sin and become slaves to sin. Our “no” can promote and
serve injustice, destroying freedom.
Most people see
these as wrong. Yet they still seek freedom in the world, in desires of the
flesh, or in denying freedom to others. These oppose freedom. (Gal 5:1,13-18)
The absence of
freedom holds us back from Him, the Holy One of God. It holds us back from the
Kingdom of God. It keeps us from the presence of God. (Lk 9:51-62)
Who am I, Lord…? Do
I follow the path God has set before me and follow Christ, or do I follow the
world? It seems like an easy question; but, reality is hard.
Elisha never
returned to his father and mother. He killed his oxen, burned his plow and fed
the people of God. In freedom of a “yes,” he set off on the path the Lord set
before him. (1 Kings 19:16b,19-21)
God has a plan for
us; a path in life that leads us to the presence of God in Jesus Christ. This plan
is not 'fate' but a ‘choice’ we make in freedom to have God’s presence in our
lives. (Thomas Merton) Jesus asks us to
follow him and give our life to him. In the freedom of a “yes,” we build his
temple, God’s presence in our life.
“The Road Not Taken” concludes, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the
one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Think about it; sit
before the Lord saying, “Who am I, Lord…?” And pray this, “…show me the path to
life, fullness of joys in your presence.”
Y’all be good, y’all
be holy and preach the Gospel by the way you live and love. Amen.
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