And I Took the Road Less Traveled.....But Not by Choice

In high school, one of my favorite poems was "The Road Not Taken" by 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.

I loved the whole concept and almost romanticized the idea of being the bold one that was willing to take the less explored path....to not just do what was easy, but to choose what would be the most life altering... 

I have learned though, that sometimes taking the road less traveled is not a choice.  Sometimes, you look at the one less traveled by, admire the brave that have chosen it, and start walking toward the nice, clean cut, worn out path.  And just as your're about to start on your way, God picks you up and tosses you into the brush of the overgrown, barely traveled path. 

For me, I didn't have a choice.  The road less traveled by is the one that God decided I needed to take.  It has not been an easy trail to walk down thus far, but I have no doubt that I'm traveling in the direction that God is leading.

I genuinely believe that God has destined me for beautiful things, and for these beautiful things to come about, that means that I sometimes must suffer, and I sometimes must walk the path that brings great struggle and pain.  So, even though it was with a great deal of kicking and screaming along the way, I am taking the road less traveled by.