The First Baptist Church of Redlands
TA PE S T RY Woven Together In Love: Colossians 2:2 November 2014
ISSUE No. 11
A LETTER FROM THE INTERIM
Facing forks on the road of life A
lthough still smitten by the beauty of Redlands, I have certainly been enjoying the fall pictures taken during the Barwicks trip to Alaska and the Dillows travels in New England. One of the pictures sent by Ben Dillow was of a road framed by the picturesque fall foliage. Ever the literary-minded professor, Ben gave it the caption: “We are in the shadow of Frost country here in Vermont … looking for the fork … but sometimes only one road presents itself in the yellow wood … so we took it. Perfect.” Seeing Ben’s picture and reading his caption directed my thinking to one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost and his inspirational poem, “The Road Not Taken.” One of the attractions of the poem to me is that it reminds me of decision-making encounters I have experienced in life both literally and figuratively. Literally: decisions made at a fork in the road while walking or driving; and figuratively: life changing decisions made at a fork on the road of life, metaphors for the crises and difficult decisions I have faced.
Of course, for all of us, life is filled with those forks in the road whether in the spiritual, emotional, material or physical realm but I am so thankful that we don’t have to make those decisions alone. Our Lord who knows all about us, wants to help us in making those decisions. Two Scriptures come to mind that affirm the Lord’s promise of help: Proverbs 3:5-6 and James 1:5. The first, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths,” and the latter: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” A friend also reminded me of something else in the poem. The traveler not only made a decision but then acted on his decision. “I took the road less traveled by…” So often in life we can get to the difficult place of making a decision but because of fear, procrastination, outside pressures, or a number of other things, we fail to act on our decision. I often think of the story of Apostle Peter who, with some of the other disciples, was out on the sea
in a terrible storm and Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. Peter called out, “Lord, if it’s you, bid me come to you.” Jesus said, ”Come.” Immediately, Peter got out of the boat and started walking toward Jesus. Peter, like the traveler in the poem, made his decision and then acted upon it. He got out of the boat and started walking toward Jesus. The story tells us Peter was doing fine as long as he had his eyes on Jesus. When he took his eyes off Jesus and looked around, he began to sink in the water. As I think of the poem and also the Peter story, I remind myself of the importance of not only making decisions but acting on decisions I make and in doing so, keeping my eyes on the Lord to guide me. If I do, hopefully I won’t be like the traveler in the poem, who says: “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence.” Faithfully yours, Pastor Richard