My Trusted Tour Guide

"Show me your ways, O LORD,
   teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
   for you are God my Savior,
   and my hope is in you all day long." 

Psalm 25:4-5 

I'm an explorer.  When I travel (which isn't often enough to suit me) I like to launch out on my own to see what I can find.  It can be an exciting way to go, but often I'm disappointed at where my path takes me.  It's not as wonderful as I thought it would be and later I find that while I was busy trying to discover new things, I missed the most beautiful sites and aspects of a location.  It's all because I don't want to travel like most others do.  I want to be different.

It all stems from that pesky poem by Robert Frost that I fell in love with in the fifth grade...

The Road Not Taken

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 feet 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



Photo courtesy  micromoth, rgbstock.com

It was this poem that set this wanderer's heart to explore the untried paths in life. Sometimes this has lead to new adventure and discovery, but just as many times it has led to disappointment and heartache.

Oh, that I would be wise enough to always let God show me the way - to allow Him to lead me down His paths for my life.

Prayer:

O Lord, you are my God and my Savior and I do long to have you show me the way and lead me in your paths, for I know that you have my best at heart. My trust should be placed in you and you alone - not in myself, for I have seen that independence from you leads me down the wrong path.  Help me to hear your voice clearly - to see your way and to follow hard after you, for truly, your way is the road less traveled and that will make all the difference. Amen

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(Copyright© 2011 Jan Christiansen. All rights reserved.)