The Road Taken Together

Where I thought I would be is not where I am.

I invested my time and money to pursue my vision. I prepared for a life as a cross-cultural church planter. So much of my identity was invested in what I would do in the future. Now I live a different life from what I planned for. This could be an opportunity for resentment and bitterness, or I could try to reclaim the vision with all my might. The latter appears to be the spirit of the age. Follow your dreams, heart, vision, or any other various muse to a place of fulfillment and happiness. It’s all up to you, just muster the strength and take it for yourself. Either of these paths strike me as selfish. In either, my fate is all about me.

I see little advice in the Bible about maximizing your personal vision. However, I do see elaborate portraits of marriage, family, and community. The heart of God concerning my most important relationships is less difficult to discern than my personal vision or what career path I choose. Yet there is great societal agony about work. A great quantity of time becomes dedicated to the most pragmatic part of ourselves, and little is left for to those accompanying us on our journey of life.

Life is connected and dependent. So then, my vision is not up to me alone. I have my current life because my closest relationships altered my vision. I submit myself to my wife to support me and comfort me. In covenant, she can be the strongest part of me or my stumbling block. My child’s dependence is like a bridle with great power over the raw potential of life that could otherwise run wild. My community can affirm me and drive me forward, or leave me to independence.

This independence resembles the poem of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. A solitary figure, speaking to himself, in a quiet forest. There is a fork in the path, one option is well worn, and the other less traveled. He decides, and walks on one path rather than the other. While serene and often celebrated, this scene strikes me as lonely.

My experience brings a different image to mind. In a metropolis, I stand at a round-about with multiple branching streets. Just out of sight, each road branches again to another direction that can’t be seen from here. I am holding the hand of my wife and my new son. Each has needs and opinions. This city is filled with people. They complain about or praise their chosen road. Some of them are fighting and some are on soapboxes. Each person on these bustling streets is mostly concerned with their own journey. Yet some of them will stop to listen and counsel. My family must eat and sleep, and these needs of ours require money and materials. There are potholes, detours for construction, and evil characters waiting in the shadows. The city of life hammers the senses and slows down for no one.

My steps are my own, yet I am not a solitary figure in the woods. I am a young man navigating an elaborate system, and I am not alone. The road I am on is taken together.

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