FIRST OF ALL. I am not a big decision maker or risk taker. I seriously hate it. In fact, when I read this poem, the first thing I think of is "What the heck am I doing in the woods in the first place? Can't I just turn around and go home?." But that's not one of the options, and such is the way of life.
8 months ago, I was really struggling with the huge decision that is college. Do I go to a wonderful, familiar school that is close to home? Or do I go to a wonderful, really scary and new school that's far away from home? From the second I saw this illustration, it has stuck with me.
So many people see the line "and I-I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" as a line that encourages branching out, doing something different than the norm, sticking it the man and saying, it scared the crap out of me, but I went and did my own thing. It blew my mind to realize that this wasn't what Mr. Frost was saying.
Earlier in the poem, Frost writes that both paths looked just fine. Both worn, both appealing, both accessible to him. In fact, he wishes that he could "keep the first for another day," but he knows in his heart he can only pick one and never look back. So it is true, Frost decides to take the second path, but does it really matter? Did it really make all the difference? Nah.
The point is NOT that you choose the "perfect" path. It's you choose A path, and be done with it! Just decide! The trick is to not look back. If Frost had decided to turn back and find the other path, he would probably just end up getting lost. Or maybe that's just me. I'm terrible with direction.
You cannot, under any circumstance, mourn that other path. It's the only way that this illustration above can pan out the way it does. Both being full and beautiful lives, even though one version of the guy goes to Brazil and the other version decides to go to college.
You may have seen this video by Kid President. The whole video is worth watching, but he starts talking about the poem at 0:43
Kid President would like to be on the path that leads to "awesome," even though it hurt. (ROCKS! GLASS! THORNS!) The only way you can be on the path to awesome if it's the ONLY path you're on. Don't worry about it hurting, it was going to do that either way.
Ok, so how does joy fit into this?
Back in December, Garrett Lahey from Lakeland Community Church did a sermon about joy. Long sermon, short, Garrett preached that Joy is defiant. It's our refusal to miss out on God. So things aren't going the way you thought? Who ever told you that your perspective on the situation was better? Joy doesn't care you messed up yesterday. Or the day before that. Today is another day to declare a hope.
I think joy and Robert Frost connect here. Road Not Taken is all about take either road, just don't harp on the one you could have taken. That's what Garrett was saying about joy, I think. It's about a deep everlasting contentment that your life is right on track, because God is in control. There's no sense in fear of missing out, there's no sense of being bogged down by yesterday. Lean in, go with the flow. True joy cannot be manufactured.
One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books comes from Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. The character thinking this has just lost his father, but his wife is having a baby.
“But that had been grief--this was joy. Yet that grief and this joy were alike outside all the ordinary conditions of life; they were loopholes, as it were, in that ordinary life through which there came glimpses of something sublime. And in the contemplation of this sublime something the soul was exalted to inconceivable heights of which it had before had no conception, while reason lagged behind, unable to keep up with it.”
I can't follow that. It gets more beautiful each time I read it. Grief and joy are loopholes in the human existence. Two sides of the same coin. Sublime. Beyond reason. It exalts the soul. How can two things seemingly so far away from each other be lumped together as such?
They both are a calling to sacrifice control. Where there is control, joy and grief cannot exist. It seems that in the case of grief, control is ripped from us. We lose a loved one. We lose our jobs. We watch a friend destroy themselves. It feels like our heart is being ripped from our chest. But it is not intentional, not wished on our worst enemy.
Joy is where we say "Hey, God. Here is my control. It feels like I just ripped my own heart from my own chest, but give me eyes to see from Your perspective. I want to see what happens when I open myself up to Your desire to show me a sublime something." Joy requires patience. It requires hope. It requires peace, trust, love, risk, self-worth.
According Merriam-Webster, happiness is a STATE of well being. JOY is the EMOTION EVOKED by well being and the EXPRESSION of such emotion.
Joy is a lot more active than happiness. It's a lot harder than happiness. It's a choice. (much like love, but shh) But it's also way more everlasting than happiness. . Choose to feel content even though things haven't gone according to plan. Take a plan B. Fully commit to it. I'm not the first to say that things often turn out better than expected when you do this. People always say "do what makes you happy." What if you "let this make you joyful?"
SO. Be joyful today! Read some Robert Frost and Leo Tolstoy! Watch some Kid President! I will be starting at the scary, far away school in the fall, and I am excited/anxious to see what kind of joy the Lord has in store for me. Goodness knows SOMEBODY has to lead me through the woods.
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