This morning I’m reminded of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken. In it a the author describes his choice of one of two roads in life and reflects on how that choice made all the difference. Continuing my reflection on mid-life crisis – I think that one of the issues that may arise in mid-life crisis is the need to resolve roads not taken.
I see this in my own life and have recognized the need to resolve the roads I didn’t take in life. I find that the Enemy often comes to tempt me to imagine what would have happened on those different roads – past career choices, old girlfriends I didn’t marry, talents I didn’t pursue, etc. Perhaps he comes to tempt at opportune times – times when things may not seem to be working out all that great.
For me many of the roads not taken are linked to pride of life and vain ambitions that were not rooted in Christ. Pursuing them would likely taken me away from God, hence the need for prayerful consideration of any major decision in life. In my previous post on midlife crisis, I reflected on the Old Man – past identities and thought patterns that keep us from moving forward with Christ. I think it becomes necessary to come to terms with the past roads not taken and cease from re-considering them if that’s something the Enemy is tempting us with. We can’t live in the past like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, wondering what it would be like if we could just be back in high school in the 1980’s.
I think Paul dealt with this issue in his life. He had all the elements of a successful religious leader in his time – he was an expert on scripture, a Pharisee and a Roman citizen, yet he considered all of his accomplishments and pedigree as loss compared to the worth of knowing Christ. Paul wrote:
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Ephesians 3:7-11 NIV
Paul chose a very different road from the one he started out on. Ironically, Christ met Paul on a road to Damascus and dramatically altered the trajectory of his life. A leading persecutor of Christians, Paul became a zealous Christian after that encounter with Jesus.
I think it is awesome how God took Paul’s talents and abilities developed in his former life and brought them to bear in building the early church. His expertise in The Law, helped him lay out the extensive arguments supporting Jesus’ identity as the Messiah.
I believe that in a similar way, God can use any of our talents and abilities from our Old Man condition and apply them to His kingdom purposes in our “New Man” life. I think an important part of resolving the past roads not taken is to recognize how God has redeemed us from possible dead-end roads and put us on the path of life as a new person in Christ.
I am resolving today to no longer entertain the “What If’s” of my Old Man decisions and thank God for redeeming me and placing me on the path of life. I invite you to do the same!