2010 - My Year to Walk the Road Less Traveled

For as long as I have had a favorite poem it has unequivocably been Robert Frost's most famous piece - "The Road Less Traveled". I've always loved the way the poem just sways along as you read it...and moreso I've always had a great appreciation for the message the poem carried for me.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, 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 step 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.

-- Robert Frost --

I hadn't recited this poem in my thoughts for a while now until tonight.  Thinking back over 2010 for me and my family, it was a year of waiting and changing.  For years we've been waiting for an addition to our family and while we wait with attempted patience we grew in our understanding and recognition of how great and faithful a God we serve.  He has shown His love, grace - and yes - faithfulness to us in so many ways in 2010.

While waiting on God in some areas of our lives, we also resolved it was time to stop waiting and take action in others.  If it is true that we serve such a Great God - and it is! - then we have no excuse to live another day for ourselves and our selfish ambitions.  We feel God is working an adoption into our lives for His purposes, but evenso, we know that He has worked in our lives already a story and a message that must be shared now.  The Gospel of Christ is indeed Good News and we must share it.

God has given us a deep passion for our city of Birmingham and we are so thankful that in 2010 He worked within our hearts and lives for us to minister to our city in a greater way.  Whether it's ministering to those in our city with the basic of needs, or serving in a brotherhood of Elders to plant and equip churches to breathe out the great commission, or doing whatever necessary to minister to the men and women of faith that God has graciously put in our lives, we decided 2010 was the year to live it more.  We're not perfect and we are not perfectly following His calling, but we are changing, we are growing, we are adapting to His working.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him...For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  -- Romans 8:16,17,24-28

Yes God is faithful and we will continue to take action with our lives to see Him through - especially in 2011. It's gonna be a great year of service to our King.


Blessings for 2011!
jdj