I am the way, and the truth and the light.
—John 14: 6 NASB
Robert Frost penned the poem “The Road Not Taken” in 1920, but centuries before him an Israelite king beat him to the idea. The Psalms hold many well-known and loved passages, but maybe the most quoted is Psalm 23. It’s brief, only six verses, but those verses are filled with some of the most comforting words in all of scripture. They are prayed at the bedside of many in the last hours of life; and they bring comfort to grieving ones after.
But the picture the psalmist David paints is of a shepherd and his sheep. A leader and his followers. A protector and the protected.
Hmm. That’s disconcerting, because I somehow have always wanted to be a leader, not a follower. And I’m represented by sheep! Really? I think the late Ray Stedman may have said it best:
It occurs to me that if Jehovah is to be our shepherd, then we have to begin by recognizing that we are sheep. I don’t like that analogy, frankly, because I don’t like sheep. I come by my dislike honestly. I used to raise sheep. In high school I was in the 4-H club, and I had a herd of sheep and goats. Now goats I can abide, because they may be obnoxious, but at least they’re smart. Sheep are, beyond question, the most stupid animals on the face of the earth. They are dumb and they are dirty and they are timid and defenseless and helpless. Mine were always getting lost and hurt and snake-bitten. They literally do not know enough to come in out of the rain. I look back on my shepherding days with a great deal of disgust. Sheep are miserable creatures.[i]
Couldn’t we have been dogs following their master? Maybe Labrador retrievers. They’re beautiful and they follow—most of the time. But sheep? Why sheep?
The answer lies embarrassingly embedded in our culture’s singular desire: we have always wanted to be leaders, not followers. Every minute of every day, I’m challenged to lead where I want to go, to handle things the way I want to handle them. I’ve spent many hours in “leadership” training; but I have never seen a “followership” course, have you? And every minute of every day, I recognize the absolute futility of that sentence, because I am as “miserable” as Stedman’s sheep.
The easy road to travel is the one I choose for myself, making choices based on my desires, my opinions, my this, my that, all my, my, my! And then I find my miserable self more miserable than ever because of my choices. The most difficult road for me is the other one, to follow. But that’s exactly what He’s told me, that He will be my shepherd, to lead me, to provide for me, to protect me, and to see to my needs.
I choose to take the road less taken. It’s difficult, and I frequently fail before I turn back and run to catch up to my shepherd. But He’s assured me that He’s always there, waiting for a lost and miserable sheep. That is, indeed, the real road not taken. And—with apologies to Robert Frost—for me that has, indeed, made all the difference.
May 2016
[i] Ray Stedman, Authentic Christianity, https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/psalms/no-want).
