The Road Less Traveled

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Very familiar words. Maybe even better known than John 3:16, Genesis 1:1 is where all this began.

Even though God created all things in a specific order that conveys His sense of order, there is also a “wild-ness” about creation. But it is not the kind of wild-ness that we have become accustomed to. The original wild-ness were lambs lying down with lions and a world in which a baby could play in the nest of the cobra. Now that’s wild!

Then came the Sixth Day and God created the pinnacle, the crown, of creation. You and me. John Eldredge makes the basis of his book, Wild At Heart, the fact that God created Adam outside of the Garden of Eden and then put him in it to work it and tend it. But think landscape architect, grounds-keeper and gamekeeper instead of a mere gardener.

God then creates Eve and the two lived in perfect love and harmony.

At least for a while. But like any Epic story, there is a bad guy and twist in the plot.

God is the master a story of Epic proportions. Epics are all the rage these days. The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia. Star Wars. All sweeping, vast, stories that –at their heart – are simply a story of good vs. evil. But anyone who knows anything about these stories knows they are anything but simple. And so is our story in God’s Epic. Even though it also is a story of good vs. evil, it involves intrigue, betrayal, adventure, excitement, daring escapes, and monumental quests.

The Fall of Adam and Eve plunged the world in darkness, despair, and death. Yet there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The Light of the World, the Lion of Judah, was coming. Prophecies and prophets would foretell the coming of one who restore Eden and all that was lost so long ago.

But even as there was a choice between two paths for Adam and Eve – to obey or disobey – so there are before us are two roads.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” wrote Robert Frost in perhaps his most well-known poem, “The Road Not Taken”:

“And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as long as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth. . . .”

“As we stand at this intersection of God’s calling, we look down two roads that appear to travel in very different directions. The first road quickly takes a turn and disappears from our view. We can’t see clearly where it leads but there are ominous clouds in the near distance. It is hard to say if they hold rain, snow, or hail, or are still in the process of fermenting whatever weather they intend to unleash upon us. Standing still long enough to look down this road makes us aware of an anxiety inside, an anxiety that threatens to crystalize into unhealed pain and forgotten disappointment.” [John Eldredge & Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance, adapted from the website www.epicreality.com]

“Faced with such mystery and irritating vagueness, we cast our glance down the other road. It runs straight as far as we can see, with the first night’s lodging visible in the appropriate distance. Each mile is carefully marked with signs that promise success on the leg of the journey immediately ahead if their directions are carefully followed. It is safe, but clearly uneventful. Some might say boring, even.” [John Eldredge & Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance, adapted from the website www.epicreality.com]

We have been lead to believe that the Church is the boring road. But the Church that God founded on the rock, the cornerstone Jesus Christ, is really not the boring road. It is the road less traveled.

Unfortunately, we have been led to believe that the Church – with its regulations and requirements and boring regularity – is the True Church. But it isn’t true. The True Church is not a boring and staid worship service. It isn’t a place that puts a damper of freedom and joy with its rules about morals and ethics. It isn’t a place that you are forced to go as a child and made to feel guilty for not going as an adult.

No, this isn’t the True Church. That Church is the straight and wide road that has little adventure because it has little excitement. It is predictable, it is “safe.”

No, the True Church is wild, it is adventure. The True Church is a Paradise on Earth! For a picture of the Church the way God intended it to be we look at the Garden of Eden before the Fall into Sin.