"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Mat. 7:13, 14 NKJV).
Robert Frost penned for us, though perhaps unwittingly, a scriptural truth in the following words:
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
Truly, for me, that has made all the difference. The road that leads to life, is always the road less traveled. It's the road that the few find, as Jesus said. A.W. Tozer said, "If it's popular, it's not God." I have found that to be true in my own life, for I have found that the way that the Lord has led me, and led us as a family, is so unlike the way that the majority goes.
Every time the Lord has led me into a higher place of spiritual experience, it has been along a path that in its inception, always appeared to contradict the goal. The means seemed to me to frustrate the end; the direction, oppose the destination. He always offered to me a road of darkness, loss, emptiness - death! Each time, walking the road less traveled, in simple obedience to my master, has produced in me and in my family light, gain, fullness, and life that so far exceeded the darkness, loss, emptiness and death, that to compare the two, in the end, is folly; there is no comparison. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18 NKJV). Incidentally, that glory is to be a present tense reality, and not just a future hope.
You see, what has made all the difference for us, has been letting Him choose the road for us. That has made all the difference. We all think we know what we need, and the means that God should use to bring us what we need. It's not true. It's rarely if ever true. He alone knows the factors within us that hinder and appose Him, and He alone knows the ideal circumstances that will deal most effectively and most efficiently with those factors. Some of the most wonderful gifts that the Lord ever offers to us as His children are those circumstances of life, though often painful or confusing, that we only encounter as we walk that road less traveled. Only in the end, as we look back on the path down which He has led us, do we see His wisdom in it all.
Why is the road that leads to life the road less traveled? That's simple. It's the road that by all practical appearances, and in actual fact, is the road that leads to death, and only simple obedience to Jesus in the concrete circumstances of life will ever cause someone to choose such a path, and we all know that painful obedience to Jesus Christ is not a life trait that marks the masses. "There is a way [Hebrew: a road, as trodden] that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Prov. 16:25 NKJV). "Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways [Hebrew: a road, as trodden] acknowledge him [with care and seeking, allow Him to show you], and he will direct your paths." (Prov. 3:5-6 WEB).
As I sit and rest a bit in a broad place, and look back on the way in which Christ has led us, I smile, and tell it with a sigh, that in choosing, even with fear and trembling at times, to follow my Jesus in simple obedience, I've taken the road less traveled by. Truly, for me, that has made all the difference, and it will make all the difference for you, as well.