Unfamiliar Roads
Driving on familiar roads makes you feel comfortable, but also complacent. It is (in the words of M. Scott Peck’s book) The Road Less Travelled, which make you stay alert, observant and on your toes.
Last month, driving home during a two and half hour drive, I noticed that when on unfamiliar roads, streets and dual carriageways, I paid close attention to the Sat Nav directions, to the direction signs and to the roads themselves. However, once I got to the part of the journey which showed recognisable signs and scenery, I relaxed as I knew the way.
This can be a good thing or not so good; depending on the situation you are in.
What is true of the road can also be true in life. When the unfamiliar is presented to us in the form of a new opportunity for example, we often shy away from it. Why? Fear. Fear of failing, perhaps, but also fear of succeeding. We would rather stay in what is familiar, comfortable than take a chance or a risk.
It has been said that your comfort zone is one of the most dangerous places you can be. The reason is that you will coast along and challenge yourself less, hold yourself accountable less, take charge less. In other words, be relaxed. You see, when you are comfortable and content you are inert and stagnant. Within the familiar, you do not strive. You just bumble along, getting by and that is not living: that is merely existing!
The poet, Robert Frost, said it well in his well-known poem, The Road Not Taken. In the final stanza he made a choice and, ‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
It was by taking the unfamiliar, that made all the difference. We, too, can have that same experience just by taking the unfamiliar road in our lives, taking a chance, seizing that opportunity irrespective of the emotion of fear that we may experience. As it has been said, '“feel the fear and do it anyway.” sometimes, as Barbara Hall stated, “The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.”
Therefore, I encourage you all to take the unfamiliar path in your life. You need not fear when you ask God to show you the way to go. What is unfamiliar to you, is familiar to God. Have faith, step out and walk on those unfamiliar roads. Keep a prayer in your heart as you go on your way and may you, like King David, say, ‘You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalms 16:11
We will never know what pleasures are in store for us unless we step out and walk on those unfamiliar roads.
Let’s go!
Until next time.
Love & Blessings
