Fork in the Road: Not a Normal New Year
Can you feel it? This is not a normal new year.
As I was praying for guidance from the Lord about this new year, an image came to my mind of a literal fork in the road -- an actual eating utensil perched on a blacktop street. Corny as it sounds, the words “It’s TINE to make a choice” materialized in my mind, after feeling a download in my spirit of two “Fork in the Road” meanings. Both meanings will impact each and every person and how this year will unfold in each individual’s life.
Meaning #1 - Fork in the Road: WORDS.
Ever heard of a forked tongue?
The Bible says there is death and life in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21-a). So, in any given moment there is a direct correlation between what our own mouth is saying with whether we’re on the road of death or the road of life.
In the broad sense, there is the eternal life we receive as a free gift from Jesus. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9).
So, confessing Jesus as my Lord and Savior has literally taken me from the road of death to the road of life. The most important words I’ve ever spoken are words repenting of my sinful ways and asking Jesus to be Lord of my life. When we choose to follow Him, we are truly “saved and secure” in knowing that the end of our life on earth is NOT a dead-end road. It is only the beginning of the most wonderful, everlasting life!
Proverbs 18:21 goes on to say about the tongue, “…and those who love it will eat of its fruit.” As I thought about the ‘eating utensil’ fork in the road, I found it a fascinating parallel that we literally eat food to sustain our bodies with a fork! It made me think of the Scripture “taste and see that LORD is GOOD.” (Psalm 34:8-a, emphasis added).
Food for Thought.
What are your words “feeding” your mind and your spirit? Are you speaking life, or are you speaking death? Are you judging and condemning others (and their point of view or beliefs) with hate-full words? Are you gossiping? Slandering or hurting people in social media posts?
Sometimes we can even be speaking hateful words over ourself and not even realize it. “I’m fat.” “I’m ugly.” “I’m not good enough.” “I’m never going to ……………………… (fill in the blank).” What is the “fruit” of this kind of language? Rotten words will yield rotten fruit. Healthy, life-giving words will yield healthy, life-giving fruit.
So, while believers in Christ are already assured we have eternal life after our earthly road ends, we each get to literally “pick the fruit” of our lives while we’re still living here…with the words we choose. (“Yo! What we CHEWS matters!” Yep, I went there).
My words (and the fruit of my words) will naturally align with heaven, bringing heaven to earth in my life, when I meditate on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy.” (Philippians 4:8). What we fill ourselves with is what we will ultimately verbalize. Why? Because “the heart speaks what the mind is full of” (Luke 6:45-b).
In other words: Whatever is on the fork tines is what will end up on the tongue. We are what we eat!
Meaning #2 - Fork in the Road: CHOICES.
From Wikipedia: A fork in the road is a metaphor, based on a literal expression, for a deciding moment in life or history when a major choice of options is required.
If you’re old enough to reflect on significant moments and choices you’ve made in your life, you’ve probably had some fork-in-the-road experiences that are coming to mind right now. I certainly have. Here are a few of mine:
WHEN I MADE THE DECISION, AT AGE 19, TO FACE MY LIFE-LONG FEAR OF SINGING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. TAKING ACTION TO BREAK FREE OF THIS FEAR LED TO A MAJOR FORK-IN-THE-ROAD DECISION OF WHETHER TO CONTINUE CLIMBING THE SAFE AND PREDICTABLE CORPORATE LADDER I WAS ON, OR TAKE A HARD RIGHT TURN INTO THE UNKNOWN TERRITORY OF SINGING ON THE ROAD WITH A BAND OF STRANGERS. I TOOK THE HARD RIGHT TURN, AND LET ME TELL YOU, IT WAS HARD. THERE WERE TIMES WHEN I WANTED TO GO BACK TO THE OLD SAFE AND PREDICTABLE ROUTINE, ALONG WITH THE REGULAR, DEPENDABLE PAYCHECK I ONCE HAD.
WHEN I MADE THE DECISION, AT AGE 30, TO MOVE TO NASHVILLE AND PURSUE WRITING SONGS. I HAD NO JOB WHEN I ARRIVED AND VERY LITTLE MONEY IN MY BANK ACCOUNT, BUT THERE WAS SOMETHING INSIDE OF ME SAYING IF I DON’T DO THIS I WILL ALWAYS WONDER ‘WHAT IF.’ IT WAS NOT AN EASY DECISION BECAUSE ONCE AGAIN, AN APPEALING JOB OFFER HAD COME MY WAY AFTER YEARS OF LEAN AND TIRING TIMES ON THE ROAD. THE IDEA OF “STAYING PUT” IN MY HOME TOWN WITH A NICE PAYCHECK, BENEFITS, AND SECURITY WAS VERY TEMPTING.
WHEN I MADE THE DECISION, IN MY MID-40’S, TO LAY DOWN MY MUSIC DREAMS AFTER LOSING MY SINGING VOICE. IT WAS A FORK IN THE ROAD BECAUSE I COULD HAVE CHOSEN TO CONTINUE PLOWING AHEAD WRITING SONGS EVEN WITHOUT MY SINGING VOICE; INSTEAD, I FELT NUDGED TO TAKE A LEFT TURN AND FOLLOW WHEREVER JESUS WANTED TO TAKE ME. IN CHOOSING THIS LEFT TURN, I WILLINGLY LEFT MY MUSIC DREAMS BEHIND…FOR GOOD. I DIDN’T KNOW THAT MY DEFINITION OF “FOR GOOD” WAS NOT THE SAME AS GOD’S DEFINITION OF “FOR GOOD.” IT TURNED OUT THAT HIS PLAN WAS NOT FOREVER; IT WAS A 5-YEAR PAUSE. FOR MY OWN GOOD. I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT WHETHER IT ENDED UP BEING FIVE YEARS OR FOREVER, I WOULD GLADLY BE IN AGREEMENT. I NOW KNOW HOW WONDERFUL CHASING GOD INSTEAD OF CHASING DREAMS IS!
I believe my last fork-in-the-road experience shared above has parallels that apply to everyone in this not-normal new year. How? It’s about what each person is coming into agreement with.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave in the wilderness, it’s hard to not be aware of the Great Divide that exists in our nation (and beyond). Just as the yellow line of a two-lane road splits in half two very different vantage points of its drivers heading in opposite directions, so are we divided in viewpoints over a presidential election that is still in question by many. Even after an Inauguration ceremony has taken place, we each view a completely different landscape through the windshield of where we are and what’s up ahead, depending on which side of the yellow line we’re driving on.
We are now at a fork in the road of history. As I have gotten out of my car, taking in the panorama from left to right, and from right to left, earnestly asking the LORD, “What now?” This is what I’ve heard Him impress in my spirit:
The way each person responds to this crucial fork in the road, at this moment in history, will determine how this new year unfolds for them. This is the year when normal is not normal anymore. Living life the “routine” way; doing things “the way we’ve always done them;” applying human logic and past experience in making decisions is no longer a way forward. All must leave behind their old ways of thinking and doing, and make way for MY (Yahweh’s) WAY OF THINKING AND DOING. Each who chooses to remain in old wineskins will not experience the new wine I have for them. THE WORLD IS NOW AT A SPIRITUAL FORK IN THE ROAD; therefore, the SPIRITUAL road each person chooses will determine their literal road ahead in the coming days, weeks and months. If you trust your own judgment, you’re headed for a cliff up ahead but you don’t see it. There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12). If you put your heart, mind, soul, beliefs and trust in Me, I will be your navigator, your map and your GPS. I will not steer you wrong. You will make the right turn no matter what.
New wineskins.
As I’ve pondered how the Lord would have this blog be a new starting place for people reading it in the start of this new year, these questions have arisen that I feel led to share:
ARE YOU WILLING TO LEAVE YOUR OLD FAMILIAR WAYS AND ROUTINES BEHIND, AND FOLLOW WHEREVER GOD LEADS?
EVEN IF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE A CHRISTIAN, AS I DID WHEN I LAID DOWN MY MUSIC DREAMS, ARE YOU WILLING TO LAY DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS, IDEAS, AND CONCLUSIONS AND CALL OUT TO GOD, ASKING HIM TO SHOW YOU THINGS YOU DO NOT KNOW, AS JEREMIAH 33:3 SAYS?
IF YOU DO NOT CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE A CHRISTIAN, ARE YOU WILLING TO SURRENDER YOUR WILL AND CHOOSE HIS WILL INSTEAD OF YOUR OWN, EARNESTLY ASKING HIM TO BE LORD OF YOUR LIFE? (THIS IS A MAJOR FORK IN THE ROAD MOMENT FOR YOU…CHEWS CAREFULLY…YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT)!
IF YOU CHOOSE TO GO HIS WAY, DON’T BE SURPRISED IF THE THINGS YOU THOUGHT WERE TRUE TURN OUT TO BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. YOUR OLD WAYS OF THINKING WILL MAKE WAY FOR A SMORGASBORD OF UNDERSTANDING YOU NEVER COULD HAVE “COOKED UP” ON YOUR OWN!
Can you feel it? This is not a normal new year. In the center of this fork in the road stands a sign of clear direction, placed by the Maker of time, Himself:
FORK IN THE ROAD.
IT’S ‘TINE’ TO MAKE A CHOICE.
CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE.*
*(Joshua 24:15).
One last morsel: Isn’t it interesting (side dish…) that a fork is not just an eating utensil; it can also be…a SERVE-ing utensil!
I’ve done it before, and I’m doing it again…right now, in this not-normal new year. “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
reSOURCEs:
Has this blog got you thinking? Are you hungry for more of what God has for you? Dig in to more of His Word below.
Romans 12:2 - the pattern of this world
Matthew 7:13-15 - the road that leads to destruction; wolves in sheep’s clothing
Isaiah 5:20-21 - those who are wise in their own eyes
Jeremiah 33:3 - things you do not know