Disney's Pocahantas has an independent mind of her own. She doesn't think her elders are always right about things. Like most of the modern day Disney 'heroines,' she wants to do things her way. When she falls for a 'white man,' though, that is a far step off the plan, probably even for her. But what Pocahantas really wants is for everyone to understand their own place in the whole order of creation. To understand that not everyone has to see things the same way, but everyone needs to be willing to appreciate the journey of the others. She soon realizes this is too much to ask and finds herself, sadly, wishing that she and the white man she loves, John, had never met.
Grandmother Willow, the wise old tree, speaks to Pocahantas and John. She pokes a branch into the water and shows them the ripples, how they start small at first, but then grow bigger. She reminds them that someone has to start the ripples. That change can never occur without a step into the hardness and harshness of life. "Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one."
Albus Dumbledore, in the Harry Potter series, says much the same thing in this quote, where he is reminding Harry about the valor his classmate Cedric Diggory who died because he dared to cross the path of the evil lord Voldemort.
"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. I would venture to say that you could almost take out the word 'sometimes' and the quote would be more accurate. The right path is not the easiest one. Robert Frost's road less taken comes to mind, as well. We have so many choices in our Christian walk. We can choose to just come on Sunday and chill out, relax with friends and enjoy life, bring in some money or food or something to help out the needy when asked. That's the easy path, but as the quote above suggests, it might not be the right one.
The right path likely involves getting our hands dirty. Encountering poverty and despair. Encountering broken children from broken homes. Encountering immigrants and addicts. How do we get on that path? How did Jesus get on it? He walked out the door.
Oh, how hard it is going to be for me personally to walk in the world as Jesus did. Maybe your journey will be easier to take because you have already dared to tiptoe outside a bit here and there in the dirty world of being a real Christian. I have work to do, though, on many fronts.
Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. The right path is not the easiest one. It's supposed to be hard. It IS hard. That's the way of walking with Jesus. The Road less travelled is going to make all the difference. I can just feel it.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
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.
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