Life is full of choices. There are things that everyone must choose to do or not do, places to decide to go or not to go, and people to become friends with or to ignore. We have many choices to make, and many of them are difficult. The Lord spoke of a choice man has to make in Matthew 7:13-14. It says there, “Enter in 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 that find it.”

Picture, if you will, that you are standing at an intersection of two roads. The first road is well-paved, easy to navigate, and mostly straight, with very few hills to climb and several lanes for driving. The other road is a two-lane road with potholes, no shoulders, curvy, and very hilly. Which road would you choose to travel? Most people will take the first road because of the ease of navigation. Why would anyone willingly go down the second road with all of its difficulties?

We face the same two choices in our spiritual lives. It is easy to do the things of this world and go down that “easy road.” We will meet little or no resistance if we choose to go along with what everyone else is doing. The cruise control can be set, the seat leaned back, the air conditioner cranked up, the stereo on our favorite radio station, and no cares or anything getting in our way. There is no such thing as peer pressure on this road because everyone does whatever is pleasing at the time.

The other choice, however, is not as easy. It is a difficult road. It is indeed the road less traveled (Matt. 7:14). For the most part, people do not wish to be different from the rest of the world. It is difficult to be different from the world (2 Cor. 6:14-18).

Finally, notice also that these two roads have crossovers. There is tremendous pressure on those who take the difficult road or way to leave it and cross over to the easier route. One can go from the easy road to the difficult road through obedience to God’s will (Matt. 7:21) and living a life faithful to Him (Rev. 2:10). However, most do not cross over to this way. In fact, many cross over from the difficult road to the easy road. Perhaps the road less traveled gets too difficult for them, or like Demas, they “love this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). They see that it is much easier to “go with the flow of traffic” on the easier road and choose to take it. What we must do then is consider the end of the two roads. The narrow road leads to the right destination, which is eternal life (Matt. 7:14). The well-traveled road leads to a dead-end, a destination of destruction (Matt. 7:13). Which road are you choosing?