The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost


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.

Sometimes I wonder about choices...did I make the right one? How do I know? Will I ever know this side of eternity?

I read in the newspaper the other day that Warren Buffet is donating the bulk of his $44 billion dollars to the foundation run by Bill and Melinda Gates. They'll be receiving $1.5 billion annually which will double the funds of the foundation. Bill Gates has topped Forbes list of billionaires for several years now. There's an interesting story here.

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to write software for Ed Roberts who had invented the first P.C., the Altair 8800. Ed hired him and Paul Allen for $10 an hour to write BASIC for the Altair. Humble beginnings for an industry that has literally changed the world. Beginnings that has made Bill Gates a household word.

In 1977 Ed sold the company, purchased a farm in Georgia and went to Medical school. Bill gates and Paul Allen went on to found Microsoft. Today, Ed Roberts is a physician in a small Georgia town. He is one of only two doctors for Berkley County.

According to sources, Bill Gates doesn't talk about those early days, but when asked about his Altair days, Roberts says, "The implication is that the PC is the most important thing I've ever done, and I don't think that's true. Every day I deal with things that are equally if not more important here with my patients." Although he says that he does still design advanced computer systems for certain clients, he has left fame and fortune behind with no regrets. Would you have know the name of Edward Roberts?

Two roads.

Imprisoned and at the end of his life, Paul said: Philippians 4:11 "Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. 12 I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. 13 Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." (The Message)

Two roads. Whichever I chose, I can make it through because I have the ONE who makes me who I am.