West Running Brook
Robert Frost was regarded as Americas best loved Poet. His most famous poem of course was the one I took in English literature titled “The Road Not Taken.”
The closing lines of “The Road Not Taken” as some of you may recall end saying “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in some wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
This amazing poet has remained aloof to the poetic movements and fashions of his time. His poetry epitomizes the American affinity for plain speaking — for nature and the land—an affinity that I personally share. Although not a hunter, I love to watch animals play in nature and the beauty of the sun shining over a lake.
Not only that, I have on occasion also been accused of “telling it like it is.” I am certainty not a clown like the ministers of today who kick the word of God off the stage like a football and literally ride wrecking balls through the church singing Miley Cyrus Music. Nor do I adhere very well to Tickle Me Elmo placating that makes God nauseous. I also as someone who loves to watch the stars at night understand Gods true glory is on display when the earth, the Heavens and all creation declare it.
There is another Poem that Robert Frost wrote of which you may be less aware of. it's called “West Running Brook.“
In this masterpiece work Frost speaks of stumbling across a brook whose current flowed west in contrary direction to all other country brooks which flowed east to reach the Ocean.
Frost says the brook does so because it can trust itself to be” contrary “The Master Poet deliberately uses the word “Contrary” here.
Please take note that he did not use “opposite” but rather it means “alternative or different.”
This is the story of my life folks! Just a little left or a little right of the ordinary flow of things.
Frost continues that the true reason “for a life lived or a, ministry manifested” in such distinction can only be found in a revelation of its source. Its origin!
Frost says the brook is not only unusual because it flows contrary but also because at times it even flows contrary to its own current!
See how the brook says Frost strikes a sunken rock. Frost is saying that hard place, that roadblock, that attack is used by the brooks own current to create a wave. Throwing the brook up and backwards against itself, if only for a moment to acknowledge or perhaps draw strength from its birth. The brook seems to look back, back to its source in a salute to its origins, as if somehow, the brook knows that the strength to continue forward, in a contrary direction to all other brooks — — the fortitude and faith to flow contrary to the status quo comes only from its origins. its heritage, which Frost correctly calls “the beginning of beginnings.”
It's only in this backward motion toward the “source,” and against the natural flow, that we realize who we are and what we are and it's only in this backward motion toward the “source” and against the natural flow, that we realize who we are and what we are — by the understanding and acknowledging of who, what, and where we have come ... “from.”
And so, in the words of Robert Frost, by the grace of God, may the “current pay tribute to the source,” as together we look back to the beginning of our own beginnings. And by so doing, flow in a current forever contrary to anything and everything ordinary!
The Psalmist said, “even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your [a]strength to this generation, You might to all who are to come.” -Psalm 71:18 (LSB)
My purpose is to reach one hand back to the tried and tested principles that have dethroned principalities and powers in the past, and reach the other hand forward to the power, promise, and potential of a new generation.
A pre-ordained reawakening and regeneration, a restoration and rebirth—a resurgence and revival, a renaissance of biblical proportions.