The Broad and Narrow Way: One Soul On Two Different Paths to Eternity

By Karen Frazier Romero

Meet Cameron Knox...When Cameron comes face to face with a crossroad of decision, you will witness both her journey on the wide and broad path without God's direction and then view her life on the strait and narrow path which the God of Heaven had purposed for her. The contrast is stark and the reality is that God has abundant life for those who will follow His way.
“Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9780996150453

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AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

Our Heavenly Father desires a relationship with each and every one of us. He created us in His image and also gave each of us a free will. While God will not force us to accept His way of salvation through Jesus’ death on the Cross, He will give each and every one of us ample opportunities whether or not to choose His eternal salvation plan.

This story is about a young woman by the name of Cameron Abbott Knox, a precious soul in the eyes of God. You will read about Cameron’s life from two different accounts: one in rejection of the truth that God will continually attempt to reveal to her and the other in service to the Lord.

One side of the story tells of a Cameron who rejects the Gospel and continues to defy God despite His persistent appeals to her. God had great and wonderful things prepared for her, but all of that was forsaken when Cameron’s heart continues to harden each and every time God sends someone to reveal truth to her and it is rejected. The broad path she chooses to take will take her deeper into the pit of despair than she could ever conceive in her mind. There will be a battle for her soul but free will wins in the end.

However, the other account given in this novel is of the life of a Cameron who says yes to God’s appeals for her soul. While life serving God and following the leading of His Holy Spirit is not always an easy path, as it will not be for Cameron, the eternal life in Heaven promised by God in the Bible is enough to continue her on this narrow path of eternal salvation. Cameron will sometimes suffer rejection, sickness, pain and brokenness, but through studying the Word of God and remaining faithful to her first love, Jesus Christ, Cameron will persevere.

God will never forsake us, but we can certainly reject and turn our back on Him. Take this journey of the same soul on two different paths to eternity. Rejoice and cry with Cameron and think about what your life might have been like if you had not accepted God’s plan of salvation through the death of Jesus on the Cross. Or maybe you have not yet accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins. In that case, imagine the life that God has for you as His blood bought child, free from the bondage of sin and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, living a victorious life that would result in God speaking these magnificent words to you when you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Well done thou good and faithful servant…¹

The choice is yours. Will you go with the crowd and take the wide and broad path that, according to the Bible, leads to destruction? Or will you take the strait and narrow path that only few others will take leading to eternal life? The outcome is eternal, no matter which path is ultimately chosen.

¹ Matthew 25:21

April 19, 1997

Congratulations Mrs. Garrett Knox! Garrett said as he slid into the driver’s seat of the rented silver sixty-six Ford Shelby Cobra and kissed the lips of his new bride, Cameron. He slammed the door and kicked up gravel as they sped away from the antebellum bed and breakfast home which had catered their wedding reception.

Cameron laughed and blushed at the same time. Garrett Patrick Knox! Was that really necessary? I think I just saw your mama ducking for cover!

Serves her right, if she had her way, we would be in some stuffy church reception hall somewhere eating Swedish meatballs and cocktail weenies while sipping on some god-awful pink punch.

Cameron smiled and elbowed him in the ribs as she sat back to take inventory of the day. She had just married the man of her dreams. They had dated for over three years before their big wedding day. He had proposed to her so very romantically over Wendy’s biggie fries just ten short months ago while driving to a family reunion in Georgia and the wedding plans began just as soon as she could get her hands on a copy of Modern Bride magazine.

February of 1994

Cameron met Garrett on her second ever blind date while in college at Louisiana State University. It was her sophomore year and the first blind date that she had been set up on made her reluctant to ever agree to a second. While awaiting her prince charming from the second story window of the sorority house, she saw two figures exit the car and begin walking up the path to the front door. From her vantage point, one of the gentlemen resembled the circumference of a carrot from above, while the other had more of the appearance of a cantaloupe.

Turning to the sorority sister who had played matchmaker, she asked, So…which one is my date? When her friend pointed to the cantaloupe, Cameron knew it would be a long night. She managed to be polite to her date, who had affectionately adopted the nickname of Rerun from the seventies hit series What’s Happening. She kept the date short and sweet, escaping just as soon as she could before he asked her for a goodnight kiss. Needless to say, agreeing to another blind date was something that she would have to carefully consider.

When approached by a different sorority sister months later about being one of the fifteen girls she was going to set up with fifteen guys from her brother’s fraternity at another university, it took some coaxing to get Cameron to actually agree to the blind date. Her friend, Sadie, promised that this particular guy was good looking, funny and the life of the party.

Just days before the sorority party, where Sadie had meticulously played cupid to fifteen couples, her own date had to cancel on her. Cameron had come down with a nasty cold and had also been periodically seeing an old flame again, so she asked Sadie to go with Garrett to the sorority party instead.

Sadie wouldn’t hear of it and she insisted that Cameron had to go through with this blind date. So, against her own wishes, Cameron took a mega dose of cold medicine, put a little extra concealer under her red puffy nose and got dolled up for her second ever blind date. Frankly, she had a bad attitude about the whole thing, but Sadie pulled her along by the hand to the meeting place, a hotel where fifteen guys were planning to occupy two rooms for the night.

Before Cameron could get upstairs for some pre-party drinks, Sadie found Garrett in the parking lot getting his cowboy boots out of his truck. She dragged Cameron over and introduced her to him. They instantly clicked. There wasn’t a dull moment or a lull in the conversation from the second they laid eyes on each other.

Garrett took the girls upstairs to a busy hotel room full of guys, girls, smoke and the scents of various kinds of alcohol. The two retreated to the hotel balcony, each with a beer in hand. Cameron was dying for a cigarette, but she didn’t want to make a bad impression on this new beau. When she spotted the rectangular box outlined in Garrett’s pocket, she reached out and touched it.

You smoke? she asked awkwardly. He nodded.

What kind? she prodded.

Marlboro Lights. He pulled the box out of his pocket and a small green lighter along with it.

Want one? he asked her pulling out two cigarettes. Cameron took the cigarette, relieved that she was not going to have to be a closet smoker for the evening hiding in the ladies room umpteen times while her date wondered if she had some kind of bladder condition.

While they drank their cold beers dripping with condensation from the Louisiana humidity and blew smoke in the air, she sized him up. He was average height, dark brown wavy hair, a square jaw, eyes that almost disappeared when he grinned and in a shade of green that she had never seen before. He had dark tanned skin, broad shoulders and hands that had obviously done their fair share of hard labor. Especially for a twenty-three year old man. Her assessment was that he was a very nice looking gentleman.

Cameron usually ended up with the class clown and preferred personality over looks, but so far, this fellow seemed to have a lot of both. She relaxed and enjoyed the conversation, which was a bit difficult to hear over the roars of laughter coming from the inside of the hotel room as others were nervously getting acquainted with their blind dates.

Wanna shot gun a beer? Garrett pulled out two more cold ones.

Cameron looked at him with a look that said I shot gun beer all of the time and replied with a hearty, Sure! Garrett pulled out his car keys, proceeded to poke a hole in the side of the beer, put it to Cameron’s lips and flipped the tab on the beer before she could change her mind. The entire contents of the icy beer slid down her throat and she managed to not gag as her esophagus cooperated nicely.

Impressive. I don’t know too many chics who can shot gun a beer like a boss, but you just did! He leaned over and repeated the procedure with his own beer. She knew that this was certainly not his first rodeo. He belched and grinned an adorable grin while apologizing for his rude gesture.

As the night wore on and they arrived at the party, Cameron realized that Sadie’s description of Garrett was no exaggeration. He most definitely was the life of the party. There was never a dull moment as he ended up with a circle of people surrounding him while he busted out moves people had not seen since the 1980’s. His signature centipede was his most famous dance move. He would drop from a standing position to the ground landing in a push-up position and then begin his worm-like movement while the crowd cheered and marveled.

There was also his Russian man maneuver, where he would put his arms in front of him in the shape of a box and then drop all of the way down to the ground with one knee bent while the other leg remained straight and then repeating with the other leg, over and over. Cameron’s face hurt from laughing at him. The crowd just loved him! She figured that Garrett could make some extra cash on the streets of New Orleans if he put an empty hat by the curb and wowed the passerby’s with his moves.

Best of all is how attentive he was to her and her needs all night long. When her glass was empty, he would hurry to get her another drink. He would then proceed to tell her that he would miss her while he was gone. Cameron just assumed that this was the norm for him and that he was just a ladies man. She would later find out that this was not like him at all. He never attached himself to anyone. He just dated around with no interest in settling down at the time. He had never even brought any girls home to meet his parents in his 23 years.

After a fun night, the two exchanged phone numbers, but at this point, Cameron was not going to get her hopes up that this incredibly good looking gentleman with a fantastic personality was going to be interested in her long term. She was not the most confident in her looks, but she seemed to have no problem getting and keeping a boyfriend so she figured she probably was not the troll that she imagined she was. She relied heavily on her personality and tried to stay in good shape since that was something that she could control. She was five foot two inches tall, had long dark hair, hazel green eyes and a big smile surrounded by even bigger lips. Not yet 21 years old, she was getting to the point in her life where she wanted to settle down and meet that special someone who she would ultimately marry. She would look up to Heaven and say, "God, I don’t want to get married today, but could you just send down an envelope with my future husband’s name in it?"

She had begun college with her long time high school boyfriend and after their first year, they both decided that the sea of potential mates was big and they both wanted to do a little fishing. This particular guy was what some would refer to as a player. He really couldn’t quite be trusted and he had broken Cameron’s trust many times throughout their six year history. She had been secretly seeing him again before she agreed on this blind date with Garrett but she did not want to divulge that information to her friends because they would always steer her in the other direction. I guess no one trusted him and Cameron could not say that he didn’t deserve his reputation.

When Garrett began ringing her sorority dorm room phone day after day, Cameron was pleasantly surprised. She felt that she could be herself and didn’t have to put on heirs to impress him. It just seemed that he was already impressed. He was already asking for another date. They lived about an hour away and attended different colleges so she still was not sure if the relationship would survive the long distance.

Date two was lunch at a local restaurant and a game of putt-putt where the winner would have to supply a case of beer to the loser. When Cameron won by two strokes, she gloated just a little and made sure to hold him to his promised prize. They shared their case of beer and conversed more about their lives. Garrett was working almost full time and paying for his own college.

When he spoke of his family, it was obvious that they were a close bunch. He was the third of four kids, two boys and two girls. It sounded to her like he would literally kill anyone who would attempt to hurt his sisters. He also spoke about his crazy dad, Richard, and always had stories to tell about his father’s shenanigans. When Garrett spoke about his mom, Cameron could tell that he greatly admired her and that she was a special woman. His love and respect for her was evident, but at the time, he did not really tell Cameron about his mother’s strong commitment to Jesus Christ. That was for another day. Garrett’s mother, Lillian, was a hairdresser and had a beauty shop on their family’s property. He told of the time that his dad insisted that he wanted his hair like Tom Jones, so Lillian had given his dad a perm. They laughed and then laughed some more as Garrett tried to describe the hair style in great detail.

Cameron told Garrett about her family as well. She told him that she was the second out of four children, also two boys and two girls. She told Garrett how much he reminded her of her own father in both looks and in work ethic. That was a huge compliment because Cameron’s dad, Jim Bob, was quite a guy. Cameron’s mom, Susan, had raised four kids while remaining active secretary and office staff to her father’s business. Susan had always been very involved in the kid’s lives and managed to keep it all together while wearing many hats. Cameron’s mom was a religious woman who had put the kids in Catholic school and made sure that they did not miss the weekly mass. However, Cameron’s father was raised Baptist and was not much involved in the spiritual aspect of their lives.

Garrett’s eyes raised a bit when Cameron mentioned the Catholic schooling, but he himself was not in any position to pick apart her spirituality because he knew that he was not living the way that his own mom had raised him. In his mind, that was something they would deal with later. It was a hard road to go down and he had heard all of his young life that the Bible stated, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers…² He was not really following any of the other commands of the Bible, so that little Scripture seemed insignificant as it quickly rolled through his spirit.

Spring of 1994

Sir Garrett, would you accompany me to my sorority formal in two weeks? Cameron asked in her most astute British accent.

Why I would love to, my dear. Will they be serving tea and crumpets? Garrett mused and they both laughed. The formal would be a black tie affair and was one of many dates the two had been on since their first blind date two months earlier. Things were going well as they continued to talk on the phone each and every day. Cameron was still not convinced that this amazing man was interested in a long term relationship so she kept a couple of guys on a string and continued to entertain other relationships. There had been no talk of exclusivity and she assumed that Garrett, being an hour away at another university full of beautiful woman, was doing the same.

As they sat down at a large banquet table in a fine restaurant with multiple other couples donned in their formal attire, there was buzzing going on all around the table. Cameron’s friend, Sadie, sat next to them with her date as they drank wine and mixed drinks while cutting up and making jokes.

Well… Sadie slurred, "I was in Miss Cameron’s room the other day while she was checking her answering machine, and she had messages from three, count ‘em, three guys!" Garrett looked suspiciously at Cameron, who wished that there was a hole nearby where she could hide. Sadie quickly turned her direction elsewhere to another conversation nearby.

I didn’t know you were talking to other guys, Garrett whispered as he looked seriously at Cameron.

Well, I didn’t think you would care, she replied.

"Of course I care, I am not talking to anyone else," he said with piercing eyes.

I didn’t know we were exclusive, Garrett, I am sorry. We have never talked about this, she said.

Well, let’s talk about it right now. I want you all to myself and I don’t want anyone else but you. Garrett’s face relaxed but the seriousness of his