What Happens When Your Journey Seems to Take a Detour

What Happens When Your Journey Seems to Take a Detour?

Have you ever felt like you were headed in a direction with determination, knowledge and preparation only to find an unanticipated turn in the road?  I, for one, hate detours!!! I like to be able to head in a direction, see where I am going and put the pedal to the metal. I am not one of those who readily accepts that it could be more about the journey than the destination. So what do we do with this when it happens? It can happen to the best laid plans. Even those plans that have come to fruition after much preparation and much courage to take the leap and “Just Do It!”, can fall flat. 

We have all heard, “When life brings you lemons, make lemonade”, but what about when life stops you dead in your tracks and says, “Take a different road”, and it is a road which seems to lead you away from your destination. What do you do then and where do you deposit the disappointment?  God rarely takes us down the easiest and most direct path. His ways are higher than ours, states the scripture. However, sometimes it seems God has taken leave of His senses, even though we know that He has not. He is not a man that He should lie and He never calls us to anything and then takes it back. He does, however, often use a path that seems convoluted and tedious to get us to where we are going.

If you find yourself in the middle of a strange road or seemingly doubling back to an old place, trust Him. He does not say we should ignore our disappointment but He does tell us not to complain and grumble. We know how well that worked out for the Israelites, who turned an eleven day journey into forty years due, at least in part, to their complaining. I have found that we can go to Him, however, with our disappointment and be honest about how hurt, confused and even angry that we are and how we wish that He had not taken us this way. He can handle it. He not only handles it, He comforts us and gives us peace.