Detours

Have you ever taken a trip where you had to get somewhere on time? You're doing great and think you might even get there early, then all of the sudden you hit a detour. You’re not from the area but you think that you can find a short cut. You take it, but it turns out to be just the opposite. Now you’ll never get there on time.

Well that’s the way it was for us last Friday when we decided to take a road trip to Tiffin, Ohio to watch our son play in a soccer game against Tiffin University. We started from Columbus in plenty of time, or at least we thought, until we reached our first detour in Plain City. I thought we could find our own way “around” the detour, but my way proved even longer. Then there was an accident on Rt 42 and everyone was turning around, so I turned around too, but the route I took only led to another detour! We finally made it to Delaware, but before running in road construction that slowed us down again. We did get to the game and in plenty of time to see our son play. What we learned on that day was that life is not only "like a box of chocolates", it's a lot like a road trip full of detours.

Six weeks ago we started a road trip of sorts. I resigned from a job without knowing where I was going next. (I’ve already told my kids not to do this, but it’s what we felt “called” to do.) Nevertheless we’re not much further now than where we were six weeks ago, partly because there have been so many detours or distractions. Sometimes I think it’s my fault we’re not making any progress. Other times I think the detours or distractions are there by appointment. I am reminded of what I read recently in Deuteronomy 8:2, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” Detours then are tests, tests that God brings along our way to humble us and to reveal what is in our heart.

That’s what I think the detours on our road trip last week were about. They were a test, a test to humble us and to see what's in our heart. I wonder if we "passed"? More importantly I wonder if I'm passing the bigger test of handling the detours of life?