Kenneth and I just returned home from a quick northern get-away, a few days in Door County where I could sit by the water’s edge and breathe, realizing how very small I am in relationship to this world, yet sure of the LORD’s power and presence. It always strengthens the LORD’s hold on me. But as we set out, we knew that we’d encounter a detour or two, it is, after all, “road construction” season. Our journey was dotted along the way with “detours.”
Detours aren’t relegated to our summer getaways. They aren’t even relegated to our road trips. Detours can and do happen on any journey; they especially happen on our life’s journey. The question isn’t whether we will encounter a detour but rather how we handle it. Will we accept that life requires us to come at it from a different perspective? Will we accept that our plans have been trumped by reality? Will we seek guidance in the form of directions posted or will we strike out on our own thinking we know better?
My life, as I think back, has been peppered with detours. I’d planned to get my degree once my husband was done with the service. However, during that time we began a family and were moved several times. I wasn’t able to start my degree at 22 but rather it took until I was 38. But then the path I know I should have been on opened up. It led me to meaningful ministries at the parish, diocese, and even seminary. The LORD’s plan surpassed mine.
I think, too, of the battles with cancer. They were most definitely “detours” that took me into territory I hadn’t planned to visit or even desired to see. But I must admit that I am a different person because of what I learned and experienced along those detours. And having to rely upon the LORD and the loving kindness of so many others opened me more widely to the possibilities woven into the fabric of unplanned detours.
As we journey through this life on our way to our forever home in the LORD, let us recognize that there will be times when we are asked to take the unfamiliar route, the unknown road, and we will be asked to “follow the signs.” Let us remain open, vigilant, hopeful, and trusting. Who, but the LORD, knows what we may discover along the unexpected way.
Until tomorrow, let us all love well.
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