Faith Reflections

The Detours of Life

Here’s a quote that I believe is true, though I have a difficult time living up to it: “A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour.” How can anyone be happy taking a detour?

All the time I’m on a detour I’m wondering how many miles out of the way it will take me. I wonder if I could have gone through the “Road Closed” sign anyway because they’re doing minor repairs, not major construction. I think about going on detours back home and about the fact that I often know a shorter detour — through a housing development or whatever. There’s probably such a short cut in this case, too, but I don’t know the area. It annoys me that there’s probably such a short cut and I don’t know about it.

I often have my camera with me when I travel, because I take lots of pictures, but when I’m on a detour I’m not enjoying the scenery and am in no mood to stop and take pictures. The detour has already put me behind schedule, and as a male driver I lose points for that — so I lean forward, gripping the steering wheel, wishing that the detour was over, and missing all that’s good and beautiful around me.

We experience detours other than when we’re driving. Life’s filled with detours. Few — if any — of us feel that we’re exactly where we want to be in life.

The reality is that we’ll never find any measure of happiness in life unless we come to the point where we can find the good in the place in life we now find ourselves. I gain strength from the conviction that God’s always known we would be exactly where we are right now. It’s not caught Him by surprise as it has us. He has a plan! His destiny for us is in the detours!

“Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.” (Psalm 77:19)