God's Detours

Yesterday, we were traveling across town, and we set the GPS to guide us.  As we were traveling down the freeway, the GPS suddenly said, “I have found a route that will save you 4 minutes, would you like to take it?”  I clicked to accept, and she led us off the freeway.  Both my wife and I thought this was going to be a mistake until we saw the traffic on the freeway backed up right before the ramp we were now exiting.

I think this is a good metaphor for how we need to trust God.  Sometimes, He will ask us to do things that seemingly make no sense or seemingly are going backwards, but that’s because we don’t understand the end game.  We can’t see even two or three steps ahead, much less the entire journey.  We just have to trust and believe that God’s detours are faster than our freeways.

And you can’t open up the details and see the journey in its entirety, as much as they might seem appealing, because if you saw how complicated it might be or what you might have to endure, you might decide not to go or to turn back altogether.  You just have to accept getting one step at a time.  Go here.  Turn here.  Turn here.  Merge here.  The destination is on the right.  We can handle one step.  That’s not too overwhelming.  So, that’s how God speaks to us.  In single sentences, not paragraphs.