detour (noun):  a roundabout or circuitous way or course, especially one used temporarily when the main route is closed.

I got thinking about detours this morning.  It’s a little funny that I ended up thinking about them, because it was a detour during my devotional time that got me there.

I was flipping through my Bible trying to find something and came upon the story of Joseph and saw that I had all these notes written in the margin by the part where Joseph tells his brothers that all the things that had happened to him (slavery, unjust imprisonment, etc) were meant for something good by God. 

I had the words, “Divine Detours” written there with the date of 9/23/03. 

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I write a lot of dates in my Bible and often go back to try to find out what was going on in my life during that time.  So, of course, this morning’s detour to Genesis brought me to my quiet time journal from 2003.

Oh yeah.  A detour.  When I studied the concept of Divine Detours that morning, I had no idea I was about to take  one.  I wrote about where I thought my life was going that day. I didn’t know it at the time, but by that evening God had started me on a new path.   So here it is, 8 years later. Not where I thought I would be, and not with the people I thought would be on the journey with me.  My life is completely different than what I thought it was going to be on the morning of  9/23/03.

Because of a detour.  A Divine Detour.

But now I’m looking over my shoulder at the route God took me on instead.  And I get the sense that if I had taken the “other route” – the one that seemed best at the time, a whole lot of experiences and blessings and growth might not have taken place.

I do wonder about the people I thought were going to be on the path with me.  For some of them, I have no idea where they are, or why God allowed us to take different routes.  But I have to trust that He sees them and He cares about them and He knows why it was better for me to go this part of the journey without them.

Sometimes I don’t like the “circuitous routes”.  Sometimes I just want the route to be direct and clear and predictable.  But something tells me that wouldn’t be near as exciting as trusting God with the roundabouts.

I may have taken a detour, but God meant it for good.

So now it was not you who sent me here, but God.  Genesis 45:8

But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.  Genesis 50:19

And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  Philippians 1:19