Title: Life’s Detours

Date: 2008-04-27

Reference: Proverbs 3: 5-6

A sign at the end of a highway repair zone informed travelers: “Construction is ended. Thank you for your patience.” I think that sign would make a most appropriate epitaph for the life of a Christian. Life is a journey and with every journey comes detours. Facing life’s detours requires patience and hope. Mother Teresa had a banner placed in the home for the dying and destitute in Calcutta. The banner said: “I am on my way to heaven.” We too are on the way to heaven. And through out life we will all face detours.

Speaking of detours and direction, did you hear about the big city man who after driving for hours in the country finally stopped to ask a farmer for directions. “I’m really lost” he said, “Can you help me find the main road from here?” The farmer thought for a moment and started to give directions several times. After each attempt he would stop and shake his head. Finally he said: “Young man, you can’t get there from here.”

There are times in life when we know where we want to go and we’re all set to begin the journey, and we discover we can’t get there from where we are. Perhaps the route we had planned to take is closed to us or unforeseen developments take us in directions we had never considered before. Complications arise, we hit road blocks or detours.

Anyone who has flown much understands detours. There aren’t so many direct flights.

Sometimes when making reservations one discovers he or she cannot fly directly from one city to another, from one point to another without a stopover in a place that has nothing at all to do with his or her travel plans.

Life often seems like that. We can’t get there from here without detours, re crossings and endless delays. Those frustrations are not without purpose. Sometimes delays in life are the best thing that ever happened to us so far as spiritual grown is concerned. Sometimes in life, we have to fall flat before we are ready to listen and learn from God. The Apostle Paul had to go through a number of humbling experiences before God could use him to his fullest capacity. Peter was always being corrected by Jesus. Detours and stumbling were necessary for his maturity in the faith. Peter, like each one of us, was unable to go straight into perfection. He had to go somewhere else first.

Our last church meeting commissioned a visioning committee to look at our congregation’s immediate and longer term future. This committee was named Acts 29. You realize the New Testament book known as The Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Acts ends with chapter 28. We are even now writing the next chapter in the history of the church. We are, through our actions and ministries, writing Acts chapter 29 now. We must all be very patient as we seek God’s leading into an unknown future.

Wednesday night our wonderful confirmation class studied prayer. Prayer is one way we seek God’s leading as a church and as individuals. All of our prayers are answered, but now always in the way we had hoped or anticipated they would be answered.

Because God can see what we cannot see, and because God knows dimensions we can never understand, God works out the answers to our prayers according to a higher plan.

God’s answer to prayer is always one of three possibilities.yes, no, or wait. Sometimes it seems our prayers are unanswered. I believe what appears to be a lack of an answer may be the answer. Prayer is more than giving God our wish list with an Amen at the end. Prayer is not a magical way of getting what we want. Prayer allows us to receive what God wants. Each and every week we pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” Prayer teaches us God’s will, detours and all.

God has a plan for each of our lives. God has a plan for our church. God is the God of wisdom and God knows what ought to happen and when it should occur. But God doesn’t always lead in a straight line. Sometimes we are called to wait. God actually leads us into the detours and side paths of life. God leads with a purpose in mind, to get us to the right place in life at the right time. We can run ahead of God or we can run with God. We won’t be happy until we have given God control of life and control of the timing of answers to our prayer. We’re not always so patient, but there is no panic in heaven. God moves and works in God’s own time.

I know detours can be frustrating. When traffic is rerouted when we are forced to go out of our way it is frustrating. But we know it is for a purpose, public safety or for road improvements. In the same way any time God detours us in life it’s also for a good reason.

I have learned things happen in God’s own good time. We cannot rush God’s timing. I’ve also learned there really aren’t any accidents in life.

Things happen for a reason. God uses everything to help us grow and to become productive in ministry. From the book of Acts we learn the early church was centered in Jerusalem. While the disciples taught and ministered in that city there were healing And great miracles. In two days of preaching four thousand people were converted. The church grew by leaps and bounds. In the midst of all that success persecution came and the disciples were scattered. Many of the disciples looked at this time of disruption as being tragic for the church. Really it was part of God’s plan, a detour to spread the message around the world rather than keeping it in one city. In life we are all going to face those unwelcome pitfalls, detours, backtracking and rerouting. Remember God doesn’t waste his guidance. You may not be able to get there from here, at least in a direct route, but we are secure in the knowledge that even if we end up in three or four other places first, we will eventually reach our destination.

While we live we try to be faithful. John Wesley wrote: “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

I read a parable this week entitled: “The Obstacle in our Path.” In ancient times a King had a huge boulder placed in the middle of a major roadway. He hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the obstacle. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants most powerful leaders came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping this road clear. None of them did anything about the obstacle in the road. No one tried to get the stone out of the way.

Then a poor man came along carrying a heavy load. Upon approaching the boulder he laid his burden down and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and shoving and straining he finally succeeded. As the stone moved he noticed a purse laying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King that this reward was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. This man learned how an obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.

The Bible says: “With all your hearts you must trust the Lord and not your own judgement. Always let him lead you and he will. God will clear the road for you to follow.”

God sometimes withholds our heart’s desire until we have completely and absolutely trusted him. One cannot hold back any area of life from God. If we trust God completely, we will find God’s will for our lives. If we are open to God’s guidance, those disappointments we encounter have a way of becoming God’s appointments. Those detours get us to where God wants us to be.

In many ways it comes down to believing god knows what is best for us. When we believe that God has our best interests in heart and mind we’ll be much happier people.

God reminds us: “My thoughts and ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.” Sometimes it seems that life is one endless detour. We know where we want to be but we cannot get there from where we are. In those times we must learn to be faithful where we are.

There are days when the only thing we can do is put one foot in front of another. We know God is leading us. God is walking beside us. God is following us. With God we will arrive at our destination. Rather than allowing those detours in life to frustrate us we should see them as opportunities God has given us to do His will and make this world a better place.