^{Detours are a fact of life.}

Hi everyone. I’m Sherry Douglas with Heart-Song. The town in which I live has several street repair projects. Most of us want nice streets and roads, but I’ve heard some grumbling, including myself, about the amount of detours needed to get from Point A to Point B. We’re fickle people, aren’t we? We want great streets, but we don’t want the inconvenience of detours.

Detours are a fact of life, whether we’re discussing actual streets, or we’re discussing metaphors for changes within our lives we must navigate. Physical detours can be aggravating because we’re forced to take routes that require more time and stop-and-go traffic. Metaphorical detours of life, can also be aggravating because life isn’t going the way we wanted or planned!

Let’s think about the good that can come from detours within our lives. We may learn to do something in a new way. We may meet and get to know people we’ve haven’t met before. We may even develop deeper friendships. We may learn something about ourselves we haven’t yet discovered. We may find we are wired to excel in a task we’ve never attempted. Or, we may find we’re NOT wired for a specific task and we know to ask someone who can do it with excellence. Detours.

In Isaiah 43:18-19 God tells his people, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Detours in life can be the new things God gives. We do not have to be anxious or frustrated when detours take place because the new thing may just be what we need – we just don’t know it, yet! The next time detours take place, whether physical or metaphorical, let’s choose to not dwell in the what was, but embrace what’s new and look for how God is making a way! Live the way you want to be remembered!

See you next time.