OK, slightly strange title, but bear with me. I enjoy going onong walks. I especially enjoy going in long walks in the countryside with a group. Last year, I did one of these walks and there was a point where we had a choice of going straight on or turning right. We were looking for a specific building and as we couldn’t obviously see it ahead, we decided to turn right. This took us between 2 fields, then a left turn along the top of one of the fields and another left turn to go back down its side.
Yep, we’d done three sides of the square, and that brought us out in the same place as if we had gone straight on. No harm done, just a slightly longer walk. But, and this is the important bit, as we walked along the top of the field we also passed some pigs. We wouldn’t have been able to see them from the bottom route. So our detour had added something to our journey. If we had gone straight on and taken the shorter route, we wouldn’t have seen the pigs.
There’s a theological point there too. The bible says that God has a plan for us, and some believe that there is one specific plan. My belief is that there is an end goal and we will end up where we are supposed to be. But that doesn’t mean we won’t take detours. The Israelitea travelled 40 years in the dessert (a 40 year detour) and got to experience some incredibly things by God’s hand. Jonathan took a detour on his way to Ninevah (OK, he ran away in the opposite directuon) but God used that to show the sailors on the ship who he was and how he could control the storm, and to show Jonah his mercy. Oh, and Jonah got to see the inside of a fish.
We won’t always take the most direct route to where we are supposed to be, but I firmly believe that in every detour there is something to see or learn. So don’t despair if you think you’re going the long way round, just keep your eye out for them pigs!
The Reason for my Hope Blog 