Recently our family was going out of town for the day and came to a ROAD CLOSED AHEAD sign across the highway.

Generally, I don’t readily accept those signs to mean what they say.  There’s usually a way through if you just try.

I convinced my husband Charles, who was driving at the time, to just try going forward anyways. I was certain (he less so) that we would figure out a way through whatever the obstacle ahead was about.

So, we drove around the roadblock hoping that the sign wasn’t as definitive as indicated, only to find that indeed the road was closed.  Literally, a whole bridge was out.

No way through that one.

We turned around and made our way back to the designated detour route which took us on narrow, bumpy, country roads. Eventually, we made it back to the highway, late to our intended destination.  But we did arrive.

I really don’t like detours. They are inconvenient and just plain annoying.

Life has a way of imposing its own roadblocks.  There have been times in my life when I’m going along…things are going well… just like I’ve planned…a job I enjoy… relationships are good….I’m on track with my sense of purpose… and then… BAM.  Roadblock.

That can be hard.  Roadblocks are disorienting, sometimes confusing, and the uncertainty is unsettling.

Here are some observations from my own experience of life’s roadblocks and detours:

• For many of us, our nature is to strongly dislike roadblocks and detours and to do everything possible to get around them, as quickly as possible.  We don’t like things that mess with our plans and sense of where we’re going. Yet,
• Roadblocks are an opportunity to meet God and experience God more deeply, in ways that we might not have otherwise.  We do this by asking ourselves what can I learn or see in a new way from this experience?
• Roadblocks are an opportunity to redeem the time and find meaning and joy in different and new ways.  For example,  while we weren’t on the intended route, we got to enjoy seeing parts of our state we would never have seen otherwise.  Once past the frustration of the detour, we were able to enjoy the new scenery.
• When our plans get disrupted, the way we choose to respond is a window into our own soul (Habakuk 3: 17-19).
• A roadblock doesn’t have to change your life mission… For example, I can still to be about loving God and loving others.  Those things do not change during a detour (think, Paul in prison and all he did to continue to encourage the church)
• A roadblock can be for our own protection, keeping us from a painful or devastating situation down the road (see Exodus 13:18)

We all experience roadblocks and what feels like a detour.  They are a part of life.

What if, rather than fighting and resisting them, we learn to embrace them as teachable moments and ask,

What is it that I am to see or learn from this detour?  How do I want life to be different on the other side of it?

These unexpected times in life can be gifts to embraced rather than just annoyances to avoid.

And perhaps the detour is not a side or alternative path, but it is the path.  That’s true, right? The detour has become the path.

The invitation has become to embrace the detour for what it can be, the right path.