4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor
on the road toward the Sea of Suf
in order to go around the land of Edom;
but the people's tempers grew short
because of the detour.
Numbers 21
I like progress, but I hate detours.
I know. “Hate” is a strong word. But my dislike for being rerouted is often palpable.
I want to move forward. I don’t want to be slowed down. I don’t want to be distracted. I don’t want a longer route. I don’t want the inconvenience. Indeed, like the Israelites taking the long way around Edom, “tempers gr[o]w short because of the detour.”
And, you know, most of us are like that in life. We just want to move forward – no slowdowns, no distractions, no inconvenience.
But sometimes we can’t move forward – swiftly, effectively, for the rest of our life – without a little road construction.
As a driver over these last two years, I’ve been repeatedly inconvenienced by the building of at least three new bridges. My humanness wanted to squawk every time I hit that detour sign and five extra minutes were added to my old familiar route. But you know what? A year later, those routes are much safer and I’m flying through my journey more productively.
Was it worth the inconvenience? Well, imagine if traffic engineers never rebuilt the original 1930s bridges over wide rivers. Modern metropolitan traffic would be bottlenecked as two narrow lanes were the only link between different quadrants of cities. A city couldn’t progress.
And in life, neither could you!
In life, many of us travel slowly and unsafely because we haven’t dealt with real issues in our past. We’ve put a makeshift bridge over the hurts in our past, and we lie to ourselves, saying that “of course we’re moving forward.” And we are – kind of. But it’s not fast and free.
No one wants to go back and reopen old scars. No one! But sometimes true healing can’t take place until we do a little surgery.
Now, depending on the depth of the hurt and pain, I don’t recommend that you do this phase of road construction alone! For example, if you are detouring to deal with the pain of past abuses, it’s imperative that you see a counselor. And it’s imperative that God is part of this process too. He loves. He heals. He forgives. He rebuilds bridges, straightens twisted roads, and fills in deep pot holes.
But if you aren’t truly moving forward in life, it’s time to take a detour, and find a new route until a bridge that can sustain the weight your future joy can be fully built.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who already this morning
was trying to figure out how
to run an errand
because of a detour
(I need to reroute my thinking:
“Thank you, Department of
Transportation for progress!”)
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