There’s so much we don’t understand.

Several years ago, something happened in my life that seemed very much like a detour. A big, fat sign blocked my way:

“I know you thought you were going this way, but not a chance. You’re going that way now.”

Without so much as an apology, my plans were interrupted, and I got off track. Only life never found it’s way back to the original track. I’ve been living the detour ever since, which makes me feel out of sorts more often than I’d like.

But here’s a thought: what if the “detour” wasn’t a detour at all? What if my “plans interrupted” was part of the plan all along? Part of God’s hand on my life? What if the path I’m on now–the result of that detour–isn’t an accident or a mishap, but very much exactly where I’m supposed to be?

That would change everything, wouldn’t it?

Paul and friends were on their way to Asia, to a people they believed needed to hear the news about Jesus. A good plan, yes? Only their plans were interrupted big time. Road-blocked by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:7), they literally couldn’t enter Asia. Which, if you were Paul and pals, frustrated the heck out of you.

Detoured and unable to do a darn thing about it, they moved on to this little place called Europe after a dream (Acts 16:10). That’s right, a dream, which makes a weird day even weirder. That’s when Paul and his friends met up with a group of women gathered for a riverside prayer service. And one of those women was a person by the name of Lydia, a business woman who just happened to be on a business trip the day the boys with some news came to town.

And there, after being blocked from Asia by the Spirit, guided to the outskirts of Europe by a dream, and surrounded by chicks on a beach, Paul and pals shared the news about Jesus in the midst of an enormous–and very unexpected–detour. The result? Lydia and her entire family converted, later taking the gospel deeper into another continent (Acts 16:14-15.

So. Was Europe a detour, or the plan?

Mm-hmm. I agree. Perhaps we ought start looking at some of our detours with the same kind of perspective.