When Your Detour Becomes Your Destiny

Here’s the scene:
It’s a beautiful morning.  The bluest sky and the brightest sun says this is going to be a great day.  You’ve carefully planned a special road trip. Luggage is stored in the rear.  Food and water are within reach.  GPS has plotted the quickest route.  Music is blaring and you are moving down the interstate on cruise-control with an ETA that is satisfactory to all.

Suddenly, with no warning, red taillights are brightly glaring in all lanes.
You quickly hit your brakes to release the cruise.  Slowing, slower, slower still, then stop.  You move from one lane to another, trying to weave your way ahead, one car-length at a time.

Stop and go.
Stop and go.
Stop and go.

Finally, you see a sign ahead.  The dreaded “Detour Ahead” sign.

Say it isn’t so.  Not today.  Not on this trip.  Hopefully, it won’t last long.  Please, I don’t have time for this.  The quicker, the better.

You exit the interstate, and slowly wind through small town America.  Bumper to bumper, stop and go, with rough and narrow roads.  Within minutes, you lose precious time and patience.  This is not what you had planned, and certainly not what you had predicted.  Why now?  Why me?

Life is a road trip.  We carefully plan our lives, our careers, our families.  Often, we are admonished to write down goals and plans for not only this year, but perhaps, a three year, five year, or even ten year plan.  But what happens when life says, “Detour Ahead?”  What happens when you’re forced to take a path you didn’t choose?  What happens when you find yourself in a place that was not planned, nor predicted?

Oftentimes, the same things that happen when we are forced to take a detour in our cars.  We become impatient, frustrated, angry, and upset.  We question the timing and location of this detour.  Who in their right mind would allow something like this to happen?

No one enjoys detours, and yet, in life, detours happen to all.  We are all forced to take an alternate route, at one time or another.  But what happens when the detour becomes your destiny?  Your life is on cruise and one day you find yourself on a path that you didn’t choose, nor did you plan, due to a health issue, a job loss, a divorce, a death of someone close, a life-changing situation, and you’re forced to detour.

Days pass, weeks and months go by, and one day you wake up and realize what you thought was just a quick detour, has become your new destiny.  In your mind, you long for the life that you once had.  You wonder when life will return to “normal.”  And one day you wake up and realize, this detour has become your destiny, and this is your new “normal.”

Some interesting observations about detours, whether in a car, or in life.

1. Detours are typically not as nice as the road you were on.
2. Detours usually take longer to get to your destination.
3. Detours are not your choice.  Someone else chose it for you.
4. Detours provide unique opportunities.

While detours are inevitable, detours can be invaluable.

Managing your life in detours can be challenging.  If you feel that you’ve taken a detour in your life, and it has become your destiny, let me encourage you to find hope in your new route.  In Part 2 of this topic I will expand on each of the detour observations, and hopefully, share some helpful insight on how to handle a detour that becomes your destiny.

Still Believing!