February 24, 2025 The Detour is the Road
Monday, February 24, 2025
The Detour is the Road
In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
Proverbs 16:9, NIV
After persistent pain in my right hip, I went to my doctor. She ordered an X-ray. I expected that.
The X-ray showed arthritis. I expected that, too.
My doctor sent me to an orthopedic physician to see what he recommended. I expected that.
He recommended a total right hip replacement as my only option for relief. I did not expect that!
The Detour, a song I heard in a Bible study ,immediately came to mind. The doctor’s words erected a barricade in front of the road down which I raced towards the coming year and sent my thoughts onto an unfamiliar detour. Without warning, I was headed down an unmarked, winding road I’d never traveled.
I pulled out The Detour’s lyrics again and took comfort in the truth behind the writers’ words. As they reflected upon their doubts, delays, and dreams broken, they recognized God is with them as always. The final stanzas spoke prophetically to my detour:
This time will not be wasted
All the sorrow I have tasted
You sing hope across the valley of my tears
Sometimes love looks like delay
But You walk me through the wait
And I am learning laughter even here…
You’ve been good to me; I am safe to hope
I will dare to believe when the way is long and slow
And I am full of doubt, but You are kind and close
And I will trust
Oh, I will trust the detour is the road
The detour is the road.*
What looks like a delay or detour may actually be THE road God wants us now to travel – to equip, shape, or use us for His purposes, to give us the life most filled with His hope, joy, peace, and love.
Reflect: What does the refrain “The detour is the road” mean to you? What unexpected detours have you faced in your life, and how did they shape your journey? How do you see God working in the delays or changes in your plans?
Pray: Lord, when my plans are disrupted, help me to trust that You are guiding me even on the detours. Teach me to see the delays not as wasted time but as a time in which you are equipping and employing me for Your purposes. Strengthen my faith to believe that You walk with me through the unexpected and trust that every step, even the unplanned ones, lead me closer to Your perfect plan. Amen.
By His Grace,
Gloria Ashby
Lay Leader
*The Detour. Songwriters: Christa Wells, Sarah Kroger Quaglia, Kelly Needham.