Detours

In February I wrote about how I sometimes hear the voice of God directing me, but then do my own thing anyway. Yet God doesn’t give up. Instead he gives me nudges, or perhaps very gentle “I told you so”s.

Similarly, there are other times when my day takes a completely different direction than I thought it would. At those times, I choose to believe it is God’s direction as well and that I have followed the detour for His greater purpose. Most often in these circumstances, I do not see the gentle nudges. I wind up on these unexpected adventures with no idea why, but a hope that His purpose will be revealed in the future. As frequently happens with us earthlings, my timeline and God’s timeline are not exactly in sync.

Most of the side trips I have taken have yet to reveal their purpose to me. But I keep on rollin’. Like last Friday, I was on my way to dog sit for my son and decided to do a gig-job on the way. Literally ON THE WAY. I had to pass the store anyway and the drop-off was less than a mile off the route to my son’s house. So I picked up the goods, got back in my car, hit the map button on my app and started following the driving directions. I was expecting to go to a nearby resort, but wound up at the gate of a neighborhood.

After much texting and a couple phone calls, it turns out that the customer visiting from out of town put the wrong address of the resort she was staying at. I tried to get out of completing the delivery but that didn’t seem to be an option. So I wound up driving an extra 62 miles and spending over an hour on this diversion. As I was dodging someone else’s blown tire in the middle of the highway, I began to wonder why exactly God had me driving on this mini road-trip instead of relaxing by the pool with a good book and a cold drink as was my original plan.

Knowing the customer was in town for business, I began to wonder. I told her I’d written a book and was looking for a publisher and asked if she had any contacts in the publishing industry. Turns out, she did not. (Not to mention, she didn’t even tip me even though she admitted it was her mistake and said she’d tip me extra.)

In spite of all this - I’m not bothered by it. I answered the call, I followed God’s lead, I did what I was supposed to do. I think of the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25. Even though I had other plans, they weren't time critical so I did have the time to spend, I have a reliable car and gas, and I had clothes whereas the customer’s luggage had been lost so she needed some essentials. If my only tip is “Well done, good and faithful servant” then I’m okay with that.

She will have to reconcile her lack of appreciation and her false words that promised a tip. That's a philosophy I learned as an exchange student to Brazil. Riding around town with my host-sister, she would frequently roll down her window and give money to beggars. My mother had always taught me not to give money to beggars because they would “just buy beer and cigarettes with it”. When I presented this option to my sister, she agreed that maybe they would and explained that the possibility of them making a wrong choice did not preclude her obligation to do the right thing.

So I visit a student in jail several times and encourage them to replace bad habits with better choices but they re-offend in less than a year. I buy socks for a student who said, on the coldest day of the year, that he had no socks, but managed to get some by the next day when I was prepared to give him the ones I bought for him. (I returned them.) And I ask people if they know a book publisher or agent even though the answer is always “no”.

Perhaps my ability to avoid the blown tire last Friday was God’s gentle nudge of grace. Or, perhaps by driving in my car and not being by the pool, I missed getting struck by lightning or some such calamity. Unless there is some sort of time travel to a parallel universe that I one day become privy to, I will probably never know.

I've said this before - I've often wondered why the exchange program sent me to Brazil when I really wanted to go to Europe. Perhaps that was my first Divine Detour. For the last 35+ years I've been waiting for the day when I save somebody's life because I speak Portuguese. To be honest, being multilingual led me to two of the best jobs I have ever had. As the years go on, I'm becoming accustomed to the idea that I'm never going to be a linguistic hero.

The more time that passes, I realize that it was never about me being a hero. The language skills provided for my family,but the other lessons I learned - unconditional love from my host-mom, and the simple lesson from my sister to do the right thing and follow God’s direction, no matter what the indirect outcome may or may not be are even more valuable.