Detours

I am on a journey to the Promised land. A place reserved for me before time existed. The road to the promised land is different for each of us and not everyone gets there.  I've come to realize that my life has been an exodus, a journey from slavery to freedom.   Stepping, one foot in front of the other on the road towards my promised land.  Sometimes I complain and grumble along the road not wanting to go where God intends, at other times I sing songs of joy and praise.

The road itself changes, sometimes a fast moving super highway, other times a rocky dirt path, seemingly uphill both ways.   I have detoured so many times.  I'd see something interesting and take my eyes off the road signs to detour to another place, a place of my choosing.  Detours have taken me to all manner of places.  Country bars, hotel rooms, hospital rooms and funeral homes.  Some detours were just little loops off the main road, others took me so far in the wrong direction it took decades for me to find my way back. I learned lessons from each detour and can honestly say that the lesson learned was for my ultimate good regardless of how devastating it was in the moment. Please don't misunderstand, God was not surprised by my free will choices, I chose to take my eyes off the road He had destined for me.

But there is loss in the lesson.

The loss is relationship, through death, division or drought I've lost friendships, grandchildren, family.  It's the regret really that gets to me in the middle of the night. It's the "would have/should have" stories that the enemy brings to my mind.

BUT GOD - He restores when I relinquish my will to His.  So that's the plan, to leave the wilderness of sin and go where He says, moving from one place to the next according to His command.

"The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the LORD's command."  Exodus 17:1