By Dr. Tony Evans

When I’m driving, the last thing I want is to have to take an out-of-the-way detour. When I see the orange signs and arrows, I often get frustrated. I just wanted to get to my destination as quickly as possible, and now I am being inconvenienced.

Detours are typically unexpected inconveniences which may cause a speed bump in your emotions. They let you know the road you are traveling is no longer available. And now, because of the detour, we must go off the beaten path, take longer than we had wished to, and be inconvenienced in order to arrive where we had hoped to go. 

But detours are necessary if any improvement is going to be made on the roads we travel. Or if a wreck is going to be cleaned up or a hazard avoided. Detours are designed for our own good, regardless of how we view or feel about them. They are good things that often feel bad.

Sometimes we experience spiritual detours in our lives. God leads us in a path other than what we had planned. These divinely designed detours are not bad things. They are positive interruptions designed to divert us down a better path so that we might experience everything He has for us on the way to our destination.

All of us like to plan. We appreciate the efficiency of moving forward steadily. We would never plan chaos and detours into our life on purpose. And yet those detours are often God’s way of guiding us. 

Never forget that it is often in our detours that we become developed to fulfill our destiny.

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.