Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Philippians 4:12

If you don’t learn and accept the fact that the detour is the path upon which God is yet leading you, you will constantly struggle with doubt and wonder whether or not God is really in control. Possibly you are asking, “What does that mean—the detour is the path?” It’s simple. A detour means you have to accept something that is not of your choosing, but if you are confident that God allowed that detour sign, for whatever reason, then the detour is the path.

I’ve been thinking of the life of the apostle Paul. If ever a man had to come to grips with that issue, it was this man. Why?

Paul’s first detour was one lasting about three years. Here’s the story. After Paul’s conversion, he was ready to go—start preaching and evangelizing, telling the world that this Jesus whom he had opposed, was, indeed, the Son of God. But nobody trusted him. A plot on his life was narrowly averted when a friend put him in a large basket and lowered him over the city wall at Damascus. He headed for the desert and stayed there for three years. He was starting to learn the detour is the path.

After that he met with James and the brothers in Jerusalem for two weeks, but nothing seemed to come together so he returned to his native Tarsus in the Zagros Mountains, and—are you ready for this?—made tents for the next ten years. What a letdown! It was becoming more apparent that the detour is the path.

Finally Barnabas sought Saul out and said, “Brother Saul, God has need of you.” He could have responded, “What do you mean, Barny; for thirteen years, I’ve been ready to go,” but he didn’t. The path was now becoming more apparent.

After fasting and prayer the elders of the church in Antioch sent Barnabas and Saul on their first missionary journey, but he was soon to learn that the path contained many detours—imprisonments, rejection, persecution, a thorn in the flesh, shipwreck, and affliction. Lesser men would have quit.

To the Thessalonians, he wrote, “For we wanted to come to you–certainly I, Paul, did, again and again–but Satan stopped us” (1 Thessalonians. 2:18). Again Luke wrote, “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia” (Acts 16:6). Another detour! This one led to Greece. Yes, the detour was the path.

That’s not all. When he was in Jerusalem, he was arrested, and imprisoned for two years before finally being sent to Rome. He was under house arrest for another two years. Of this he wrote, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (Philippians 1:12).

Paul would readily have acknowledged that the detour is the path. Here’s his testimony, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).

Frankly, I am absolutely amazed at this man we call Paul. He knew that God was fully in control and that the detours were the unexpected turns and stops that God had designed in His life. That is why he could proclaim that God’s grace is sufficient, that His strength is perfected in our weakness. May God help us to acknowledge the detour is the path.

Resource reading: Acts 16:1-10.