Road Blocks and New Adventures

They say in Indiana there are four seasons; fall, winter, spring and road construction.  All summer long I (Tami) have encountered one construction zone after another! But the worst has been the road closure on the main road we drive daily to get to and from our house.  It has been this way for a month now. It is so annoying. Especially for a person like me who likes to take the shortest path to everything because I feel like driving is half of my life already. Detouring around this slow-fix bridge project on my main drag has really slowed me down.

And as I pause to think about what this detour (and the 20 others in our town) have done to my driving time, I have to make a parallel to life. Road closures happen in our lives as well. Life has a way of putting obstacles in our way.  Sometimes our familiar roads become closed.  We hate it, but it happens. But road closures cause detours, and detours allow for new adventures. My road closure has forced me take new roads – roads I never even knew existed before this summer.  The same is true with life. Closures force us to take new paths and new paths hold new experiences.  A way that may even work better for us.

Another parallel thought I’ve had lately is that closures are temporary.  I don’t think I have ever seen the county close a road permanently.  And that seems to be the case in life as well.  Many difficult things will come into our lives but most are temporary.  These experiences can be painful and costly but if we allow them to, they can help us grow and learn.  Sometimes we grow and learn so much on the new path that we never need or want to go back to the old one.

“Oh no,” she cried, “You can’t mean it. You said if I would trust you, You would bring me to the High Places, and that path leads right away from them. It contradicts all that you promised.”

“No,” said the Shepherd, “it is not contradiction, only postponement for the best to become possible.”

Hind’s Feet on High, by Hannah Hurnard

So in the end, road closures are not easy but necessary for new experiences and to find new ways. We need to not be annoyed with the detours but embrace them and know that we will be stronger and better for having found a new way.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

~  Psalm 32:8 ESV ~