Flip The Script (Part 3): Making Your Way Home
Detours & Destinations
Detour: To deviate from a direct path to an often long or roundabout route.
Depending on your experience, the term detour could bring a number of things to mind. If you’re a “detour-person” (somebody who’s had good experiences), you might picture something romantic or scenic. But if you’re like me (a non-detour person), you probably cringe just thinking about it.
Whatever category you fall into, both sets of people share something in common…a common frustration with life’s detours. Those moments where life takes you in a direction you didn’t plan to go.
Life’s detours are rarely the path of least resistance. In fact, they’re often drawn-out & extremely difficult. But just like a roadway-detour, life’s detours still serve a purpose.
Fundamentally, detours are designed to help you bypass something in order to reach your destination point. Sometimes you can see how these paths still take you where you want to go. But often times, you’re left confused or overwhelmed with exhaustion as you try to find your way. That’s why it’s so important to—
Never mistake the detour for the destination.
To remember that tension is temporary, and God’s plans are permanent. That seasons of struggle pale in comparison to His plans for us. And that in order to live out an eternal calling, it requires an un-tethering from the temporary.
They say in the world of real estate that “location is everything”. The same is true as it relates to the bigger picture for your life. The direction your life is headed, your destination, is everything. So when life’s detours bring you to a fork in the road, it matters what direction you go. Because what you do with the tension—
determines your destination.
Paths of preparation
Why does God let us endure the burden of such tension? Why are so many moments and seasons of life filled with hardship & suffering? Because God knows something that we often forget. Something that others of us have never known at all. Which is this, life’s tension isn’t about suffering—
it’s about security.
Life’s detours are paths of preparation—preparing you for the place you’re supposed to be and the person you’re supposed to become. God is committed to nothing less than seeing you securely reach that destination point. There’s an eternal thread that’s woven into everything we go through. That’s why, deep down, we all know there’s so much more to life than this. We’re supposed to grow tired of the tension, we’re supposed to seek relief.
You can knuckle-down and hold onto it if you choose to. But if you really want to relieve the tension, you have to release it. You have to loosen the grip of "what you think you know”, and open yourself up to what God has been trying to show. He’s trying to give you a glimpse of His plans for you. The question is—
will you accept what He has to offer?
1) who you’re becoming
Romans 8:29 (MSG) tells us this:
“God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines of His Son [Jesus].
After He made that decision of what His children should be like, He followed it up by calling people by name.”
Did you catch that? God specifically appointed you to become greater than any version of yourself, greater than anything you could ever hope or aspire to be. His plan for your life isn’t average, above-average, or even excellent. The mark is total perfection, in the order of His perfect son Jesus.
It’s so easy to look around you, especially in your vulnerable seasons, and feel like you’re just not good enough. To feel out of sorts, out of place, as if you’re simply wasting away. But God’s Word says the following in 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV):
“…Do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
When we measure ourselves from the outside in, we always appear to be operating at a loss. We have to remember that we’re eternally-made people working through temporary trials. That God is up to something special, He’s shaping the part of us that lasts. The part of you that’s really you—your Spirit. Real living happens when you abandon your temporary identity and—
embrace your eternal identity.
2) where you’re going
It’s hard to gauge how attached you’ve become to this world, until hardship comes your way. We all put stock (value) in so many temporary areas of life, and when those places take a hit, you realize just how invested you really are. In these moments, we can count our losses as the rest of the world does, or we can count it a different way. A way that Paul described in Philippians 3:8 (NLT), where he shared the following:
"I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things.
I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ."
Paul had everything that’s worth having in this world. Prestige, power, influence, an impeccable reputation, and the list goes on & on. And yet he weighed all of those things on the same level as garbage. Why? Because he came to know Christ; therefore, he came to understand what really lasts in life—what things hold eternal value. And “stuff”, no matter how good it is, doesn’t stand the test of time.
If you really want to know where you’re settling in life, ask yourself what you “can’t afford to lose". When you recognize that God is leading you to your eternal home (your real home), you invest differently. Your primary focus shifts to serving people instead of selling out to stuff.
Some of the painful parts of life’s detours are the protections that keep you from mistaking this world as your permanent home. “Feeling out of place” can be the blessing that leads you to recognize that this place isn’t really home. The heavenly habitat that you were made for is the one God has in store. Never forget, even when the road seems long—
god is still Guiding you home.
your Way Home
When it comes down to it, life itself is the ultimate detour. In light of that truth, it’s so important to never lose sight of who you are & where you’re going. Romans 8:18-21 (MSG) tells us “there’s no comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times”…that because of that, we should live with a joyful anticipation that deepens over time.
If you’ve lost sight of who you are, allow God to replace your anxiety with expectation. An eager & joyful expectation of the good things He has in store for your life. Let your Spirit be still enough to remember that time is brief, that time is temporary. You’re not here to gain the whole world, you’re here to give what you have back to God. To give to people what God has freely given to you through Jesus—His unconditional love.
And for those of you who may be realizing who you really are for the first time, this is your signal to look to God like you never have before. To see that Jesus willingly took a detour out of heaven to come to earth…to live a sinless life, die in our place, and secure a path for you to be saved. Jesus meant it when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” And when you accept Jesus into your heart for who He is, He changes who you are. He becomes—
your Way home.
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today’s Takeaways
Today’s Tension is about tomorrow’s security
Never mistake the detour for the destination.
“I count all things as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus…”