Detour 1...

The first Detour of all of us begins with birth...

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you." Jeremiah1:5

"You knit me together in my Mother's womb." Psalm 139:13

"The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name." Isaiah 49:1

He already knows me, He already knows you before we even know ourselves. And we are born into the unknown, we are detoured into a world unknown to us, into a family, a home, a place in a world so diverse, and we exist. Our spirit in a body and the breath of a soul upon entry into this world.

And there begins Detour #1 for all of us. We grow, learn, change, choose, we detour all on our own. But I do believe all our roads lead back to HIM, the one who knew me, knit me, named me. My life is a number of detours leading to Him or away from Him and if I am honest with myself and am in tune I can feel it, I know somewhere deep inside, like playing hot/cold while searching for the prize. One detour brings a warm summer breeze and I know...closer. Another, an Arctic blast that freezes me out and sends me reeling far, far away. Some detours we choose, and some are created for us, even against our wills...but I do believe through it all, the Anchor of the soul holds (Hebrews 6), the Silver chord is not broken (Ecclesiastes 12), and the He who formed me seesGenesis16).

"He knows my frame and remembers that we are but dust", Psalm 103

As a child I took steps that kept me very close to God, sensing HIM, knowing glimpses, ever aware of His existence. Church, bible, prayer. He was real to me. Then...a choice came and to some a simple choice, a not so earth-shattering experience; but for me, an earthquake whose aftershocks were felt for years.

My horse died, we had to choose to put her down, choose to kill my friend, my escape, my protector. I begged God but He did not answer. And on a cold winter day, I chose, I detoured and an earthquake shook my soul and sent me...elsewhere. I was angry, unforgiving, and blaming. I decided "being Good" didn't save my horse, so I ran down a cold and isolated road.

Please forgive me, I know for so many of us our DETOURS are much more devastating and life altering. I've had my share but understand that for me this was the first tangible earthquake I felt and I chose.

And yes, I did choose it, in my mind, my heart...why be "good" but I had also detoured months earlier, seeking answers from sources I knew were wrong, I felt it, the wrongness, but pursued anyway, little did I know at what cost. You see we have an enemy too, that waits along the path to assist in or just plain push us into a detour. He waits for opportunity, invitation, evil,,,and strikes. His desire is the soul...to untether the Anchor, to sever the chord, to claim a soul from Him who sees.

So a combination of all these fault lines set my earthquake in motion and elsewhere was not a pretty place. It became easier to choose the lesser, cooler path. To look for love, acceptance and being known in strange places, lost souls experiencing their own earthquakes and coming together to only make it all worse. Like Eve I hide, ashamed detouring further and further away.

Yet "In Him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17

So how far can I really go? And do all our detours lead us back to Him. The one who knows, the one who sees, the one who Anchors. I believe they can, no matter how far our detour goes. Mine did...almost 10 years later. Though I never forgot Him or stopped believing. I warped His image into one that suited my sin and justified the earthquake and years of aftershocks. But, in reality, He never changes. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. " Hebrews 13 I was the one being warped and altered, and holding distorted glasses before my eyes.

But then in a hotel room, far down my detour path, playing a game with my distortion glasses on, I chose. I was asked, "If you could invite someone to dinner who would it be?' And I felt something shift, the atmosphere altered and something, someone familiar brushed passed me, in a moment I remembered and I answered, " Jesus, I'd invite Jesus." And He accepted the invitation, and with that everything changed, I was home, it was over, my long detour ended. Hot, Hotter, on fire, I claimed the prize or He claimed me. He changed me, He removed the glasses so I could see. He brought truth and I saw for the first time since the earthquake. I repented and He embraced and made new.

Revelation 3:20 says," Behold, I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears My Voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with Him, and he with me."

My revelation song, My salvation moment, He heard me and answered me. He translated me from the kingdom of darkness into the light. Out of the rubble, the ashes, the detour going nowhere...He met me. And I was home.

What's your song? Where did He find you? Are you still out there?

This was and is the greatest of them all...the detour that brings us home. But there are more to come...more detours... tell me yours, tell yourself, write it down, see you soon.