Skip to main content

Grace in the Sidetracks


What a gracious God we serve.

So often, though, His grace is so deeply embedded, we cannot see it within His acts until we stop and peel back the layers.

Like the Israelites being led out from Egypt..

“Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near, for God said, ‘The people might change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.’ Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea, and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17-18, NASB)

I can just hear the people...
“Why are we going the long way!?”
“God sure likes to make things hard on us.”

And I can hear myself...
“What was the point of that?”
“Why would God sidetrack me for that time in life?”
“Does God enjoy just making things difficult for me!?”

But in fact it’s often in the seemingly unnecessarily difficult times that the grace of God is at work.

God did not lead the Israelites through the way that was near because He knew the people might change their minds.
Did you catch that?
He took them through what seemed to be more difficult, not because He took joy in making it a hard journey but to protect them from their own failings. 

 How often do we harbor resentment against God for the winding path our life takes; being frustrated that He’s led us in a way that seemed to end in nothing?   But what if, in fact, He leads us there because He knows that if He leads the other way: we will fail?  
Then the unknowns become the He knows.
The dead ends, the gracious protection from ourselves from a God who is making us holy.

I see it more clearly as I’m driving home on New Year’s Eve, considering the party I was supposed to go to, but that I didn’t get to go to because of lots of people, lots of drinks, lots of love, and a late night.  

I remember my original plan to host my own party.  To close up for the last time at work and turn around and have people over.  I’d thought it’d be great fun.  But then I was invited to another party and changed my mind.
And I’m thinking about it seemed strange that I’d been so excited to go to a party and then it didn’t work out.

And it hits me that if that invitation had not had been extended, I would be driving home at 12 at night to host people; completely worn out and ready to relax.
And it makes me thankful for a God that knows my tendencies.  
Who knew how I would feel and what I would need and provided something so silly as a New Year’s Party to keep me from my own unwise plans.  

Only a God who cares deeply about me would care about such a minute detail as that.
Only a God who knows me better than I know myself would lead me down a dead-end path in the eyes of the world.
Only a God who cares deeply about His people would lead them in a way they would not have chosen, to keep them from their own sin.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Busyness and Leaves

I’m sitting in the inactivity, trying to let His presence be enough. And I’m made aware of just how hard that is for me. I’m feeling the great freedom it brings to just sit and not need to be doing for or saying to Him.  And yet I’m feeling my need to be doing something. People pass me by and I wonder what they’re thinking of me, if they’re wondering what I’m doing.  I position myself over my journal, in hopes they’ll think that I’m writing or working on something.  To let them think I’m sitting and doing nothing would let them wonder if perhaps I’m not ok. And I let that worry determine my actions. I’ve wondered just recently how I seem to inevitably end up giving an impression of being busy.  But as I wonder, I ponder the even more important question: what if I’m not as busy as people think?  Am I willing to let them see me as someone who doesn’t have a lot on their plate? Often, I find the answer is no. Busyness brings with it an ability ...
2 comments
Read more

Bearing WIth One Another-Joy Series #2

It’s in reading Ann Voscamp’s blog “A Holy Experience” that I get that maybe I’ve been viewing some of this wrong... When I’m so overwhelmed with self pity and hopelessness, I feel like I can’t handle anyone else’s stuff.  How am I supposed to bear twice the burden I already am?   “Burden is only a weight when borne alone.  When the burden is borne together, by a Body, the burden becomes bond — soul strengthener.” ( http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/04/when-life-burns-what-we-could-do-for-each-other/   ) But what if bearing another’s burden is actually a distribution of weight? Because you’re bearing each other’s burdens rather than trying to bear your own. So, rather than you and everyone else trying desperately to stand under the weight of their burdens, you all stand together and bear everyone’s burdens.  Then when in your moments of weakness, the strength of others helps you keep standing. That’s what the Body does. I continue reading...
1 comment
Read more

Death to Life

It’s good Friday.   The words of Bonhoeffer ruminate in my head and the world around me vacillates between winter and spring. The day, the words, the surroundings speak of death. Those trailing flowers I pass by every day on my way to work have moved from tiny buds to full-fledged blooms and I’m reminded that death always brings about life. The words of a wise man, spoken years ago in a time of vision seeming to die, ring in my head again: “In order for something new to come, something has to die.” It speaks a hope over the death of dreams and a season that has made me aware of just how failing my flesh is.   The thoughts leave as quickly as they enter and I go about my day. I find myself skimming the newspaper handed to me by the man changing my oil.   My eyes are drawn to a section on chronic pain and I read about a newer perspective of doctors regarding this issue: the focus has shifted from attempting to take away all pain, to trying to re...
Post a Comment
Read more