Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we wandered about in the hill country of Seir. The most direct route isn't always the route God chooses. The Israelites could have gone straight to the Promised Land. But God sends them the long way around. They spend years in the wilderness when they could have spent months on the highway. Our culture teaches us to find the shortest path, the fastest route, the most efficient option. But Scripture is full of people taking the long way. Moses wandered forty years. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness before his ministry. Paul spent years in Arabia after his conversion. Sometimes the detour is the actual destination. Sometimes the long way around is where you become who you need to be. I spent five years as a therapist's assistant before I became a therapist myself. Those years seemed inefficient. I could have gone straight to the advanced degree. But the work I did in those years, the people I met, the skills I developed, made me a different kind of therapist. The long way around was the best route after all.
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