God Redeems Our Detours

Life Lessons

August 6, 2026

When I answered God’s call to ministry as a teenager, I had no idea where that journey would lead.

My experience was limited to small country churches served by faithful pastors who farmed, logged timber, taught school, or worked other jobs during the week. They loved Christ and faithfully served their congregations, but I had few models for what my own ministry might become.

I dreamed of earning a Ph.D., becoming a college professor, and perhaps serving a small church on the side.

Life, however, took an unexpected turn.

After graduating from college and serving a church in Alabama, my wife and I moved to St. Louis. She needed specialized medical treatment, and her parents graciously rented us a house next door to them. I found work at Westinghouse Electric in the copper shop, manufacturing copper and aluminum bus bars for electrical distribution panels.

Then another door unexpectedly opened.

An opening became available in the accounting department. I applied, knowing almost nothing about accounting or business. Westinghouse offered to pay my tuition and books if I would earn a degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Accounting.

Seminary had been my plan.

Accounting was not.

I never made it to seminary.

Instead, I graduated with a business degree.

For years I wondered whether I had taken a wrong turn.

Today, I see that season differently.

I am not convinced that accounting was God’s original plan for my life. Rather, I believe God redeemed my detour.

Through accounting He taught me to value details. He taught me research, accuracy, integrity, responsibility, and the importance of meeting deadlines. Those lessons have shaped everything I have done since—whether preparing sermons, writing books, managing church finances, serving nonprofit organizations, or writing these reflections.

God did not waste that season.

Looking back across my life, I see God’s redeeming grace again and again. He has taken unexpected turns, disappointments, and decisions I questioned and woven them into the next chapter of my journey.

That is why Romans 8:28 gives me such hope.

Not because every decision I made was perfect.

Not because every detour was God’s ideal.

But because God’s grace is greater than my understanding. He has never stopped redeeming my journey.

The Bible is filled with stories like this. Ruth never imagined that widowhood would lead her into the family line of King David—and ultimately of Jesus. Joseph never imagined that slavery and prison would become the means by which God would preserve countless lives. Peter’s greatest failure became the doorway to his greatest ministry.

Again and again, Scripture reminds us that God does not waste our lives.

He redeems our detours.

As I look back over more than seventy-five years, I can honestly say that I have experienced God’s redeeming grace at every stage of the journey. I did not always understand where the road was leading, but I have learned to trust the One who walks beside me.

Perhaps that is what it means to be a curious pilgrim.

We keep taking the next step of faith, trusting that even when the road bends unexpectedly, God is still at work—redeeming the journey.