Ahhhhh….. Summer. Time to chill by the pool. Read a good book under a shade tree. Watch the clouds drift in the blue sky. Stay up late to catch fireflies with the kids. Take in a drive-in movie (yes they still exist), or simply gaze at the stars in the night sky.
And with the relaxing sigh of Ahhhhhh.. comes that shrill sound of AHHHHH!!!! Because along with the beloved lazy days of summer comes that dreaded word……. construction. Summer and construction go hand in hand. Depending on where you live, some areas have more of it than others, but we all can relate to the feeling of re-routings, delays, and detours that go awry.
Take the city of Carmel for instance where I live. Oh boy!! In the past few years the city has ramped up its roadways by adding over 100 round-a-bouts. (That in an of itself causes a dizzying effect.) With each new round-a-bout installation, means an intersection is closed. With each closure emerges a companion word to construction. That is…detour!
We all have our own traffic pattern routines. Our preferred routes to designated destinations. The normal places we travel by car regularly. Mine include the gym, library, church, grocery store, football stadium to drop my high school daughter off for marching band practice, and a few other miscellaneous retailers. I must say my normal traffic pattern has been completely fouled-up! And with a new closure due this week, I’m not even sure I can get to the grocery store, or gym without extreme rerouting!! (If I starve due to my inability to get to the grocery store, I won’t need to go to the gym—a twofer.)
When I approach the construction zone and as I wait for my turn to be motioned forward by the flag person wearing an orange vest, I can’t help but think that life and certainly the spiritual life is a lot like construction. I’m going about my business when suddenly and unexpectedly, I see the orange hazard sign indicating a detour. For example, when a sudden sickness or ailment emerges like the flu, a nagging cold-cough combo, a broken bone or strained muscle. Maybe it’s something even more serious like cancer, job loss, marital strife, death of a family member or a wayward child. These spontaneous, unintended, and random events can create havoc and cause us to reroute our plans for a time.
A couple of years ago, I had gotten so busy that my priorities were really out of whack. Lack of sleep, poor eating habits, no gym time, and a dwindled prayer life mushroomed into a mighty serious cold. Looking back, I’m glad I got sick because though I was flat on my back, I had time to pray and reevaluate!! Other than feeling miserable, once I recovered, I felt as if I had been on a vacation or a retreat. Forced to slow down provided much needed time to reflect and reconsider my priorities.
Unlike a detour due to unavoidable circumstances, some spiritual detours may be self-inflicted. They could be the result of our shortcomings, also known as sin. We get derailed from God’s path for our lives by our own actions. Something as minor as staying up too late catching up on social media, or watching a funny video on YouTube, or Netflix, turns me into Mrs. Grouch and Mrs. Unproductive the next day- in short, derailed by my own doing. Other detours are God’s grace redirecting us to the road where he wants us to be on. For example, years ago when I thought a job promotion was right around the corner, but I actually got canned instead. Ouch! Looking back now, I see that God had an alternative route and plan for my employment and life’s journey.
Whether it’s unintentional or the result of our own doing, just like a construction detour, it seems either type of spiritual detour is typically unpleasant, involves waiting, and causes delays to our preconceived plans.
One other difficultly I’ve experienced on a road construction detour is the detour is not very clearly marked. I’ve gotten completely lost, or came to a dead end. I look around and think, how in the world did that just happen. I thought I was following the signs. One minute I’m minding my business on my way to work, then I’m delayed due to the detour, and the next minute, I’m completely lost.
This experience is fresh in my mind as I was headed downtown for a meeting, and came upon a detour. The detour signs completely ended. I was lost, and in a neighborhood with a lot of graffiti, closed businesses with broken, boarded-up windows. I was panicked. Eventually, after circling around a couple times, I finally found my way back to the main drag and was on my way. And that happens for real in the spiritual journey, doesn’t it? Ever hit a spiritual detour which resulted in being or at least feeling lost? I have. It calls for us to trust that God knows the way, even when we don’t.
With summer road construction and the spiritual journey, when I see the construction ahead sign, I try to take a deep breath and realize, it’s okay. God is with me. Construction is part of any good road maintenance plan, and spiritual life. Sometimes it is just a tweak or repair in the road, other times it is a total rebuild, like a round-a-bout. But I’ve realized if I can just be patient, follow the detour signs intently, the delay won’t be too bad. And once the construction is completed, it’s amazing how much smoother the commute is—and the spiritual journey in life becomes—that is until the next road construction!!
Brigid Curtis Ayer Co-Hosts, “Faith In Action”, on Catholic Radio Indy and serves as the Statehouse Correspondent for the Indiana Catholic Conference covering legislative and public policy news. Ayer works as a Communications Strategist at PAX Public Relations. www. paxpr.com, a company she founded.