Detours and Delays
Life not going how you planned? In this episode, see how God can weave even painful detours, like Joseph’s and Louis Zamperini’s, into His good purposes for your story.
Life not going how you planned? In this episode, see how God can weave even painful detours, like Joseph’s and Louis Zamperini’s, into His good purposes for your story.
Have you ever looked at your life and thought, “This is not the story I was planning to live”?
You had dreams, timelines, and expectations about your career, family, ministry, or health, and then something unexpected hit. A door closed, a crisis came, a war you didn’t choose showed up on your doorstep, and now you’re on a road you never wanted, wondering where God is in all of it.
In this episode, we walk through the story of Louis Zamperini, Olympic runner, war hero, prisoner of war, and how God met him after unthinkable trauma, along with Joseph’s words in Genesis 50:20. You’ll see that while none of the evil or pain is “good,” God can still weave even those detours into a bigger redemptive purpose in ways you may not see yet, but can trust by faith.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:
- How Joseph’s declaration, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good,” speaks into your own unexpected chapters
- Why detours and delays don’t mean God has abandoned you or your calling
- A practical way to bring one painful detour before God and ask Him to weave it into His good purposes for your life
- When your plans fall apart, God’s purposes don’t, and He knows how to redeem even the roads you never would have chosen.
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An Olympic runner is on track, literally, for a dazzling
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future. Louis "Louis" Zamperini goes from a rough childhood to
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the 1936 Berlin Olympics, dreaming of medals and records.
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His plan is simple: train hard, win races, and maybe become the
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first man to break the four-minute mile. Then, WWII
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interrupts everything. Louis becomes an airman, his plane
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crashes into the Pacific, and then he spends 47 days on a life
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raft, sharks circling and sun beating down, with no guarantee
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of rescue. When help finally comes, it's the wrong kind. He's
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captured and thrown into brutal Japanese prison camps for more
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than two years. The athlete with big dreams is now starving,
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beaten, and forgotten. If God is good, why this detour? How could
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anything possibly come out of a story like that?
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Maybe you had a picture in your mind of how life would go—the
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career path and the marriage, kids, the ministry, and the
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retirement, and then something hit. Could be a diagnosis, a
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layoff, a closed door, a betrayal, or maybe a move you
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didn't want. Suddenly, you're not on the road you planned.
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You're somewhere you never expected to be, and wondering,
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Lord, how could this possibly fit into anything good? Today's
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verse, Genesis 50-20, records Joseph of the Old Testament's
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words to his brothers, the same brothers who had sold him into
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slavery years before. Here's what he says to them. You
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intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He
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brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many
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people. Joseph didn't say what his brothers did was good,
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because it wasn't. The betrayal, and the slavery, the false
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accusations, the prison—that was real evil, and it was very,
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very painful. But standing on the far side of the story,
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Joseph could see something he couldn't see while he was in the
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middle. God had been at work the whole time, weaving even those
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dark chapters into a larger purpose. Please don't miss that,
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because a lot of us live most of our lives in the middle of the
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story, not at the end. In the middle, it just feels like loss.
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The dream job didn't happen. The relationship ended. Or the door
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closed. Maybe the doctor called. The timing feels off. The route
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is nothing like what you asked God for. If that's where you are,
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I want you to notice two words in Joseph's sentence. You
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intended and God intended. On one side, there are people's
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choices, the brokenness of the world, and even sometimes
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outright evil.
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And on the other side, there is a God who is so wise and so
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sovereign that he can take even what was meant for harm and
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intended for good. Now, he doesn't call evil good. He
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doesn't enjoy your pain, but he refuses to waste it. You see
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that in Jesus' story also. The cross was the worst act of
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injustice in history, and at the very same time, the place where
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God accomplished the greatest good. Human beings meant it for
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harm. God meant it for salvation. So what do you do when you're
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not at Genesis 50 yet? When you don't see the so-that of your
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suffering, and you just feel the weight of the detour. You do
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what Joseph did along the way. You stay faithful right where
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you are. In Potiphar's house, in prison, in the forgotten places.
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You keep trusting that God is still writing even when the
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chapter you're in. Doesn't it make sense? After the war, Louis
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Zamperini is consumed by nightmares, rage, and alcoholism.
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Until his wife drags him to a Billy Graham crusade in 1949.
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There, Louis surrenders his life to Christ. The man who once
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vowed revenge eventually travels back to Japan to forgive many of
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his former guards face to face. His story, told in the book and
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film, Unbroken, has pointed countless people to the power of
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grace and forgiveness. None of the abuse or evil was good, but
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God wove even those detours into a bigger purpose, reaching far
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more people than a gold medal ever could. What others intended
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for harm... God used for good. God used for good. He didn't do
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it by erasing the past, but by redeeming it. And that's the
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hope for you too. You may not see the whole tapestry yet.
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You're staring at the back of it with all the knots and loose
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threads. But on the other side, God is weaving something that
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will one day make sense in his presence. Right now, your detour
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might look like a job you didn't choose. Or a season of
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singleness you didn't expect. Or a health struggle that slowed
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you down. You don't have to pretend it isn't painful. And
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you don't have to slap a quick, It's all good! on top of real
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grief. But you can say by faith, Lord, I don't see it yet, but I
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believe you can intend this for good. Here's today's challenge.
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Think of one detour or delay in your life that still stings. It
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could have been a door that closed or a plan that didn't
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happen. And then, name it honestly to God. Then, in your
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own words, pray something like, Father, I don't understand this
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part of my story, but I'm asking you to do what you did for
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Joseph, to weave even this into your purposes. Help me be
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faithful where I am while I wait to see what you're doing. Lord,
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you see every person listening who feels like their life is off
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track. Thank you that you are the same God who took Joseph's
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pain and woven into a rescue plan. The same God who redeemed
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the cross itself. We bring you our detours and delays today.
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Strengthen our faith and trust that you are still writing, even
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when we don't see the ending yet. Use even those chapters for our
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good and your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please
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share this episode with someone who might need to hear this? The
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link is in the show notes. Thank you for joining me today on
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Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, even when your plans
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fall apart, God's purposes do not. Come back next time for
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more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.
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Until then, God bless and have a great day.
