Right Turn Only

When you leave my neighborhood, you can make a right-hand-turn or a left. Right is the way to school. Left is a 2-minute drive to work. Right is the way to the dinkier grocery store with the chaotic parking lot. Left is the route to my Wegman’s utopia and my Wawa coffee. Right is always backed up with traffic. Left is easy access to the freeway.

I was a little frustrated when detour signs alerted me to the left side of the road being closed for construction. When they plopped a large trailer at the work site, I knew this was no small improvement.

My two-minute commute became (brace for it) 10 minutes. Wawa coffee required real commitment. I needed to adopt a breathing ritual before parking at my inferior grocery store (rather than drive an extra 10 minutes to Wegman’s). The whole rhythm of my daily life changed simply because going “left” wasn’t a choice.

As I walked out with my groceries—having spent about a third less than I usually do—and started to add up the amount of money I saved with fewer Wawa trips, I couldn’t help but reflect on two things. Firstly, I’m a big baby. Secondly, maybe there was more good coming from this change of rhythm than I first imagined; a change I would’ve never experienced if the option to turn left hadn’t been taken from me.

It made me wonder: in life, leadership, and faith, are there other situations in which I needed an option to be taken away so that I could make a better choice? I thought about several times when a change I didn’t choose, and certainly didn’t want, led me to what the Lord was calling me to. While we may not be grateful for a detour, how do we hold on to gratitude in the detour?

I am told by neighbors that I should be able to turn left again before school starts. As the Lord gives us this new week, let’s be open to what the closures might allow us to do.