What If the Detour Is the Destination?

There is a horror travel story that goes like this…

In 1985, an American businessman landed in Los Angeles after a long-haul flight from West Germany. Exhausted and eager to get home, he only had a short one-hour hop left to reach his hometown of Oakland.

No one is quite sure what happened next. Maybe it was the strange accent of the staff at the boarding gate, perhaps fatigue had clouded his judgment, or maybe it was something else entirely.

Whatever the reason, he was about to make the news headlines.

As he settled into his seat, he had a vague sense that something wasn’t quite right. And had he understood anything the captain announced over the intercom, he would have known for sure that something was very much wrong.

After takeoff, instead of flying north toward Oakland, the plane climbed out over the Pacific Ocean. It’s unclear exactly when the man became aware of his mistake. But thirteen hours later, he touched down not in Oakland, California, but in Auckland, New Zealand—some 10,000 kilometers from his intended destination.

The man eventually made it home, courtesy of a somewhat red-faced Air New Zealand. ⁱ

Recently, while sitting in Singapore’s Changi Airport in the middle of the night, this story came to mind. At the time, the idea of adding another day of travel to our itinerary was a truly horrifying thought. Our family had just spent three weeks in our beloved New Zealand, sharing about what God has been doing in Japan and connecting with our friends and family. Now we were on our own travel marathon home. (As great as New Zealand is, it happens to be a long way from just about everywhere.)

The trip represented the end of the first chapter of our lives in Japan. It had been three years since we departed from New Zealand, and a lot of life had been crammed into those years. There was a lot to share—much of which we just couldn’t fit in.

The truth is, sharing about overseas mission work may not be as straightforward as you might think. You might be able to share about where you’ve come from, but when it comes to where you’re going, it’s not as cut and dry as you might expect.

And yet, so many times people will ask, “So what’s next?” Sure, we’d all love a clear five-step plan for winning souls in Japan. And yes, we might have some ideas and opportunities that point in a certain direction, but ultimately, the most truthful answer I can offer about our future is:

“I don’t really know.”

Yet standing in front of a bunch of faithful people who actively pray and support you, and saying, “I really don’t know what we’re going to do next,” may come across as a little reckless. It might sound to most like I haven’t a clue what I’m doing. (Both of which could well be true.)

But maybe this isn’t such a bad thing.

Take a step back for a moment and consider Christian mission. Whose mission is it? Is it really ours? Are we truly at liberty to tell the Lord how He ought to use us in our work in Japan? God knows we’ve tried many times—and I’m certain we’re not the only ones.

Perhaps one of the biggest temptations in missions is to be led by our flesh and not by the Holy Spirit. Ask yourself: how many times have you formulated a plan and then prayed for the Lord to endorse and bless it? If we’re honest, I believe there’s not a single believer alive who could say they’ve never done such a thing.

At the end of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus didn’t say to His disciples “plan.” He said “wait.”

For many of us, this is likely one of the hardest directives to receive. But He was asking them to wait for something very specific—something He had referred to many times in His teaching:

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” ⁱⁱ

Many missionaries, keen to validate their calling and feel valuable in their new environment, no doubt find waiting on the Lord for guidance a significant challenge. Driven by a need to put something in the newsletter and let everyone know they’re doing good work, waiting is far from the default setting.

And yet, I’m more and more convinced that the greatest threat to Christian mission is not the many evils that surround us—it’s the one within: the endless drive to fill our days with “stuff.”

Mostly the “stuff” is profitable and good. But is it the stuff God is leading us into? Just because we’re doing something doesn’t automatically mean the Lord has led us. It could simply mean we found it hard to wait.

Many times I’ve prayed to God and asked Him why the goalposts have moved—confused by how circumstances turned out and how they didn’t line up with what I had foreseen. I get the sense that in those moments, the Lord is saying He never set up the goalposts in the first place. They were a creation of my own imagination—an attempt to fill in the details. I wonder if most of the time, the Lord is simply asking us to move in a particular direction, and as we go, the details are filled in.

Planning, I’m sure, has a place in the work of God. But I sense that in many cases, it’s preceded by waiting.

I was reminded of a great story that illustrates this clearly in the book of Acts. In chapter 16, we read that the Apostle Paul and Silas, after traveling through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, intended to go to Asia—but they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit. They had clearly planned where to go next, but for some unknown reason, the Lord said “no.” Did these areas need to hear the gospel? They sure did. But that wasn’t the plan God had in mind for Paul—and fortunately, Paul was surrendered to the mind of Christ through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

No matter—they tried a different direction. Bithynia? No again. Perhaps somewhat confused and wondering where to go next, Paul and Silas headed down to the port city of Troas. I can only imagine Paul sitting in Troas thinking, “Okay, where to next, God?” He waited—but not for long. The Spirit’s leading came in the form of a dream.

He saw a man dressed in traditional Macedonian garb, beckoning him to come across to Macedonia. Paul now had a new direction. But it didn’t come through research or reason—it came by means of the Holy Spirit’s leading. Having followed this guidance and not his own plan, Paul went on to plant the first churches on the continent of Europe.

In Japan, as we look at the challenges and circumstances surrounding the church at this point in history, it’s easy to let our minds drift toward strategy and method. All of which have value in the missional effort. But without first waiting on and submitting to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we’ll likely just find ourselves generating more busyness and work. And let’s be honest—that’s probably not what the Japanese need more of.

Like Paul in Troas, we too might find ourselves in places where we’re thinking “what next?” This is probably our cue to wait. It’s totally okay not to have the next steps planned out. This situation forces us into the humble realization that our lives are in the Lord’s capable hands.

Peter says we are “sojourners and pilgrims” in this world ⁱⁱⁱ—we are passing through. Sure, we know where we’ve come from and we know our ultimate destination. But it might be a little presumptuous to assume we know the flight path. We, after all, are not in the cockpit.

So perhaps the businessman who landed in Auckland isn’t just a travel mishap—it’s a parable. A reminder that even when we think we know the destination, we might end up somewhere entirely unexpected. And maybe that’s okay. Because in the Kingdom of God, detours aren’t always mistakes. Many times, what we initially think to be a detour is indeed the divine direction we’ve been seeking.

As we continue our journey in Japan, we don’t have a boarding pass stamped with certainty. But we are sealed with the Holy Spirit who leads and guides. And if we’re willing to wait, to listen, and to follow—even if it means landing somewhere we didn’t expect—we might just find ourselves exactly where we’re meant to be.

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ⁱ  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-04-02-mn-19265-story.html

ⁱⁱ  Acts 1:4-5

ⁱⁱⁱ  1 Peter 2:11