Paul had a plan. The Spirit stopped him twice. And the detour turned out to be the actual destination.
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
Paul and his companions were traveling to preach in Asia. Good plan. Motivated by the right things. Clear direction. And the Holy Spirit stopped them. They turned toward Bithynia. Stopped again. So they kept moving and ended up in a coastal city called Troas, which was not on anyone's itinerary.
And in Troas, Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia, standing and begging him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us." They got up the next morning and went.
What happened in Macedonia? Lydia, a businesswoman who opened her home and became one of the first believers in Europe. The jailer whose life was changed in the middle of the night. The beginning of the church at Philippi, the one Paul would later write his warmest letter to. From prison.
The detour built some of the most significant things in the New Testament story. And none of it was in the original plan.
The hardest part is being in Troas.
I have been stopped. I'm guessing you have too. A door that seemed right, good, aligned with what you understood God to be doing, and it just did not open. Or it opened and then closed. Or something that felt clear became unclear without explanation.
The hardest part of this story is not the vision at the end. The hardest part is the middle, when you have been stopped but the Macedonian vision has not come yet. When you are just sitting in Troas, which is not where you planned to be, and you do not know why.
I do not want to make that too tidy. Sometimes Troas is just disorienting and you cannot see the shape of what is happening until much later, if ever. But I do believe this: God's redirections are not accidents. The stops are not failures. The unexpected coast you land on might be exactly where the next chapter begins.
Being open in the waiting.
What Paul and his companions did in Troas was keep moving. They did not stop traveling just because their planned route was blocked. They went to the coast, which was the next logical step, and they waited. And they were awake enough to receive the vision when it came.
That is the practice. Not forcing the stopped door open. Not assuming that a closed door means everything is lost. But staying awake, staying responsive, staying willing to be redirected toward the thing you did not plan for.
Name the Detour
Identify one area in your life where you have been stopped, where a door closed, where you ended up somewhere you did not plan to be. Instead of fighting it or trying to force it open, pause and ask God: "Is this Troas? Is something bigger coming?" Write down what you sense, and then stay awake to what He says.
- Where in my life have I been fighting against a closed door when I should have trusted the stop?
- What would it look like to "keep moving" without forcing the blocked route?
- What is one thing I am tempted to see as a failure that might actually be redirection?
- How can I be more awake and responsive to what God is doing in the waiting?
- Why is the middle of the story, the waiting in Troas, often the hardest part?
- What is the difference between giving up and staying awake in the waiting?
- How does knowing that Paul's detour built the church at Philippi change how I see my own detours?
Lord, I do not always understand the closed doors. The times when I thought I was going the right direction and found myself stopped. Help me to trust you in those moments. Help me not to force what you are not opening. And help me to be awake in Troas, wherever that is for me right now. The vision might be coming. I want to be the kind of person who receives it. In Jesus Name, Amen.
God's redirections are not failures. They are often the way the story actually gets where it needs to go. The stop might be the most important part of the journey.