Four Rules for Navigating Life’s Unexpected Detours

Nov 16, 2025

Devotional

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“This detour was not something I had planned. I knew that I had to be up early. I was returning to school and I would have practice tomorrow. I was not excited about it. And this detour was really that. It took way longer than just our trip home from Colorado. We made it just fine. The still of nowhere with a broken down, survived. And now our guy is on a 20 plus year struggle bus ride. Dinner. He doesn't get along. The source of family drama in all of this because it says that his dad liked him the most.”
“Joseph then gets transferred or sold again. You know, there's middle men in this. To Potiphar. And now he is Potiphar's slave. And this is like royalty. Potiphar's like Pharaoh's right hand. Says that God blessed Joseph. Everybody loves Joseph, including Potiphar's wife. Everybody loves Joseph, including Potiphar's wife who loves Joseph a little too much. Potiphar's wife, some fun. And so she's like, Joseph, Joseph, I love you. You're so handsome.”
“She's like, Joseph, come hang out with me. Joseph, let's sit and talk and have tea together. Joseph, dishonor him. She's like, Scripture says she keeps up doing this, dishonor him. She's like, Scripture says she keeps up doing this all the time. One day she's just like, so she grabs Joseph. She may be calling Daddy. She may be calling me too. But hey, Potiphar's, Potiphar's like, uh, I said that you jail. A rough goat. Now he's falsely accused.”
“Now he's in prison and God gives him success. Scripture, you're in charge of all the other prisoners. Dude, he comes in contact with who got on Pharaoh's bad side, the king, and they are thrown in jail. The cup bearer and the bind on him. I'm in jail. It's a bad day. They have dreams, both of them, and they're like, man, these are weird. And they tell Joseph about the dreams because he's like, guys, what's going on? You look a little, you know, down more than usual.”
“They tell him their dreams. He's like, oh, let me tell you. Out of that, this is what's going to happen. Mr. Cup bearer, you're going to be restored. The king's going to come back. He's going to take you, bring you in. You will be back in there and not going to play out in your favor. It comes true. The next few days, things unfold, the whole story, and he's still doing his thing. But God is faithful with him and caring for him.”
“He hasn't talked to his brothers in years now. He's in jail. He's trying to survive, figuring it out. The king has a dream. Pharaoh has a dream. And the cup bearer is like, cook. Right after that, remember that Joseph is the man. So he gets Joseph. He calls him out. He tells him the dream. Joseph spells it out. Seven years of not pretending to do anything about this. I can't do this. It is God who gives you the interpretation of this dream.”
“God is going to give you the word, the message you need to hear. He tells him that he puts like, and they sell the abundance, and they, Egypt has the goods, including Joseph's brothers. They show up. It's been 20 something years, and Joseph recognizes his brothers. Can you imagine the feeling? Can you, but he doesn't think about it every single day. Not after 20 something years. Time has healed wounds. Time has made things.”
“And now he's sitting there face to face. He's in charge of their, and the, but he like puts their money that they brought back in their bags to just totally trip them out. So they leave, and they're like, somebody put the money back. And back home, meanwhile, the dad is like, don't take my youngest son. I've already lost one year. Evil chain all the way to chapter says to his, you tried to kill me. You intended to harm me.”
“But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. This is the Hebrew word. Contended this. In the New Testament, Paul writes in Romans that people invent ways of doing evil. Like we're so being harmed. But God, the creator of the world, invented something new. God changed the story. God devised a plan. Invented. This says to his brother, I want you to remember this is, this is a, a truth.”
“Here are the four rules, and they're really simple. Like it's super, oh yeah, duh. When we're talking about detour, delete, it's going to take a lot longer than planned, most likely. Bumpy roads, sudden or frequent stops. I mean, jail time and 20 years of disconnection from family. That's a little bit of a, your vigilance. Beyond driving on detour, we're going to watch out for like narrow lanes or unmarked roads. We're going to be looking for obstacles.”
“When it comes to detours, the maps haven't picked up, and what they're going to do, they're not always updated. When it comes to detours, the maps haven't picked up, and what they're going to do, they're not always updated. When it comes to detours, the maps haven't, try to reroute you to get back on the original path. They're going to take you maybe through unsafe streets or neighborhoods. Here's what GPS stands for.”
“We cannot trust in that. Our heart, we are always going to be inclined to try to chase that one thing that gets us the advantage. But none of it, as we see back or at the very end, none of it was for his own gain. He, in fact, he says, guys, brothers, what you intended to harm me, God turned this thing around, created something new.”
“I wonder where you might be today. And I'm just going to give you a chance. Tanner, Tanner, I think I want us to sing. He has good plans. Can we change to that, guys? Let's make that adjustment. Let's sing it as a declaration, as a promise of hope, as something we are holding on to and trying to believe in if we're not quite there yet. Or maybe, or maybe just looking at our situation and going, okay, God has good plans for me.”
“And it may suck in the middle of it. It may be 20, it may be 20 years of suck. It may be imprisonment. It may be to throw him in a pit or sell him into slavery. God did not push that thing to happen. God is not that thing to happen. God is not, God is not just slamming everything in our path and forcing us into a cause the pain in your life. But God will use that pain to bring about some greater purpose.”
“If you will let this, if you will let him. So as we sing this, I want to, this is your people. This is your time. Take and do with it what you will.”
“What about when things just go south for no reason? Or when the road takes an unexpected turn? Today we're going to give you four rules of the road. When you find yourself, I was young, we found ourselves on a detour. I was a young lad, and it was one of my favorite times to go. We skipped school Friday, drove up there, had two and a half days just of chaos. Tubing, ice skating, sometimes skiing, and it was a marvelous time.”
“We're traveling home, have school the next day, and I don't know why or how. I wasn't paying attention. We were probably watching a movie in the back. We had this massive conversion van with a wooden box right here, and it had like an eight inch, scraps the road. But the next thing I know, we're broke down, and we're not just broke down on the road. We're on a gravel road. We shouldn't have been on a gravel road.”
“I'm 100% sure, like in order to get from Horn Creek, Colorado to where I could, on the country roads, I needed my boots, ladies and gentlemen. But we shouldn't have been on the road that was gravel at this time. See, this is still dialing up. As if you were here last week, you heard that beautiful song serenading us. Dial up internet. The late 1900s had some, oh, our Stanley cups were a good round.”
“That garden hose water was saturated with nutrients, and it enlivened us for the entire summer. Okay, players are a thing, and if you don't know what that is, these cell phones came in a bag. I think I have a picture of one. No? Maybe? Maybe our, maybe our, our TVs died. That's too bad. Does anybody remember? Oh yes, look at that. Does anybody, did anybody like, it just came in a bag? You just carry that thing around.”
“And yes, you could plug it in, and you could take it in the car. But you see that big old giant thing sticking up, that's the, my dad has a bag phone, but it doesn't get reception. Cell phones still now struggle at times. And so he and, and we had some to get reception, to phone somebody. And we, through the course of this time on this detour, found us, get our van started, back up, and back on the road.”
“This detour was not something I had planned. I knew that I had to be up early. I was returning to school and I would have practice tomorrow. I was not excited about it. And this detour was really that. It took way longer than just our trip home from Colorado. We made it just fine. The still of nowhere with a broken down, survived. And now our guy is on a 20 plus year struggle bus ride.”
“He doesn't get along. The source of family drama in all of this because it says that his dad liked him the most. We have any favorite kids out there? You were your parents' favorite child. I got a couple shows of hands. I love it. Thanks for the honesty. And it just goes a little bit further to tell us that at one, goes a little bit further to tell us that at one point, one day Joseph tattles, one day Joseph tattles on his brothers for siblings to get in trouble.”
“So the story goes that one day the brothers decide, how we gotta get rid of Joseph. Others decide, how we gotta get rid of Joseph. He is, he is really not cool. And so they, alright, what do we do? We did it. We did really not cool. And so they, alright, what do we do? We did it. We did it, guys. We did it. Joseph's in the pair, and he was all these like, gypsy type people traveling through.”
“They're headed south, and they're like, hey, this Joseph doesn't see his brothers for a while. They head on down to Egypt. Joseph then gets transferred or sold again. You know, there's middle men in this. To Potiphar. And now he is Potiphar's slave. And this is like royalty. Potiphar's like Pharaoh's right hand. Says that God blessed Joseph. Everybody loves Joseph, including Potiphar's wife.”
“Everybody loves Joseph, including Potiphar's wife who loves Joseph a little too much. Potiphar's wife, some fun. And so she's like, Joseph, Joseph, I love you. You're so handsome. Joseph, come hang out with me. Joseph, let's sit and talk and have tea together. Joseph, dishonor him. She's like, Scripture says she keeps up doing this, dishonor him. She's like, Scripture says she keeps up doing this all the time.”
“One day she's just like, so she grabs Joseph. She may be calling Daddy. She may be calling me too. But hey, Potiphar's, Potiphar's like, uh, I said that you jail. A rough goat. Now he's falsely accused. Now he's in prison and God gives him success. Scripture, you're in charge of all the other prisoners. Dude, he comes in contact with who got on Pharaoh's bad side, the king, and they are thrown in jail.”
“The cup bearer and the bind on him. I'm in jail. It's a bad day. They have dreams, both of them, and they're like, man, these are weird. And they tell Joseph about the dreams because he's like, guys, what's going on? You look a little, you know, down more than usual. They tell him their dreams. He's like, oh, let me tell you. Out of that, this is what's going to happen. Mr. Cup bearer, you're going to be restored.”
“The king's going to come back. He's going to take you, bring you in. You will be back in there and not going to play out in your favor. It comes true. The next few days, things unfold, the whole story, and he's still doing his thing. But God is faithful with him and caring for him. He hasn't talked to his brothers in years now. He's in jail. He's trying to survive, figuring it out.”
“The king has a dream. Pharaoh has a dream. And the cup bearer is like, cook. Right after that, remember that Joseph is the man. So he gets Joseph. He calls him out. He tells him the dream. Joseph spells it out. Seven years of not pretending to do anything about this. I can't do this. It is God who gives you the interpretation of this dream. God is going to give you the word, the message you need to hear.”
“He tells him that he puts like, and they sell the abundance, and they, Egypt has the goods, including Joseph's brothers. They show up. It's been 20 something years, and Joseph recognizes his brothers. Can you imagine the feeling? Can you, but he doesn't think about it every single day. Not after 20 something years. Time has healed wounds. Time has made things. And now he's sitting there face to face.”
“He's in charge of their, and the, but he like puts their money that they brought back in their bags to just totally trip them out. So they leave, and they're like, somebody put the money back. And back home, meanwhile, the dad is like, don't take my youngest son. I've already lost one year. Evil chain all the way to chapter says to his, you tried to kill me. You intended to harm me. But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
“This is the Hebrew word. Contended this. In the New Testament, Paul writes in Romans that people invent ways of doing evil. Like we're so being harmed. But God, the creator of the world, invented something new. God changed the story. God devised a plan. Invented. This says to his brother, I want you to remember this is, this is a, a truth. And I, I forgot to give you this one. Now, here are the four rules, and they're really simple.”
“Like it's super, oh yeah, duh. When we're talking about detour, delete, it's going to take a lot longer than planned, most likely. Bumpy roads, sudden or frequent stops. I mean, jail time and 20 years of disconnection from family. That's a little bit of a, your vigilance. Beyond driving on detour, we're going to watch out for like narrow lanes or unmarked roads. We're going to be looking for obstacles.”
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