If you have heard me speak for any length of time, you would have somehow, sometime, heard me

talk about my poor sense of direction. And that's why, wherever I go anywhere, one of my able

colleagues give me, you know, a piece of paper with clear direction, you know, on the third traffic

light, you turn right, and then on the second

stop sign, you go left, and they give me absolutely clear direction, so I don't mess up.

And that is why, when I'm driving with these little directions in my hand, I dread a sign that

says detour.

You're trying to follow the detour and say, no sign.

And it's really become frustrating.

But the problem with spiritual detours is that in most cases, there are no signs.

Before you know it, you're on a detour and you off the tracks

and you never realize you got there. Now, those of us who have been on a spiritual detours

understand the pain and the agony that is associated with finding yourself way, way, way away from your

destination.

About a year or so after I was saved and received Christ as my savior of my life, the devil

succeeded in tempting me, and I'm saying tempting me,

he did not make me, he tempt me to get away into a dangerous spiritual detour. I remember

clearly wondering in that maze for 18 months, perhaps the most painful 18 months of my

Christian walk.

And I thought often of the parable of the sowah.

You know, Jesus talks about a sowah went out and was sowing seed.

And then the Lord talks about what causes detours in the Christian walk, in the Christian life,

...