The Long Way Around: Short is Not Always the Best

Following the death of my father, I went through my atheist/agnostic period from the ages of 17 to 24. In my 20s, I was shocked to have several deep mystical experiences.

While having a relationship with God was definitely not on my bucket list, I was amazed to discover that I was a believer. I wasn’t sure what I believed in, but I had this faith that the material world was not the end all and be all.

I then started on a spiritual quest in which Huston Smith’s wonderful book The World's Religions played an important part. At that point in my life, a very wise spiritual mentor suggested to me that this quest could be a “team effort,” and that I should become part of some spiritual community.

Until I found Unity, the ability to discover a spiritual community — where I really felt comfortable in — was a rocky road. For a number of years, I went to a Pentecostal church. But I found it way too conservative, anti-science, and all too often fear-based.

I also spent a number of years going to a United Church of Christ congregation in Northern Virginia. Rock Spring Church was progressive and very active in the areas of social justice. In fact, when Virginia was still mostly segregated, Rock Spring Church was very active in the integration efforts in northern Virginia.

The only real reason why I left Rock Spring Church was that it seemed to me that most of the people were praying “to Whom It May Concern.” I just knew that if I were ever in a jam, I would need a lot more than “to Whom It May Concern.”

It wasn’t too long after leaving Rock Spring that a dear friend, took me to Unity of Fairfax — which is outside of Washington DC — and I felt like I had come home. This was my home church until I left for the seminary.

Imagine my amazement when I recently saw a blog written by Rev. Hannah Sachs, and she is currently one of the ministers at Rock Spring Church in Virginia. Not only that, but I was really touched by what she wrote.

Rev. Hannah said that she is almost addicted to taking the shortest and fastest way to get to a destination. If in the middle of driving to some place her GPS system says that another route will save her a few minutes, she always clicks on the button that will give her the reduced travel time. She likes the shortest and quickest lines in stores and at toll booths.

“We live in a culture that worships efficiency, and I confess that I sometimes bring the same frantic energy to my spiritual life. I want the direct route to healing, the express lane to maturity, and the immediate answer to my prayers,” she confesses.

However Rev. Hannah has noticed that God seems to be “a fan of the scenic route.” For example, when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, the quickest route to the Promised Land would have been a direct shot up the coast along the Mediterranean Sea.

But that is not the route that God led the Israelites on. First, he had them go on a cockamamie zig zag route. The Jewish people were on a merry-go-round for 40 years.

Second, God directed the Israelites to go way far west until they were beyond the Promised Land. And third, he then had them turn around and advance into the Promised Land by backtracking in an easterly direction. So much for any shortcuts.

Please remember that in Unity it doesn’t really matter if the story is literally true. What we are trying to get at is the metaphysical truth or the key spiritual principles in the story.

So why did God lead the Israelites on such a wild goose chase? Why did he take them on the long way round?

Remember that Moses sent 12 spies into the land of Canaan. They came back, and 10 of the spies said that the land was beautiful. However, they also said that they felt it would be impossible to conquer the land. Among all of the 12 spies only Joshua and Caleb said that they felt the Israelites could conquer the land.

God and Moses knew that if the majority of the spies had such a defeatist consciousness, that the Israelites would not be successful. They also felt that the 10 spies probably represented the generally defeatist beliefs of most of the Jewish people at that time.

As a result, both God and Moses felt that it would take time to build up the Israelites belief in themselves before they went into the Promised Land. This process took 40 years of wandering and hard work.

The short way would not have proven successful. However, the long way round led to a victorious conclusion — and an increase in consciousness.

“The long way around, wasn’t a punishment or a test. It was an act of fierce, protective tenderness – a beautiful refusal to force a weary, aching people to keep marching at the relentless pace of their past,” Rev. Hannah notes.

“We still resist the detours, don’t we? Empire demands that we produce constantly, and rush past our pain. So when a transition drags on or a season of loss takes years to navigate, it is easy to resent the delay. God values many things far more than speed,” she adds.

When things are taking much longer than I believe they should take, I remember the "40 years in the wilderness” experienced by the Jewish people. I try to remember that there may be a deeper lesson at work in this process.

Also, it is often good for us to slow down, take a deep breath, count our blessings, and just keep doing the next right thing. Divine Order often does not flow at Warp Speed.

God’s way is often not the shortest distance between two points.

Many blessings,

Rev. Rick