Ruri Rocks: Detours, Shortcuts, and the Way of Life

I was innocently eating my lunch while watching slice-of-life when blam! Straight to the kokoro. Nagi-san goes and drops a pearl of wisdom that leaves me spinning—in a good way. Here it is:

For context, Ruri (left above) is an amateur mineralogist, and she’s on a mission to find sapphires. Not content with the (literally) microscopic ones she’s scored from river sand, Ruri is going for the source, and she’s powering ahead toward this goal on pure instinct and energy. Surely, she’ll be rewarded with her heart’s desire if she’s enthusiastic enough, right? So when Nagi-san, a PhD student with a fair few years of spelunking experience under her belt and a boatload of expertise, reins her in and insists on methodical, consistent data collection, Ruri is not a happy camper. They’ve got a lead already on one branch of the river, so why are they investigating other tributaries? Such a waste of time and effort.

Have you ever felt like your life is suddenly on a detour? I’ll be honest, that’s where I’m at these days, as a health issue has brought my regular life to a grinding halt. I’ll recover, but it’s going to take time and rest. In the meantime, it’s frustrating and discouraging, and sometimes I find myself channeling Ruri, whining and throwing a tantrum inside. Rather like the Israelites in the wilderness, too, as they grumbled and complained their way through a forty-year journey to cover a distance that should have taken them a couple of weeks. I feel their pain now, as never before.

Scripture is full of detours. King David practically spent as much of his life on detour from his destiny as king of Israel as he did on the throne itself. Naomi, after fleeing famine and carving out a life in neighboring Moab, found herself back at square one in Israel, years later, no husband or sons or home or wealth to her name, and only a foreign daughter-in-law to show for a detour of decades. Then there was the young pregnant woman, chosen by God, who, mere days from her due date, had to leave her home (which was no doubt all kitted out in readiness to welcome a new life), and travel instead across the country to an overbooked rural backwater because some occupying emperor passed a decree. Even Jesus was subject to constant detours, the most notorious being right as his ministry was getting started, when, after the literal voice of God pronounced his commission from the heavens, he ended up—not on the preaching circuit or giving counsel to the religious leaders, but alone in the wilderness for six weeks. What?!

Now, if you know your Bible stories, you know that none of these detours was actually a detour at all. Instead, every one of these seemingly senseless slowdowns and divergences was God’s direct route for his people to gaining and achieving something they never could have done had they stuck to the path they were on. For the Israelites and David, the detour equipped them with a new mindset and skills, readying them for the Promised Land and the throne. On her detour, Naomi gained a precious friend and security in her retirement, and also brought into the fold a faithful foreigner who would become the ancestor of the savior of her people—and us. She was on a mission she never suspected! For Mary, the detour to Bethlehem not only fulfilled prophecy (which is a bit of a circular argument anyhow!), but also gave her, Joseph, and baby Jesus a head start on their flight to safety in Egypt when Herod ordered the execution of newborns. The detour saved their lives. And as for Jesus, his temptation in the wilderness deepened and confirmed his intimacy with God and his understanding of his identity and calling to such a profound extent that he was able to do what no one had done before: Resist evil and overcome sin and death. 

What seemed to be a detour was actually the most direct path to walking out God’s intent of blessing each one of these people, and through them, the world. The detours were shortcuts. But only when we see them from God’s perspective. 

Like Ruri, I thought I knew where I was going and how to get there; I thought I could recognize a pointless detour when I saw one, and was ready to muscle my way past it impatiently. But Nagi-san’s comment reminded me how limited my perspective is. I am bounded by time and what I can see of space, not to mention by how I understand them (which is even more limited!). But God isn’t; he can see all the moving parts as they dance through eternity. He knows and understands all things, including me. Having created time, he has it down to perfection. And because of this, his way is all shortcut and nothing but—it is the most direct route to him and to all he has to bless us with, though it is often unexpected, unusual, and difficult to understand at the outset.  

Ruri is going to find her sapphires. Or maybe she isn’t. Either way, she’ll look back at this experience of learning about scientific methodology and how to channel her energy and enthusiasm strategically, and she’ll see how it brought her to a destination even greater than the one she had in mind; how it equipped her with new skills and understanding, and blessed her with precious friends. I’ll do the same with my detour, this one I’ve just started out on. And so, too, will you. After all, it’s not for nothing that our God is known as The Way!

I hear ya, Ruri!

One last thing…

Click to see spoiler
She finds them!

First Impression: Ruri Rocks
claire
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