When you’re flying through airports, you often have to fly through one city to get to another city. They’re called hubs. Transfer points to get passengers to their intended destination.
So if you want to get to Philly, sometimes you have to go to Atlanta. Even if Atlanta is in the exact opposite direction from Philly and it makes no sense to go there first. It sounds weird and counterintuitive, but it’s just the way it works.
The same is true with God’s will.
I think most people assume that when God reveals to you what He wants you to do with your life, like a genie, He quickly and immediately transports you to it. Yet that’s rarely the case. There are very few non-stop flights to God’s will.
I was 16 when I received a vision from God to one day pastor a church. It wasn’t until ten years later that we planted Elevation. In between those two points were multiple hubs, most of which I would never have scripted out as transfer points to my intended destination. But each was absolutely essential.
For example, I never thought I’d come to plant Elevation by going to Shelby, NC. Don’t feel bad; most people have never heard of it either. But if I hadn’t gone to Shelby, I wouldn’t have met many of the key leaders that got Elevation off the ground and have been so instrumental to its success.
Or even before that, I never thought I’d come to pastor Elevation by going to Tigerville, SC, for college. But if I hadn’t gone to Tigerville, I never would have met Holly. And without her, Elevation wouldn’t exist.
I’ve concluded that you can’t script out what God wants to do through your life. You just have to follow it step by step. Everybody wants the ten-year plan. Everybody wants to know the full alphabet of God’s plan for them.
But we don’t like living in each letter.
We love A and B. And we love Y and Z.
But we hate L, M, N, O, P.
We hate the hubs that get us from the place where we first got a hint at God’s will for our lives to the place where it actually comes to fruition. Yet those are some of the most important places we’ll ever go. It’s there that God is preparing us for what He has for us. What we see as an unnecessary detour, God sees as a necessary transfer point to get us to our final destination.
God knows how to get you to where He wants you. Even if it doesn’t seem like the most direct route that you’d prefer. And He’s not just wasting your time or playing games with you. There’s a purpose to every hub He takes you to. To the hub you may be in right now.
That includes the school you can’t wait to graduate from.
The relationship you thought would lead to marriage but then didn’t.
The city you’re living in that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
The job you know you don’t want to be at forever but where you feel stuck at for now.
Don’t be afraid to go to Atlanta to go to Philly.
God’s going to get you to Philly. And He’s got something for you in Atlanta in the meantime.
