Faith Isn’t a Straight Line
Why the disciples, Paul’s thorn, and my own story of wandering prove that God works through the twists
Welcome to today’s reflection.
I used to think faith would feel like a steady climb: stronger each year, fewer doubts, fewer detours.
But life doesn’t move that neatly, and neither do we.
Faith is rarely a straight line. It’s much more like a winding road, full of unexpected turns, dead ends, and stretches where we wonder if we’re even heading in the right direction at all.
I know this because my own story has been anything but neat. I grew up going to church as a child, sitting in cold pews, listening to songs and prayers that felt distant and indifferent. Later, I had an experience of God so powerful that it reduced me to tears, and yet, years later, I drifted away again.
For the next ten years, I called myself an agnostic. I didn’t particularly care if God existed or not. Life was about me, my choices, my plans, my independence. Until one ordinary Tuesday afternoon, when something devastating happened that shook me to my core. In that moment, I found myself crying out to the God I had ignored. I wanted answers and needed direction.
That twist in my road isn’t unique. Many people have lived through the same kind of detours, and if you look closely at Scripture, you’ll see that this pattern. Veering, wandering, returning, it is all woven into the lives of the people who wrote the Bible.
