I meet with a small group on Monday evenings. We have been studying Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (mostly because I like the letter and I’m the leader).  We are nearly finished – in fact we should have finished last night.

We began, as usual with prayer, followed by a time of worship. One member of the group leads us in worship songs. Out of that time of worship flowed several different little rabbit trails of discussion – first about worship, then about the importance of the word -and some expressing feelings of inadequacy regarding their own study of Scripture. It then moved to talking about prophecy and discussions about current events.

I tried at least twice to bring us back to Philippians but each time my attempts were met with another question. I finally gave up and decided that since these things were on their hearts and minds, it was best to talk about them.

There was a time when I would have been totally frustrated by the fact that we didn’t stick to the agenda – that we didn’t do the study I had prepared (sounds a bit self-promoting doesn’t it?).

The journey we took last night was unplanned and at times seemed to go only to dead-ends. Yet it seemed that even the dead ends represented resolution to questions – allowing us to return to a new trail.

We live in a culture that is all about plans and goals and direction and yet sometimes, it is the unplanned journey’s that are the most productive.