The Scenic Route of a Wonderful Life

 

Sometimes when I’m out driving across the Ozarks for my work, I choose not to take the highways but instead turn onto the winding farm roads. It’s rarely the most direct route, and it often adds time to the trip, but oh, the surprises I find along the way. 

Over the years, these backwood drives have led me to places I never would have seen otherwise: the Newtonia Battlefield tucked quietly into the landscape, one-room schoolhouses standing as reminders of simpler times, natural sites that inspire reflection, and peaceful lakes where deer, birds, and livestock seem equally at home. 

The least direct route often brings the greatest beauty.

That idea has been on my mind lately, because the same is often true for the route we take in life. Many of us start out with a clear plan, a destination firmly set in our minds. We imagine highways—straight lines from point A to point B—leading us to success, fulfillment, or happiness. 

But life has a way of redirecting us onto farm roads we never intended to travel.

I think about this whenever I watch the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. You may recall George Bailey declaring that he was going to leave the crummy little town of Bedford Falls. He planned to go away to school, build things, and see the world. Instead, life happened. He never made it to college. He got married, had four kids, and spent his days running a small-town savings and loan. To him, it felt like a boring and even failed life—until an angel showed him what the world would have been like without him. Only then did George see how deeply his everyday choices had shaped the lives of others.

I sometimes identify with George Bailey. I was going to become a lawyer. I had bigger aspirations, or at least aspirations that looked bigger on paper. Instead, I’ve ended up with a wonderful life I never could have imagined back then. It doesn’t look like the plan I once had, but it fits me in ways I couldn’t have predicted.

I’d encourage others to consider the same perspective. Life may turn out differently than you planned, but that isn’t a failure. 

The influence we have in our neighborhoods, our schools, our churches, and our communities can matter just as much as any grand adventure. 

Maybe the winding road isn’t a detour at all. Maybe it’s the route we were meant to take—and maybe, just maybe, that should be the plan.

WRITTEN BY

David L. Burton

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