To say our planned trip to Hawaii went off without a hitch would have been a major exaggeration. First of all, we had planned to make this trip in the winter of 2022, but the Omicron variant of the COVID virus, along with the Canadian travel advisories that told people to stay home and nullified our travel insurance, made us put the trip off by a year.

That should have been enough of a rough start, but there was way more in store. A major winter storm was predicted to arrive the day we were to fly out of Toronto, so we traveled to Toronto the day before and took a hotel. As it turned out, the storm stopped the majority of the airport traffic, and our flight was cancelled. We were rebooked for the following day, but we would have to stay a second night in our hotel room. Only problem was, they were “fully booked.” Interestingly, the room we were in suddenly became available … at 3 times the rate we had paid the previous day! But what could we do?

Our flight went off without incident the following day, and the airline even upgraded us to 1^st class for the Vancouver to Honolulu leg of the trip. We arrived in Honolulu at 9:30 pm, but unfortunately, one of our bags didn’t quite make it. By the time we reported the bag missing, found and released our Turo rental car and made the 20 minute drive to our rented apartment in Waikiki, it was nearly midnight.

We had been told that there was plenty of free parking across the road from our rented apartment. Unfortunately, by that time of night, the spots were all taken, and my wife was forced to park in a parking garage. The 24 hour fee was 60$ US, but what choice did we have? And when spots freed up across the road early the next morning, my wife immediately “liberated” the rental car. Unfortunately for us, she had parked the car before midnight. She was charged the full 24 hour fee…

We didn’t have any food in the apartment, so we set out on foot to find a pancake place not far away. Imagine our horror to return to the apartment to find that … our car had been towed! It seemed that the parking was available every day except Friday and Monday mornings between 8:30 and 11… It was Friday, and it was 9:00 am…

We had to call an Uber to get to the impoundment lot. Another 60$ US. We then discovered that in order to “un” impound our car, we would have to pay 150$ US!

It was about a week later that the rear wiper fell off and the Turo car owner asked us to replace it. Another 175$ US…

It was about this time that someone close to us asked us if we weren’t afraid that this was a “bad omen”…

Exodus 13 records the story of Israel finally leaving Egypt. Of particular interest to me were verses 17-18: “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.” (NIV)

We know, however, that the God-chosen route for Israel was not without problems! First there was the Red Sea incident. With the water on one side and Pharaoh and his army on the other, the people’s response was not surprising: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Ex. 15:11 NIV). We also know from Exodus 16 that the people soon suffered from hunger and again wanted to return to Egypt, and in Exodus 17 we see the people wanting to return because of thirst…

And this was God’s preferred route!

It makes you think, doesn’t it? When we are facing the trials in our lives, we have to realize that although it might not be the path we would have chosen for ourselves, God chose this path for us, and He did so because it is the preferred route! If the trials are as bad as they are, how much worse could it have been if God hadn’t intervened?  

What are you currently facing? While we all pray for God to remove those circumstances, we have to stop and remember that God may very well be keeping us from something far worse! Why not try spending some of that prayer time thanking Him for the chosen, better path!

Oh, and in retrospect, I find myself thanking God for choosing the Hawaii path that He chose. Not sure how our pocket book could have endured anything worse!


Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries

(To access the entire “Hawaii, Here We Come!” devotional series, please click here!)