I was talking with a friend recently about those seasons in life when God seems to change our direction. We were laughing about pivots—those sharp turns you don’t always see coming—and also about shifts, the kind of transitions that feel more like a slow moving sidewalk beneath your feet. Somewhere in the middle of that conversation the words tangled together, and what came out of my mouth was shivot.
We both laughed, but then we stopped and said, wait a minute—that’s actually the perfect word. Because isn’t that how it so often feels? Not just a pivot, not just a shift, but both. A “shivot.”
Those shivot seasons are something else, aren’t they? One minute you feel like God has you on the perfect path, you’re finally finding your rhythm, and then suddenly He pivots you another direction and shifts the ground beneath you at the same time. It’s exciting and unnerving all at once. It’s like He’s saying, “I know you thought we were headed this way, but I’ve got something better in mind.”
Scripture is full of shivot stories. Abraham left everything familiar and walked toward a land he hadn’t even seen yet. Moses went from tending sheep in the wilderness to leading a nation through it. Paul thought his life was settled until God knocked him down on the Damascus road and rerouted his entire future. Every single one of them knew what it felt like to be caught in a shivot. And every single one of them discovered that the new direction wasn’t a mistake—it was the plan all along.
I think that’s what makes a shivot so holy. At the time, it can feel like everything you knew is turned upside down. You question your steps, you 
wonder if you misheard God, and sometimes you flat-out resist the change. But when you look back, you see that it was exactly the move that shaped you, grew you, and prepared you for what was next.
I can look at my own life and see it clearly. The shivots weren’t comfortable, but they were meaningful and necessary. They were the places where God reminded me that His ways really are higher, His timing really is better, and His story is always worth living.
So now when I find myself in another one of those seasons, I don’t just grit my teeth and push through. I pause. I breathe. And I smile a little, because I know—this is a shivot. And while I may not see the whole picture yet, I can trust the One who does.
Because with God, even the detours lead us exactly where we’re meant to be.
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