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From the Wilderness to Wonder—and from the Desert to Destiny
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Rev. W. Antoni Sinkfield, Ph.D. Associate Dean of Community Life
In the Bible, the word desert usually means without habitation & without vegetation! It means nobody can live there because there’s nothing to live on there! And the wilderness is often thought of as a barren wasteland, uninhabited, and perhaps even uninhabitable. The two original words of that have been translated as wilderness are the Hebrew word pronounced mid-bawr, and the Greek word pronounced er-ay-mos. And while both words are sometimes used to mean a desolate wasteland, they are also used to describe a very good place to pasture sheep-whether actual sheep or God's “sheep.”
For God has so ordained it so that those things that would usually tear us down; God uses to build us up! Those things that would usually bruise us, God uses to bless us! For God has so enabled and empowered us so that the barren wilderness produces bountiful wonder! And the dryness of the desert gives way to the delight of our destiny!
For God took…
• Abram and Sarai through the wilderness from Ur of the Chaldees to the wonder of becoming Abraham and Sarah of Canaan— the parents of the faithful and the parents of many nations!
• Hagar (and her son Ishmael) through the wilderness of ostracism, racism, patriarchy, being an outcast, and dying of thirst to the wonder of seeing God, hearing God, being blessed by God, and receiving God’s promise that her son and his progenitors would be a great nation!
• Jacob ran through the wilderness from his Uncle Laban’s cheating house and on the run from his brother Esau to the wonder of wrestling with God until he was blessed to become Israel, God’s Holy Nation!
• The children of Israel moved through the wilderness of slavery in Egypt’s brick pits water from a rock bread from the sky quail on the ground and snake poison’s antidote on a stick to the wonder of enjoying a land flowing with milk and honey!
And who else has gone from the wilderness to wonder and from the desert to their destiny?
• David went from the desert of running from Saul to his destiny of running Israel! • John the Baptist went from the desert of making straight the way of the Lord to his destiny of being on the “Mount Rushmore” of saints for the Lord!
• Saul went from the desert of persecutor to God’s Church to his destiny of preacher for God’s Church!
• And then, we’ve got Jesus who went through the desert of temptation to his destiny of overcoming all trials and temptations EARLY ON SUNDAY MORNING…
And so, I want to encourage us (as we journey together through this 2022 – 2023 academic year) to not worry, be afraid, anxious, intimidated, or apprehensive about what your wilderness experience is RIGHT NOW!
Don’t be overwhelmed, stressed out, frazzled, messed up, or torn up about the deserts you’re having to deal with TODAY! Because if we allow all these times to draw us nearer to our God, the wilderness is only in our way to get us to our wonder! And the desert is only designed to land us in our destiny!
Don’t be overwhelmed, stressed out, frazzled, messed up, or torn up about the deserts you’re having to deal with TODAY! Because if we allow all these times to draw us nearer to our God, the wilderness is only in our way to get us to our wonder! And the desert is only designed to land us in our destiny!
It is my great joy to share these words of encouragement, joy, and challenge with you as our Wesley Community moves intentionally and systematically forward from the desert place that was AND is the Coronavirus 19 pandemic (along with the wilderness of the myriad of pandemics that are afflicting us within the social order of our world). For I want to encourage you to join with me as we move TOGETHER from the wilderness to wonder AND from the desert to our destiny!
In closing, listen an excerpt of these very poignant words from Brian McLaren as we move from wilderness to wonder and from desert to destiny:
"What would it mean for us if we happen to live during the decline of the old humanity, when a new humanity is in the painful, fragile process of being born? . . . What if the growth of the new movement, the new humanity, the new social creation or construction depends on the old one losing its hegemony?"
