Wandering in the Wilderness

Just about everyone has heard a “wandering in the wilderness” story at some point and if you’re like most people you probably know more than one. This is the kind of story which usually starts with a person going through an undesirable period in his or her life and ends with the person discovering themselves or Jesus. Whether it’s reading the latest rags to riches story on Wall Street in the Business section or listening to someone’s miraculous testimony at Wednesday night prayer meeting, we are all drawn to these types of stories because they deal with a fundamental human need—to find purpose and happiness with one’s identity in life.

There are two “wandering in the wilderness” stories I want to look at today. The first is the story of NFL superstar Ricky Williams. Williams was a Heisman Trophy winner in college and was one of the first players drafted in the 1999 NFL draft. He led the NFL in rushing in 2002 and was on pace for what many people believed would be a Hall of Fame career. But in 2004, amidst rumors of testing positive for marijuana, Williams quit football forfeiting millions of dollars and a life many would kill for. Instead Williams chose to travel the world to places ranging from Australia to India, visiting some rather interesting places along the way, in an effort to find himself.

William’s story shares some concepts with some of the themes of Ecclesiastes. Early in Ecclesiastes the Teacher writes “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Like the Teacher, Williams was a man who had achieved many great successes that would make most men envious. But like the Teacher, Williams was left with a sense of meaninglessness. He felt as though he’d been running away from searching for real meaning his whole life and couldn’t be content until he found a purpose.

The second story is about a Seventh-day Adventist pastor named Dennis Sellers who left the church for 23 years before returning to Adventism. Sellers was a pastor who got caught up in the idea that Christians had to live sinless lives in order to be saved in the last days. When he eventually heard the message about justification by faith, he took his ideas to the other extreme throwing out Adventist doctrines such as the Sabbath as well as the ministry of Ellen G. White. These ideas eventually led to his departure from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He went on to start his own insurance business, which was successful for awhile, but then through a series of unfortunate events he lost his license to work in that field. It was not until he came across a book by Clifford Goldstein a few years later that he was eventually led to rebaptism.

All his life, Sellers had wanted to be a pastor but when he left Adventism he could no longer do that. Sellers hated selling insurance because it was not what he felt called to do. Likewise the Teacher of Ecclesiastes writes, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24). In other words, the Teacher is saying “do what God made you to do.” Sellers was not happy because he was doing something outside of what God had called him to.

So what can we learn from both these stories? As was the case with Ricky Williams, sometimes in life we feel like we have everything going for us. We’re making good money, we have the latest toys, and we’re living what most would call a successful life. But yet at the end of the day we’re still not satisfied. Williams’ story, as well as the words of Ecclesiastes, reminds us that we can’t look to our success to find purpose in our lives.

The story of Dennis Sellers emphasizes the need for us to do what God called us to in order to be happy. We can only live a life apart from the will of God for so long before it eventually leads to a feeling of meaningless. It is only through living a life well lived in accordance to God’s will that people can find purpose and meaning in their existence.