Wonderland is not just for Alice
On July 4th, over 150 years ago in the year 1862, a journey began. It began at Folly Bridge, Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. During the trip Charles Dodgson told the three young daughters of Henry Liddell (the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church) a story about a bored little girl named Alice who went looking for an adventure. Alice Pleasance Liddell, the 10 year old middle sister, loved the story and asked Liddell to write it down for her.
On 26 November 1864 he gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself, dedicating it as “A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer’s Day.”
Who would have thought that 150 years later we would still be inspired by a story told to three little girls. A journey that led to Alice in Wonderland! What if in 2020 you began the journey that led to the story of your Wonderland!
In order to free yourself from the cozy comfort of where you are at and have always been, you must leave all you know and start a journey to a radical place you have never seen and only can imagine! You must trust and believe that you can experience the WonderLand God has Promised.
Because of Joseph favor and rise to leadership, God’s people were not slaves for the first 400 years in Egypt. I had never realized this. They coexisted and lives somewhat prosperous lives, learned the ways and were educated and thrived on an Egyptian level of success. That is all they knew.
This same centralized power comes back to hurt the Israelites a few hundred years later, when “A new king arose over Egypt who knew not Joseph.” [Exodus 1:8] This new Pharaoh, holding near universal power, and a fear that the Israelites had grown too numerous, enslaves the Israelites brutally and orders male babies murdered. The word “slave” — the Hebrew is avadim — is used to describe the Egyptians who enter into bondage in order to survive the famine and to describe the Israelites when they are enslaved 400 years later.
So even though they became slaves in Egypt after a evil pharaoh came to power, it was very difficult for the children of God to leave their comfort zone of all they knew for a radical place called the promised land that they had never and could not see. Moses was sent to lead them out of slavery and into the Wonderland, but fear of what they could not see kept pulling them back to bondage. You will never reach Wonderland, the place of miracles and favor God has promised for you, without taking a leap of faith and leaving what you know.
Let’s put this in basketball terminology. What you have been taught and become comfortable with when it comes to effort level and your current skill set, will net take you to the next level. You must choose to leave where you are at become stronger, learn to play harder, stop living off of your strengths and develop your skills that are weak. You must understand that the pain, called the wilderness, requires pushing yourself past the effort level your comfortable with. It is the only way you will ever reach the Promised Wonderland!
I am talking about a level you have never seen with your natural eyes. Whether that is a championship or reaching the next level by going from a successful high school career to reaching the destination of arriving at becoming a successful college athlete. It even more importantly applies to life and reaching the destination God has planned for you.
God chose to take his people through the Red Sea and the wilderness to test and prepare them. He had to see if they trusted Him and had a heart focused on relying on Him. Did they have a true desire to bring Him Glory rather than seeking their own selfish desires? Why would God choose any other path for us today?
The great news is, we don’t have to stay in Egypt or die in the wilderness. We do however have to accept the Radical Truth that the road to the Wonderland we all desire will take uncommon focus on the impossible. To believe in something you have never seen, you must ask for God to place a dream and/or vision inside you. You must then chase with all your heart the person in the Holy Spirit who God sent to guide and give you the strength necessary to leave where you are at and make the mountainous journey full of valleys, giants, and pits.
Why would you choose this Radical Path when life with the Egyptians, Romans, or Americans at times seems so lavish? Even though your a slave to sin, it feels good at times and it takes zero effort to change. Why fast and pray, lower yourself or even dive on you knees, raise your hands until you win a battle, or worship with all you have inside you, when you can recline and continue being a slave to sin. It is actually very comfortable.
The only way, and yes there is only one way, is to become radically in love with Jesus. The Savior of the world is so radically in love with you that He endured the journey to earth, overcame temptation, letting them spit and beat on Him, taking the nails in His hands, journeying all the way down the Via Dolorosa to the cross, just for you! What does He ask of you? Pick up your cross and follow Him! See the Wonderland or Promise that waits for you when you go from James 1:2 to James 1:12! It is often called the Roman Road, the path less traveled, the journey of radical uncommon crazy faith that few will choose to take.
I can promise you this! Fewer will take this journey if we are not powerful examples of following Jesus for them to see. When God’s Wonder is seen in His children, then they will be drawn to our Father. We are to be a spitting image of our big brother Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, and only doing what we know our Father does.
The scouting report was written by Jesus and His inspired team. The game plan is clear, if you focus and learn to hear only the voice of our Coach! He will lead us to Wonderland, also called the Promised Land, best known as Heaven!