Moses, Esther, Anakin, and the Wilderness; Why the Detour Was the Calling All Along (In the Middle of It All, Part 3)
If you’ve been following the In the Middle of It All series, welcome back. I have been working on this one for a while. The Millennials are the Heroes. Mark Twain said it: history rhymes. In every turning of the cycle a generation is called to be Heroes. The generation that has been belittled from the start will become the people that pull us through to the other side of this season of crisis. Either that or we will fail and America as we know it will completely unravel. I think there is still room for it to be said of us that we were made for such a time as this, despite many of us only wanting to live a quiet life. I know, I don’t feel it either, but I’m going to share the reasons I believe it.
It was Roosevelt who said, “To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” Four turnings later, I believe that sentiment applies to this generation once again. According to the book and theory, The Forth Turning, a turning is a season in American history that roughly lasts 20 years. They are labeled as the High, the Awakening, the Unraveling and the Crisis. This cycle showcases the ebb and flow of America, if not a pattern in broader Western history as well. It lasts 80 to 100 years and then repeats. Like the four cycles of the earth, there is a spring, summer, autumn and winter. The authors, Strauss and Howe pair each turning with a generational archetype. I’ll just cite one example: the GI generation, otherwise known as the Greatest generation, were the Heroes who got the western world through WWII. And now, 80 years later, we face another crisis. But it is said that heroes are forged in crisis. We have faced so many of them that I couldn’t name them all. And yet, the Hero generation is of age. It may be my affinity for happy endings, but this idea of a cycle is encouraging to me. It projects a resolution before too long. This theory says that we will not crash and burn as a country, but we will come through it and things will get better.
Truly, I love a happy ending. It is probably the main reason I gravitate toward Disney retellings. Mary McCarthy wrote that, “The happy ending is our national belief,” and I can get behind that statement. Certainly as an American I think linear and our cultures predominantly work that way. However, there are many reasons to draw our minds to the cyclical time paradigm. We live in a world of four seasons, or three or two or what have you. Also, there is something to a cycle of generations. While each generation in their youth has a rebellion to some aspect of what came before, it seems each one rebels against something different. They tend to have a different focus. And to me, this feeling of not being quite as valued as another age group is not new. It has been happening for a long time. The older are still surprised when the next generation pushes back about something other than what they rebelled against. If the cycle does indeed continue, then it will come back around to get fleshed out further the next time around.
Ok, so you may think I’m getting so far ahead of myself that I’m falling headlong into nonsense. But hear me out. Let’s take a moment and turn once more to a Star Wars character, the most iconic, and the one who began it all: Anakin Skywalker. He was just a boy when he was called the Chosen One, long prophesied about. While he was extremely powerful, talented and had extraordinary motivation for being a peacekeeper and protector, he was continually underestimated, sidelined and misunderstood by his superiors and the Jedi who came before him. The prophecy was real, but it was misinterpreted by those who were looking for something more familiar to them. Anakin wasn’t what they thought a hero should look like. Their continual doubting, caution and second-guessing eventually led to his downfall. And what a fall it was. One of the most tragic characters in popular culture. The fulfillment of the prophecy ended up coming in a roundabout way that no one expected and at great cost, and none of the elder Jedi survived to witness it. George Lucas himself explained that Anakin did fulfill the prophecy by destroying both himself and Palpatine, eliminating the Sith and therefore restoring balance to the Force. And yet, I can’t help but wonder, if Skywalker had the previous generation supporting him and believing in him, might it be different? Some of this story does feel a little familiar.
There is another hero with similar pressure put on him. Moses. He was also a type of Chosen One, though some would say the Deliverer. He escaped death as an infant and God used him to save an entire people. And yet, I’ve always tried to imagine his life before he met God face to face. He was adopted into royalty, he killed the Egyptian, he was outcast from his people. He traversed a desert, then fought ruffians, met a tribal leader, married his daughter, and had children. He must have been healing from all kinds of wounds. I mean, he probably had the ultimate run in with a narcissist! His own adopted kin was to be named Ramesses, meaning “from Ra” (an Egyptian god). Then he met the One and only God. And the bush didn’t ask Moses if he felt ready, it just burned. Moses argued with God about his calling many times. That tells me he didn’t feel like a hero. But God said, go anyway. He was a forty year old disgraced adopted slave tending someone else’s sheep. So, what if Moses running away to the wilderness, and those years as a shepherd weren’t detracting from his calling. What if it was a part of it? God was preparing Moses with every shift of his story. I’m sure his life looked like the carpet ripped out from under him, but it was his preparation. He was made for such a time. And the previous generation was not absent from his preparation either. He had worked for Jethro, and years after he freed his people, he continued to seek his counsel. Again, this story sounds familiar to me.
If Queen Esther had a superhero tagline it would be, “…for such a time as this.” I remember romanticizing being Esther when I was young. I thought she was so beautiful, courageous, honest and clever. She was iconic. She was stolen away from her people because of her beauty, was forced to be with a man she didn’t know, and was bound by ceremony and rules. Rules, that if broken, could kill. And perhaps the most jarring of all, she hid her identity as a Jew. Take it from me, hiding who you are is no easy task for the heart. When Esther and Mordecai’s plot to save their people began, Esther was just one of many women that the king had for his choosing. At first she hesitated, afraid for her life. And yet, Esther made a move, she presented herself before the king. The catch was, that if he did not extend his scepter, she would be executed. I wonder how she walked the long aisle to him. Did she tremble? Was she determined? Was her head high or lowered? Whichever way she walked, she arrived. And the king did welcome her. She invited him and Haman to a feast. They loved it. And then she asked them to have yet another feast in their honor. And there, she begged for her life and the lives of her people. For the king did not realize he had let Haman create a law to destroy the Jews. In distress the king asked her who it was that was after her life. She pointed to Haman and the moment of realization from the king and Haman himself must have been purely cinematic! In the end, Haman was ironically hanged on the very gallows he built for the Jews he hated. Between her and Mordecai, they foiled the evil Haman’s plot to massacre the Jews. And the king fell in love with her. Fell in love with her as she devised a risky plan to honor the king and expose her enemy. He gave her half of his kingdom. I do say, it is wonderful to be in love, but it is far better to have your man love you. Now, if Esther lacked the courage to follow through with revealing Haman, she may have seen the slaughter of her people, and eventually been found out as a Jew and killed. Instead, she risked her life for her people, with the support and wisdom and encouragement from the older generation and was given half a kingdom and possessed a king’s heart. I imagine, young as she was, she didn’t feel up for the challenge. She was afraid and she hesitated. Though she didn’t feel like a hero, she showed up anyway. This too sounds familiar.
It doesn’t seem long ago that I was preparing to go to Disneyland with my best friend for my thirtieth birthday. I had been working for a few years with some youth at a local church, but ultimately pictured myself being in full time ministry. I had a lot of talent, passion, vision and spunk. I kept hoping my life would draw a parallel to the public ministry of Jesus who started His ministry at thirty, instead of Moses who began his at forty. Almost years later I find myself in very different circumstances approaching a new milestone. I keep wondering where my ministry is through chronic illness, recent family losses and other hardship I didn’t see coming. I don’t feel very celebratory. I want to feel that I can hit my stride sometime in this next year. And I am guessing I am not alone in this desire. I don’t think many of us feel like heroes. Be it a Millennial or other, many of us are feeling beaten down by life. And yet, that is where Moses found himself. You don’t have to feel like a hero to be one. I wonder though, when the time comes, how will I walk into my calling? Fearful or empowered? Right now, I feel like I’m in the wilderness. And miracles happen in the desert. Be it in finding calling, encountering Jesus, or simply resting. Paul talks about this in Galatians 1:17. He went into Arabia, the desert, where Christ revealed himself to Paul. Jesus went into the wilderness to pray and rest. And Moses, he found his calling. Esther found her courage.
I keep wondering about my happy ending. I wonder how our heroes picture their happy endings. Moses. Esther. What did Anakin picture for himself? How do you imagine your happy ending? We are more than what a previous generation believes about us, and our path forward is likely different than they project, because we are living in a different world than when they were our age. We have a different role in our communities. We may have been hurt before, not by Ramesses, but maybe another narcissist. We may go scared, but we can go.
The enormity of the crisis around us may have undermined our confidence, but it doesn’t change our calling and purpose. We were made for such a time as this. Remember, heroes are forged in crisis, and we certainly have lived through crises. And they have influenced every season of our lives. I believe there is a way through to our happy ending. By using the life experiences that have shaped us. So let’s put a spotlight on our own life! We can continue to wait for someone to command the pen and ink over our lives. Or we can take life with both hands and hold on tight and write the next part of our own story, by taking the next right step. Every hero had their next right step, and their wilderness. And for us, there may be more wilderness to traverse. But the happy ending doesn’t come despite the wilderness, it comes through it. What will you find in your wilderness?
Bridgetown Church. “Teachings.” Bridgetown Church, https://bridgetown.church/teaching. Accessed 21 May 2026.
Howe, Neil. The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End.Avid Reader Press, 2023.
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Manchester, William, and Paul Reid. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume III: Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965.Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
Strauss, William, and Neil Howe. The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy. Broadway Books, 1997.The Crown. Created by Peter Morgan, performances by Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton, Netflix, 2016–present.
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