By Alexandra Donnel | Reporter
Truett Theological Seminary Alumni, and former Baylor staff member Christopher Mack was invited to speak at Baylor Chapel on Wednesday.
Ryan Richardson associate chaplain, director of Worship & Chapel, and a close friend to Mack said that Mack attended the University of Texas in Austin and later studied at Truett Seminary.
“Following his time at Truett it became very evident that he wanted to minister to college students, and so he joined the staff as one of the chaplains in the spiritual life office until 2013,” Richardson said. After working at Baylor, Mack said he felt called to leave and was led to San Antonio where he joined Trinity Baptist Church and became the Minister of Young Adults.
Mack preached about the concept of a time of wilderness in a Christian’s life.
“This time where we are not where we have left. The home, the safety, the security but we are not yet to our final destination,” Mack said. “It is this in-between, this time of testing, this time of challenge, this time of frustration, this time of pain, perhaps this time of trauma.”
To demonstrate the meaning of a time of wilderness, Mack used an example of a frustrating day in his life. Mack was on his way to Colorado to meet with his friends, and he believed he had planned it perfectly. He would be able to sleep in, ride to the airport and take a direct flight to Denver.
He woke up at four that morning which he believes may have been due to excitement and looked at his phone which told him the flight had been cancelled. This is where his time of wilderness began. He looked for another flight that would get him to Colorado in time to meet up with his friends. He only found one flight that worked at 5:30 am.
The flight took him to Dallas, and he had to get off of the plane when it landed. He had to wait and wait for his flight. When his plane arrived in Denver, Mack had arrived several hours before he was supposed to meet with his friends. Mack was frustrated that he had to sit and wait in an airport again. Mack realized he had a decision to make, he could either get frustrated at his situation, be rude to people and get angry at the airline or he could embrace how reality was unfolding. He decided to try his best to embrace the situation.
Mack’s story on a frustrating day of flying and plans getting cancelled represents the moment of wilderness that Mack said we will all experience. Even though the day was long and tedious for him, he still made it to his final destination, a vacation with friends.
Mack compared the time of wilderness to watching an episode of Scooby Doo. He said when each episode begins, the Mystery Machine breaks down and they meet someone eerie whether a caretaker or a strange acting police officer, Mack said they usually commit the crime. When Mystery Inc. gets closer to solving the mystery, Mack said the ghosts, creatures, or monster of the episode terrorizes them because it does not want the truth to be revealed.
“This is the experience of the wilderness. It is this pain, it is this challenge and the closer and closer you get to it, the more it is going to terrorize and haunt you until it is unmasked and revealed.”
