Manifest Destiny: Pushing Past Your Pain Into Your Promise

By Wes Ifan

In 2014, Wes Ifan released a Christian Rap album entitled Manifest Destiny Express. On it he shared themes about discovering himself and shaping his personal destiny. He began to realize that the journey this artistic project took him on was one of personal fulfillment and self-improvement. This book is his chance to share the mindset which has caused him to center himself spiritually and reshape his future. The hope is that for anyone reading this, they too can find personal fulfillment and self-improvement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359144327

Book preview

Manifest Destiny: Pushing Past Your Pain Into Your Promise

Table of Contents

A Brief Introduction

Chapter 1…You Must March On

Chapter 2…The Express Train

Chapter 3…The Expedition

Chapter 4…Mission Possible

Chapter 5…Redemption Song

Chapter 6…What Motivates You

Chapter 7…God’s Gift

Chapter 8…Out of the Belly

Chapter 9…Where I Am

Some Final Words

A Brief Introduction

As a ninth grader, I began classes at Piscataway High School in September, 1995.  Actually, my high school experience began that summer.  I attended trumpet sectional practices at the Possumtown Road Firehouse in Piscataway in the summer of 1995.  The first sectional took place in early July and it was meant to prepare us for the music we would be performing for marching band.  Here I was; brand new to high school and already I was meeting fellow freshmen and upper classmen.  I was truly ahead of the curve.  The real work began later that summer in August when we arrived at band camp.  Here we would have more practice with the entire brass section and most importantly…marching! 

Each day for a week, we woke up at 7:30 AM, had breakfast, went to the football field and conducted marching drills.  We’d break for lunch, then back to the field for more marching drills.  The marching drills we did were designed to build stamina, improve our instrumental play while moving, and create coordination in our steps.  Band camp was an entire week of hard work and incredible dedication; I was told by one of our instructors that no one achieves anything of significance without putting in a little sweat equity.  Just when I thought I worked harder than I ever did in my life, the school year started.  Now, we would practice after school with more marching and more sectionals to fine tune our steps and our melodies.  That was more sweat equity.  We participated in competitions every weekend and play at high school football games.  There goes some more sweat equity.

Imagine for a moment trumpets, trombones, clarinets, flutes, tubas, drummers, and all other instruments marching all around the field creating awesome formations while blasting out beautiful melodies.  All of that preparation would culminate with the band competition finals in November at Giant’s Stadium.  It was here that our marching would meet its apex.  It was here where all the hard work would pay off finally. 

Our destiny; the destiny the Superchief Marching Band was marching toward was 1st place in the Group 5 Regional Marching Band Finals Competition.  At least that’s what we hoped.  Two out of Four years in High School, we achieved the destiny we had worked so hard for.  The focus and the drive that it took to persevere through practices in the rain and block out our nerves to perform brilliantly in front of the judges, came from our march on spirit.  Were you tired?  March on!  Were you nervous?  March on!  Did you feel like giving up?  March on!

You Must March On

The march on spirit is something that stuck with me as I prayed to God about what I was going to share with you all in this book.  God reminded me of how marching symbolizes shared purpose, divine order, and wise instruction.  Ask the Israelites in the battle of Jericho about the power of marching.  Perhaps you may be familiar with the story in Joshua chapter 5.  God told Joshua, the successor to Moses, that he already delivered Jericho into the hands of the Israelites.  God also instructed the Israelites to march around the walls one time for six straight days.  On the seventh day, God instructed them to march around seven times, sound the trumpets, and give a mighty shout.  The walls around the city of Jericho came tumbling down. 

Two things we learn from this are, there is power in obedience to God’s instruction and unconventional methods may be the pathway to victory.  The bible says, the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.  What I gather from that statement is, we cannot shun the unconventional because achievement often requires us to think outside the box.  The methods used during the civil rights era; especially by Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t seem to make sense to many who were part of the movement.  How can you combat violence and brutality with peace?  It confounds those who are witnessing it, but like the Israelites there is strength in a community with a common purpose; strength in many individuals following the destiny for which God has instructed them.

On Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, approximately 600 civil rights marchers began a trek on Route 80 in Selma.  The destination was Montgomery.  The goal was to continue the push for voting rights for African Americans in the United States.  That attempted journey toward Montgomery was cut short some six blocks away from where it started on the Edmund