The Wilderness Experience: Rango Edition

Called To Purpose
Apr 10
4 min read

Animated chameleon standing in a dusty desert town, symbolizing identity crisis, transformation, and the wilderness journey with God. — Rango 2011 Film

How God Used a Green Chameleon to Wreck My Theology and Feed My Soul

On my walk with God, I’ve learned something absolutely essential: don’t box Him in. Just when you think He’s going to teach you through the book of Romans, He flips the script and—bam!—you’re getting wrecked watching a green chameleon with an identity crisis in the desert.

Yes, I’m talking about Rango. Stay with me. 😂

So here I am, minding my business, scrolling through YouTube like any respectable digital wanderer, when a snippet of the animated film Rango pops up with the line:

“All it takes is one bullet.”

I was like, “Okay cool, Clint Eastwood vibes,” and I kept scrolling.

But the Holy Spirit? Oh, He tugged. Nudged. Gave me that look in the Spirit. You know the one.

“Watch it,” He whispered. So I did.

And my soul got fed.

Buckle Up: What Even Is Rango?

If you’ve never watched Rango, let me introduce you to the most unlikely of prophetic vessels since Balaam’s donkey. Rango is a pet chameleon with a lot of flair and not a clue who he is. He’s theatrical, imaginative, and—let’s be honest—a little ridiculous.

Then life happens. His cozy terrarium gets yeeted out of his owners’ car (divine disruption, anyone?), and boom! He finds himself stranded in the Mojave Desert.

That’ll shake your reptilian theology real quick.

From pampered pet to wandering lizard. From pretending to be tough to accidentally becoming a sheriff. From isolation to influence. This little guy went through the full-blown wilderness-to-kingdom process in under two hours.

And the best part? He ends up in a town called… wait for it…

Dirt.

Yeah. Dirt. And suddenly I’m in Genesis like:

“Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground…” (Genesis 2:7)

You can’t make this up.

Key Character Traits (and Why You’ll Relate)

Let’s break it down. Rango, like many of us, starts out:

Naive – Has no idea what’s coming.
Comical – Uses humor to cope with life’s curveballs.
Ambitious – Wants to be somebody, even if it’s all pretend.
Kind-hearted – Genuinely wants to help… even when he doesn’t know how.
Fearful – Fakes it till he makes it (but often still shaking inside).
Charismatic – Can inspire people without trying too hard.
Confused about identity – Same. 😂

He even names himself Rango to sound tougher. Why? Survival. Ever pretended to be stronger than you were just to make it through a hard season? Yeah. Same.

Revelation Bomb: The Name Ain’t Even Real

Let’s talk about this. Rango wasn’t even his name. He made it up to survive. And right there, the Holy Spirit pulled me aside like:

“You’ve done that too.”

Oop.

How many of us are walking around with names, titles, or strategies God never gave us—just ones we picked up in survival mode?

David pretended to be insane in front of King Achish to survive (1 Samuel 21:13). Sometimes we put on masks just to make it through the desert.

But guess what? That mask doesn’t go with your next season.

When God Uses Roadkill

Rango’s first guide is a mangled armadillo named Roadkill. I know. Disrespectful. 😂 But the symbolism is WILD.

Roadkill literally means something that should’ve been dead. But God will often send you a helper that’s been counted out—a spiritual “nobody”—to direct you toward destiny.

I was like, “Sir, throw the whole phone away.”

But that’s God. He hides wisdom in the weak things to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27). He can even use what looks like roadkill to get you to your calling.

The Dirty Wilderness

Now Rango is walking in dirt. As in, physically in a place called Dirt. He’d never been exposed like this. No comfort. No routine. Just raw, real, dusty life.

Sound familiar?

Sometimes God yanks you out of your bubble and drops you in a place where nothing looks like what you imagined—but it’s where you’re supposed to be transformed.

Rango’s Dirt became the womb of his identity. He had to stop pretending and start becoming.

God’s Math: 14 + 2011 = YOU in Process

Okay, ready for the deep dive?

Rango premiered on February 14, 2011.Sounds random, right? Wrong. Let’s go biblical:

14 in Hebrew (Abah) means “to be willing, to yield, to desire.”
14 in Greek (Agathoergeo) means “to do good, to perform good deeds.”
2011 in Hebrew (Hinnom) = place of judgment, connected to hellfire.
2011 in Greek (Epitrope) = “permission, authority, charge.”

So essentially:

You have to yield and do good, even while you’re in the fire, because God gave you permission to walk this road.

I’ll give you a minute.

The Wilderness Will Strip You to Shape You

The wilderness is not punishment—it’s preparation. It strips off the false names. The fear. The titles. The old coping strategies.

And like Rango, you’ll have to face your hawks (predators), your Jakes (opposing spirits), and your mayors (manipulative systems).But God? He’s after your becoming.

And when Rango finally surrenders his fear, accepts the truth, and uses his last bullet wisely, he’s not pretending anymore.

He becomes.

Final Revelation: One Bullet

The movie’s tagline was:

“All it takes is one bullet.”

Sounds poetic, but in the Spirit?

All it takes is one act of obedience. One surrender. One moment of truth. One yes to God.

Your “one bullet” is your moment where the old dies and the real you is revealed. Jesus had one cross. One resurrection. One name above all names. And guess what?

You carry that same Spirit. The one who makes wilderness wanderers into Kingdom warriors.