"What's in Your Hand?" Finding Your Purpose in Life

Written by Jason Shields

I'm often asked, “What surprises you about your profession as a psychic and a writer?” And I reply that I get to do it. I would have never imagined that, not even in my wildest dreams did I think that my life career would end up this way. I don't even consider myself to be an author or a psychic even. And I'm often asked, why do you think so many people come to see you or read your books? I think it's because spiritual emptiness is a universal disease. I think that deep inside at some point, we put our heads down on the pillow and we go, "There's got to be more to life than this." Get up in the morning, go to work, come home and watch TV, go to bed, get up in the morning, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed, go to parties on weekends. A lot of people say, "I'm living." No, you're not living, you’re just existing. Just existing. I really think that there is this inner desire. I believe that you're not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but I believe God did. I think there are accidental parents, but there are no accidental kids.

And I think you matter. I think you matter to God. I think you matter to history. I think you matter to this universe. I think that there is a difference between what I call the survival level of living, the success level of living and the significant level of living. The latter of the two is when you figure out, “what on Earth am I here for?” I meet a lot of people who are very smart, and say, "But why can't I figure out my problems?" And I meet a lot of people who are very successful, who say, "Why don't I feel more fulfilled? Why do I feel like a fake? Why do I feel like I have to pretend that I'm more than I really am?" I think that comes down to this issue of meaning, of significance, of purpose. I think it comes down to this issue of why am I here? What am I here for? Where am I going? These are not spiritual issues, they're human issues.

As a minister, I do see a lot of kooks. I have learned that there are kooks in every area of life. Religion and spirituality doesn't have a monopoly on that, but there are plenty of religious/spiritual kooks. There are secular kooks, there are smart kooks, dumb kooks. A man came up to me the other day after one of my talks, and he had a white blank piece of paper and she said, "What do you see in it?" And I looked at it and I replied, "I don't see anything." And he said, "Well, I see Jesus," and started crying and left. I simply thought “Good for you.”

Everybody has a worldview. Everybody's betting their life on something. You are betting your life on something; you just better know why you're betting and what you're betting it on. So, everybody's betting their life on something, and when I made a bet, I happened to believe that God is Who He is and that God is pure love. I also believe that God must be central in your life. I believe in a pluralistic society - everybody's betting on something. And when I started my journey as a counselor and a medium, I had no plans to do what I am doing now. All of a sudden it just took off, and then I started saying, now, what's the purpose of this? I don't believe that you are given money or fame for your own ego, ever. I just don't believe that. So, what is it for?

And I began to think about what I call the stewardship of affluence and the stewardship of influence. I believe, essentially, that leadership is stewardship. If you are a leader in any area - in business, in politics, in sports, in art, in academics, in any area - you don't own it; you are a steward of it. For instance, it is why I believe in protecting the environment. This is not my planet. It was not mine before I was born. It is not going to be mine after I die. I'm just here for 100 years and then that is it, I move one to the next plane of existence.

I was debating the other day on a radio show, and the host was challenging me by saying, "What's a minister doing on protecting the environment?" And I asked this host, "Well, do you believe that human beings are responsible to make the world a little bit better place for the next generation? Do you think we have a stewardship here, to take the environment seriously?" And he replied, "No." I said, "Oh, you don't? Let me get this straight. Do you believe that as human beings, I am not talking about religion or spirituality, do you believe that as human beings, it is our responsibility to take care of this planet and make it just a little bit better for the next generation?" And the host replied, "No. Not any more than any other species." When he said the word "species," he was revealing his worldview. And he continued, "I'm no more responsible to take care of this environment than a duck is." Well now, I know a lot of times where we act like ducks, we quack like ducks, but you are not a duck. You are not an animal. And you are responsible - that's my worldview. And so, you need to understand what your world is, understand what your worldview is.

The problem is most people never really think it through. They never ask why they believe what they believe. They never really codify it or qualify it or quantify it, and say, "This is what I believe in. This is why I believe what I believe." I do not personally have enough faith to be an atheist, but you may. Your worldview does determine everything else in your life, because it determines your decisions, it determines your relationships, and it determines your level of confidence. It determines, really, everything in your life. What we believe, obviously determines our behavior, and our action determines what we become in life.

Ministers, like myself  are on call 24 hours a day year round. You know, the test of your worldview is not how you act in the good times. The test of your worldview is how you act at the funeral, how you behave in a crisis, how you act in a trial. And having been through literally hundreds if not thousands of funerals, it makes a difference. It makes a difference what you believe. I believe that my life is all about giving.

Because every time I give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life. Materialism is all about getting - get, get, get, get all you can, can all you get, sit on the can and spoil the rest. It is all about more, having more. And we think that the good life is actually looking good. That's most important of all -- looking good, feeling good and having the goods. But that's not the good life. I meet people all the time who have those, and they're not necessarily happy. If money actually made you happy, then the wealthiest people in the world would be the happiest. And that I know, personally, is not true. It's just not true.

King Solomon & Queen Sheba

So, the good life is not about looking good, feeling good or having the goods, it's about being good and doing good. Living the good life is about giving your life away. Significance in life doesn't come from status, because you can always find somebody who has more than you. It doesn't come from sex. It doesn't come from a salary. It comes from serving. It is in giving our lives away that we find meaning, we find significance. I believe that is the way we are wired by God. Being a nondenominational minister, I study and read various scriptures of many religions. I started reading the Bible one evening when a particular problem was rearing its ugly head. There's a chapter in the Bible called Psalm 72, and it's Solomon's prayer for more influence. When you read this prayer, it sounds incredibly selfish and self-centered. It sounds like, he says, "God, I want you to make me famous." In essence, that's what he prays. He says, "God, I want you to make me famous. I want you to spread the fame of my name through every land, I want you to give me power, I want you to make me famous. I want you to give me influence." It sounds like the most egotistical request you could make if you were going to pray, that is until you read the whole psalm, the whole chapter. And then he says, "So that the king"- Solomon was the king of Israel and at that time the kingdom was at its apex in power - "so that the king may care for the widow and orphan, support the depressed, defend the defenseless, care for the sick, assist the poor, speak up for the foreigner and assist those in prison." Basically, he's referring to all the marginalized in society.

And as I read that, I looked at it, and thought, “You know, what this is saying is that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence.” The purpose of influence is not to build your ego, or your net worth. Your net worth is not the same thing as your self-worth. Your value is not based on your valuables; it is based on an entirely different set of things. So the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. I had to admit that I could not think of the last time I thought of widows and orphans. They were not on my radar. I travel and read in some of the most affluent areas of America - a bunch of gated communities. I attend a church full of CEOs and scientists. And I could go five years and never, ever see a homeless person. They are just not in my pathway. Now they are 25 miles up the road in Indianapolis. So, I had to say, "OK, I would use whatever affluence and whatever influence I've got to help those who don't have either of those."

There is another story in the Bible about Moses. Whether you believe it is true or not, it really doesn't matter to me. Moses stands before a burning bush and God talks to him through this bush. And God says to Moses, “what's in your hand?" I think that is one of the most important questions you will ever be asked. What's in your hand? Moses replies, "It's a staff. It's a shepherd's staff." God says, "Throw it down." And if you saw the movie, the Ten Commandments, Moses throws the staff down and it becomes a snake. And then God says, "Pick it up." Moses picks it back up again, and it becomes a staff again. Now, I am reading this story, and I am thinking to myself, what is that all about? Well, I do know a couple of things from my own experience. Number one, God never does a miracle to show off. It is not about God being “cool”. God does not have to show up on a grilled cheese sandwich. If God is going to show up, he's not going to show up on a grilled cheese sandwich or sprinkler images.

God has a few more powerful ways than that to do whatever he wants to do. But He doesn't do miracles just to show off. Second thing:  if God ever asks you a question, He already knows the answer. Obviously, if He's God, then that would mean that when He asks you a question, it is for your benefit, not His. So, God is asking, "What's in your hand?" Now, what was in Moses' hand? Well, it was a shepherd's staff. This staff represented three things about Moses' life. First, it represented his identity. He was a shepherd, a leader. It was the symbol of his own occupation. The staff was a symbol of his identity, his career, his job. Second, it was a symbol of his income, because all of his assets were tied up in sheep. In those days nobody had bank accounts, or Mastercards, or hedge funds. Your assets were tied up in your flocks. So the staff was a symbol of his identity and it was a symbol of his income. And the third thing: it was a symbol of his influence. What do you do with a shepherd's staff? You use it to move sheep from point A to point B, by hook or by crook. You pull them or you poke them, one or the other. So, God is saying, "You're going to lay down your identity. What's in your hand? You've got identity, you've got income, you have got influence. What's in your hand?" God is saying, "If you lay it down, I'll make it come alive. I'll do some things you could never imagine possible." And if you've watched that movie, "Ten Commandments," all of those big miracles that happened in Egypt were done through this staff.

And I guess that's the main reason I wrote this today, to all of you very bright people who read my column. I am asking you, "What's in your hand?" What do you have that you've been given by God? Talent, background, education, freedom, networks, opportunities, wealth, ideas, creativity. What are you doing with what you've been given? That, to me, is the primary question of life. That, to me, is what being purpose-driven is all about. In one of my books, I talk about how you are wired to do certain things, you are shaped. This little cross takes spiritual gifts, heart, ability, personality and experiences. These things shape you. And if you want to know what you ought to be doing with your life, you need to look at your shape. What am I wired to do? Why would God wire you to do something and then not have you do it? If you're wired to be an anthropologist, you'll be an anthropologist. If you're wired to be an undersea explorer, you'll be an undersea explorer. If you're wired to make deals, you make deals. If you're wired to paint, you paint. If you are wired to sing, you sing.

Did you know that God smiles when you decide to just be you? Some people have the misguided idea that God only gets excited when you're doing "spiritual things" like going to church or helping the poor, or confessing your “sins” or doing something like that. The bottom line is, God gets pleasure watching you be you. Why? He created you. And when you do what you were created to do, God proudly says “That's my boy. That's my girl. You are using the talent and ability that I gave you." So my advice to you is, look at what's in your hand - your identity, your influence, your income and say, "It's not about me. It's about making the world a better place."