FaithWorks

Watch enough episodes of Animal Planet and it becomes abundantly clear that God has endowed every creature with the innate ability to care for itself in its natural environment. Take lion cubs. As cubs they frolic, chasing dragonflies and mice -- their play teaching them skills that will later transform them into the greatest mammal predator.

If this is the case with animals, it must certainly be true of humans, the most highly evolved mammal (despite our destructive behavior). I believe that our childhood pastimes provide clues that can direct us toward our spiritual Purpose. The activities we naturally gravitated to as children provide signs about our God-given gifts. These, I believe, are the human equivalent to a lion cub’s instinct to hunt -- the unique tools God has given each person to help them take care of and provide for themselves. Stated more primitively: our gifts are our survival weapons. 

A recent trip through my baby book drove this home to me on a very deep level. Under Best Loved Toys, my mother had written: "White teddy bear. Books. Nursery rhyme records. Singing and 'writing.' Happiest with books, or pencil and paper."  

All throughout my youth I was constantly drawing or writing. That changed when college-application time arrived and my well-meaning father informed me that he couldn't afford to pay for me to study something that wouldn't land me a job. Not knowing any creative professionals and believing my father knew best (and he did have my best interests at heart as well as expertise on his era), I thought his advice was just "how it was" so studied other subjects instead. However, to this day I can draw accurately and with ease and writing has always come easy to me. 

Only after intense soul-searching during my late-20s and early 30's did I return to the person I always was -- the person, I believe, that God always intended me to be -- but stronger and more knowledgeable as a result of my circuitous journey.

We often don't nurture our natural abilities. Instead, most of us attend schools whose structure was originally intended to produce manufacturing workers for the repetitive labor capitalism once required. No wonder then that as adults we look for jobs that pay well and provide us with so-called security -- I don't know many people who feel secure in their good jobs these days -- not realizing that the true security lies within ourselves -- in who God made us to be. 

Moreover, society teaches us to "be like Mike" and "keep up with the Joneses" -- to shop at Walmart, Old Navy and the shortlist of chain stores that increasingly pepper our malls and landscape, making life more convenient in some ways but simultaneously lessening our creativity and self expression.

I believe that imitating someone else or trying to be less like your Self is equivalent to dropping a lion in the middle of the ocean. The king of the jungle will flounder and eventually drown, just as over time you will probably feel dissatisfied, stressed out and perhaps even become ill. By giving up our individuality, we lose power.

But return that lion to its natural habitat and, after re-acclimating itself and, in the process, strengthening its muscles, it regains its footing and power. The same with humans. We can find the security that may elude us at work by developing our gifts and talents, in the process strengthening the emotional and spiritual muscles that accompany them. 

Hilary

A few more thoughts on knowing that you’re on the right track to uncovering your spiritual Purpose: 

You lose track of time. The days of counting the minutes until quitting time end; instead, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. (Even if you’re working a J.O.B., there are many ways your gig can help you get on Purpose, including by making you feel uncomfortable and, thereby, solidifying your resolve.) Though you may be tired -- I know, I sometimes am! -- you also feel excited, which invigorates you. The weariness you experience when you’re feeling inspired feels very different from the fatigue you experience when the life is being sucked out of you.

You don’t need to check any aspect of yourself at the door. There’s no need to fake it, go along to get along or feel small. You begin to realize that everything about you is purposeful, including all of the so-called “good” and “bad” experiences that have brought you to this point. 

You are using your God-given gifts and talents. Many times we overlook our innate abilities because we figure that things must be hard. But we can find clues by examining our interests, things we have a natural affinity for, things that come easy to us and things we take for granted about ourselves but which others notice about us. The clues to finding your freedom are all around you. In fact, they are you (more on that later). 

You feel free. Free to be the large, expansive and authentic version of who you are. You no longer feel bound, limited or small. 

This is the second in my series of postings on how to identify your spiritual Purpose.

Keep your eyes peeled for mini-miracles. As soon as you ask God to begin to reveal your Purpose to you, you will begin to experience mini miracles in your life. At first, you may not be open to them; for they defy logic and your normal ways of working and being. In fact, sometimes they may seem like impediments, hinderances or even obstacles. This is where surrender comes in. Not surrender in the sense of throwing up the white flag and giving up; surrender in the sense of relaxing and letting go of your agenda and ways of existing and doing things and opening yourself up to doing things differently. Not in your way, but in God’s way. 

As you lay back into this shift, you will find yourself in the right place at the right time -- a lot. You will run into people who are a lot like you -- people who are on similar paths. You will stumble upon information you need. This past Saturday, against all logic I “lost” the final version of the first video I’d made. I rushed to the Apple store only to be greeted by a woman named Lilly, a young woman in her mid-20’s who works part-time at the store, who has helped me and with whom I’ve become friendly.

“Oh, my God! I’ve been praying that you’d come into the store,” she exclaimed. “I really need to speak with you.”  

“You are the reason my Obama video disappeared?” I asked her with my eyes squinted. 

“I’m sorry -- maybe I did,” she laughed. “But I need help -- I really needed to speak with you.” 

Lilly believes that I have some answers to questions she’s asking herself about her Path. Who knows? Maybe I do. And she can talk to me about working part-time at the Apple store, which I’d had a fleeting thought about as I’d searched unsuccessfully for my file as a way of becoming more competent with computer stuff. While we were talking about her Purpose, Lilly showed me her blog, which -- not coincidentally -- contained answers to questions I’d had about blogging, which I’ve been exploring as a new vehicle for expressing my Purpose. 

Could it be that helping Lilly was so important that God had me lose or misplace the file so I could come talk to her? Maybe so. Then again, maybe I did some stupid human trick and lost the file myself. Either way, hearing Lilly’s pleas helped me surrender to the delay and possible need to recreate parts of the video and open myself to sharing with -- and learning from -- Lilly. As a result, my blog will be up by the time I release my video.

I’ve learned that if you follow these types of experiences like invisible breadcrumbs through the Universe and you will learn that such “magic” is not only normal, it points to -- and is part of -- your spiritual Path. And it makes “bad” things not seem so bad. 

Knowing that I walked a way from “good jobs” at “good companies” (go here to learn more) and have successfully followed my dream of becoming a writer, people often ask me for advice on finding their spiritual Purpose. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I have searched out and now live in my Purpose, which is uncommon. I’ve also worked with people like Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, Venus & Serena Williams, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance, Nick Bollettieri and other people live in their “lane” in life and experience a high degree of personal freedom because of it. Although I find it strange and even disconcerting at times that people look to me -- little ol’ me! -- for answers in these areas, I have to accept that as a result of my experience, I have become somewhat expert in a hands-on, grassroots sort of way. So this is the first of several posts based on my first-hand experiences in this area.

One important piece of advice is that your Purpose is bigger than any job title, job description, career category or other human construct. Man-made conceptions are smaller than -- are subsets of -- higher, spiritual ideals like your Purpose, which some people call God’s Plan for your life. 

Job and career categories cannot contain your entire Spirit; whatever you do for a living (read: to make money) only reflects a fraction of who you are. Your job title may be accountant, but you are also a parent, PTA member, SPCA volunteer and coach of the community baseball team, for example -- aspects of your existence that cannot necessarily be expressed at work. 

Now, it is possible for your Purpose to involve performing a certain job or participating in a given career -- but your Purpose is not the job or the career itself; the job or career is a subset of your Purpose. I am a writer, which, because it is a somewhat unusual profession and, to some people, exotic, may seem Purpose-like. But writing is merely a way of expressing my Purpose (I’ll write more on the distinction soon). If you limit your search to identifying the right job title or career, you will certainly miss some of the amazing ways God works -- including ways of providing that transcend and defy job description.