What Is in Your Hand?

Moses had a lot of reasons to say no. He was eighty years old, a shepherd in the middle of nowhere, and a man with a complicated past in Egypt. When God called him to lead a nation out of slavery, he responded with a list of excuses: Who am I? What if they do not believe me? I am not a good speaker. In the middle of that conversation, God asks one of the simplest questions in the Bible. "What is that in your hand?" Not "What are you missing?" Not "What do you wish you had?" Just: what do you already have?

Moses looks down and says, "A staff." It is an ordinary shepherd's stick. It helped him walk and it kept sheep in line. Nothing about it looks like the beginning of a miracle. But God takes what Moses is already holding and turns it into the thing he will carry before Pharaoh and across the sea. The staff never changed. What changed was that it was placed in God's hands.

This time of year, a lot of us are looking around at other people and feeling behind. Midterms are close, plans for next year feel blurry, and it seems like everyone else has a clearer picture of their future. It is easy to believe that purpose starts when we finally get the perfect skill, the perfect major, or the perfect opportunity. But God often begins somewhere much smaller. Your ability to listen well, your curiosity, your gift for making people laugh, your patience with a younger sibling, your stubborn habit of showing up. These may feel like ordinary staffs. They are exactly what he likes to work with.

So maybe today, instead of asking "What is my big calling?", try Moses' question in reverse. Ask God, "What have you already put in my hand?" Then use it today, in a conversation, in a class group project, in a small act of kindness nobody will notice. Calling is rarely a lightning bolt. More often it is a staff, held faithfully, until God shows what it was for.