What Do You REALLY Want in Life?

Hey, this is John Galantis from the Cleaview Today Show, checking in with you guys to plug our new show, How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. It's a video podcast. You can watch it right from your favorite podcasting app, and we're releasing new episodes every single week. You don't have to be intimidated about learning Biblical Hebrew.

We're going to start with the alphabet. We'll start with sounds, basic grammar. We'll work our way up. But our guarantee is this. If you follow this podcast and put in the work, you will be reading the Old Testament in its original language in no time.

Again, that's how to read biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. Links in the description.

Now let's start the show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.

Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We are so glad you're joining us in the studio for another great conversation with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time today, thank you for tuning in to the show. Thank you for clicking and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere that you're listening to this podcast.

We want to let you know exactly who's talking to you. Dr. Abadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, welcome.

Welcome. Welcome. Let me ask you this: Did you take the normal entrance or did you have to take the scenic route because of somebody's setup in the doorway today? Oh, the camera. The camera.

Yes.

So, my friend Ryan here, and you know, I would never blast you on the podcast. I feel like it's about to happen. But I came up to this door. I saw a camera, a light, and I knew that Ryan was filming a promo for our Valentine's Day banquet. And so I was like, oh, goodness, this will never do.

So I went around the lobby. Up the stairs. And I was hoping, Dr. Shah, that by the time you got there, the camera and the light had moved. It was still in the door.

It was still in the door. I walked up the steps, and Adam had to help me. I had to make sure. I mean, so I tried to scoot past the camera. Between the wall, there's a wall there, and the camera was right there, so I was scoot past his, and he's just kind of very wisely.

He held on to the stand so that I wouldn't knock it over. Of course.

Some of us think that, oh, yeah, I'm skinny enough. I can just get right. Scoot right past. Indiana Jones my way right through this. And that's when disasters happen.

Disaster strikes.

So I mean, to put it in layman's terms, Ryan, Lucy, you got some splaining to do.

Well, without, you know, falling into the category of passing the blame, I did not set up a camera or a light. How's that? I was told to stand somewhere and speak. And I did that. And then I left that spot.

You feel like, do you want to, and we don't even need to, because we're two minutes in. We don't even need to get into this.

So do you want to say who. Set up the camera in the light. I can do that. Um, because that person also was when I left was in the process of disassembling things.

So I'm not sure where the break the disassembling stopped. I do, I do know where the breakdown happened and where it didn't happen.

So I was actually supposed to do the video. I had to go pick up my son from school. I said, Ryan, I kind of threw Ryan to the lion's den and then subsequently onto the bus. But look, the important thing is we're all here in the studio. It's glad to see you.

That's right. And we're going to talk about something that hopefully will benefit you. These are conversations that we have. Sitting together at lunch. That's right.

That's right. And we see how beneficial they are to our thinking. to our mindset. And then we do have conversations with people. You know, I know you have conversations like this with your students.

I have people who come to my office to talk to me, seeking advice. And so we feel like our audience, Listening, viewing can also benefit from. One of the questions that we often get asked. That's right. There's power in talking.

God is able to work when people come together and they share ideas. Absolutely. God brings people into our lives for a reason. Nobody is designed to live as an island. Nobody's designed to go through, especially the Christian life alone.

And God brings people into our lives, sometimes in the form of mentors like you are for us, Dr. Shaw, who can help us think rightly about things. It's important to lean on people who are living a similar life, but are further in that life than you are. That's right. It's important to look to those because you can get advice from anybody.

And many people get advice from the wrong people. That's right. That's true. But you need to look for advice and you need to look for wisdom from people who are living a similar trajectory, just further along than you are. That's right.

If you have a church staff or a ministry staff and you just eat lunch by yourself at your desk, let me tell you something. You're wasting. Yeah, stop. You're wasting your time. You're wasting a great opportunity.

And in today's episode, we are going to be asking that question. What do you really want in life? Dr. Shaw, let's jump in. Why is this the question?

Okay. Uh well, because um people want to know what should I do in life. Am I ha happy where I'm at? Is there something better out there? And you know, sometimes people get locked into a way of thinking, maybe because of their upbringing, maybe because of their parents, maybe because of their past some traumatic experiences, whatever it is, they get locked into that state where they feel like this is it, this is my life.

and they remain unfulfilled? They remain frustrated. They always are looking over and seeing someone else having a great life, a wonderful time. And that may not be true. The people they're envying are actually struggling themselves, but it seems to the person who is looking over and seeing someone else having a good time as if they're the only miserable person.

But this is a lot of my life, and I'm just gonna trudge along. Do you think there's any Like, cause being raised Christian, right? There might be people out there who genuinely think What I want doesn't matter. Right. The gospel is about what God wants, and I have to want what He wants.

And even if I don't, Want what he wants. I need to put aside the things I want so that I can follow Jesus Christ. Right, right. And what I would say to them is what my mentors told me years ago when I was. And I was not like just starting out ministry.

I had been in ministry for a good, I would say, 10, 12 years. And people came into my life. I think God brought those people into my life. And they asked me, So, what do you want out of life? And years ago, I had crafted a vision for my life.

This is going back to about Oh, about 2005, 2006, somewhere there. I I was um Principal of a school. and had to craft a vision statement for the school. And at the same time, our church, this very church, was going through a time of. Transition that we were selling our old property and moving on.

And trying to get to a better place that we could grow and do things. But we also felt like. Uh we need to Discover. Our core values, discover our mission, vision, statement, all those kinds of things.

So, this was a perfect time. in in the school, in the church, and then in my personal life. What is A vision statement. And so I read a book by George Barna. I think it was called The Power of Vision.

I think it was. And I began to read how to discover. The life that God wants me to live. And Through that process, Certain things began to rise to the surface. The way I'm built.

I'm built.

sort of academically. God has gifted me. You know, but the ability to think. to reason. to research, to write, To speak, so I was like, okay, it has to do something with that.

I'm not called to go. on a mission t trip and build churches. Like You know, construction. That's not my specialty. Not that I don't mind.

that I that I mind hard work. No, but I'm not built that way. God hasn't called me to write a computer program. Although I knew a friend of mine who was writing a program that was going to later on become get get sold and bought by a a big company. But that's that's not me.

I wasn't gifted that way.

So, what was I gifted? To research, to take complex ideas and bring them. And not only to understand them, to digest them, but then also to present them. To an average person who doesn't have the back run information.

So This is part of discovering your strengths, who you are. And there are a lot of things I still didn't understand about myself, but that was a great starting point. Mm-hmm.

So when it comes to finding out what is it that you want out of life, vision. Discovering God's vision for your life. It requires taking A good inventory of the gifts that God has given to you. Taking into consideration your upbringing.

So I grew up with a mom and a dad both were educators.

So already I was like, okay, wait, I am gifted academically. My parents were educators.

Okay, there's some connection here. And then I was in the PhD program. Even prior to that, so I was like, okay, I'm headed somewhere.

So, whatever I do in life. will be sort of intellectually driven. At the same time, It will not be in an academy somewhere. It will not be in some ivory tower at some university. It's going to be with.

people who want to know but Are not able to because they're not in those academic settings.

So, did what you want out of life come after you sort of discovered your strengths and you'd set your vision? Yeah, I think so. I think in some ways it was there. Like, I wanted to live a life. That was uh fulfilling a life where Uh I could see my children grow up to follow God.

I wanted a life. I didn't want it to be like a super rich guy who owns. jets and several houses and, you know, Beach houses and a house up in the mountains, and this and that. It didn't appeal to me. I was like, that's not me.

Although I know friends who have it and they serve the Lord, love the Lord, give tremendously to the kingdom of God.

So, nothing wrong with that. It just was not for me. I was like, I don't want to do that. What do I want to do? And and so I even had that desire prior to discovering my vision, but discovering my vision.

Really kind of sort of made it laser focused. I was like, okay, this is what I'm going to do. Yeah.

So I'm not going to run every which away trying to do this a little bit and that dabble in this and a dabble in that and get into rental properties over here and try to do this. I was like, no, I'm not going to do that. Yeah.

Sell a little health insurance on the side. Or or or try to you know, have a side hustle. It didn't appeal to me. I was like, no, if I am gifted this way, and this is the life I want, could it be that God's going to use just this? to give me That life, not a problem-free life, trust me.

I've had my problems. But have that life. Yeah.

And guess what? Looking back now, yeah. Yeah.

You can have that. Yeah.

We've we've in the in illuminate in our student ministry here at Clearview, we've used your messages about purpose and about God's design to to help students kind of uncover as they're you know as you're going through high school you're thinking about college where do I go what do I major in what is my career do I go to trade school what does my what does my career need to look like down the road and so we we've developed this this system and I don't think it's original to us but three circles what you're good at what you're passionate about and what other people say about you so filling in those circles and then imagine like we use the same same criteria for discovering the vision of our church right yeah so we take we take those three things and then move them together and that central portion of overlap It could be that that's where you're headed. What you're good at, what you're passionate about, the things that wake you up and matter to you, and what other people say or affirm in you. Where is that overlap in those three circles? And that could be what God has designed you for. You know, there's a lot of people, I think, listening to this who are either really young, just starting out in ministry, maybe 24, 25, and they're not even thinking that this is a question to be asking.

You know what I mean? Like, no, I've never even thought of this question. Or maybe there's people listening, you know, who are on the older side and they've pretty much figured out what they want in life and either have it or don't, and they're sad about that. But there also may be this really wide portion of people who are specifically in ministry who are in the middle who Know the right answer. What do you want out of life?

Oh, I know what to say. I want to impact people for the kingdom of God. That's what I'm supposed to say. But really, in my secret heart, I want. Recognition.

I want notoriety. I want to feel creatively fulfilled. I want satisfaction. I want comfort. How do you get to where that right answer is genuinely what you want?

Because that's a hard struggle. Yeah, that is a great, great question. Instead of giving the pad answer that pleases people or makes you look good versus what's really there, is that what you're referring to? Yeah, like if someone asked me, what do you really want in life right now? If I'm being just honest, I would probably say, I want to live comfortably, I want my children to thrive.

And I want recognition for all of these projects that Clearview is doing. I want people around the world to see them and be impressed. That's not the Christian answer. Stick to that answer. Because probably because I have a vision in my mind of what people, how people will react to it.

And rather than what does God think of that answer, I think that I guess in my mind, the Christian answer that people are expecting to hear is: I want to win souls for the kingdom of Christ. And that's true. I do want that. Right. But it is not, at least at this point in my life, it's not the first, it's the answer I know I'm supposed to want.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I appreciate the honesty there. For me, I think. Have wanting a good life See, for me. It was living in a In a rural community.

Not rural, we're not like living in the sticks, but we are much more rural than, say, Raleigh or Chapel or Charlotte or Atlanta or Richmond or D.C. I mean, these are bigger. Yeah, we're outside the main triangle. We are. And so I wanted to have that slow-paced life.

Nothing wrong with that. I wanted to help. Build a church. That was struggling, because our church was struggling. And build it up from the ground up.

I didn't want to go start a church somewhere. I know some people are good at it. And that's the vision God has given to them. For me, I didn't want to do that. just didn't appeal to me.

I'd rather win the confidence of the people who are there. It's not that easy. Fight for it sometimes. You have to convince people that this is the vision they want. Church planting is they already want that.

Now, some people are there with wrong motives, but they already want something new. in an established church that is dying. You have to convince the people that let's reverse this trajectory. It's worth doing it. I'm staying.

I'm here to convince you that you can trust me. I'm not leaving. I have the knowledge, I have the credibility. To help make this happen, you have to prove yourself. It's a whole different way.

And that appealed to me. It is a challenge. Yes, of course. Winning lost souls. is there.

Because if you're not doing that, then go do something else.

So, winning lost souls is there, but more specifically, Kind of like, yeah, I am going to do this. And then, of course, I had some precedent with my own dad doing it. Nicole's dad in some ways doing it.

So I was like, Yeah, this can be done. And who better to do it than someone like me who doesn't match the profile? Of this area. Yeah.

I mean, I came from India. I mean, if you look at The local population in an hour radius, the Indian population is maybe like 0.5%. If that, yeah. If that.

So it was like, okay. If this thing is going to work, Is because God is going to guide us. God's going to give me the wisdom, the determination, the resources. Whatever I need, the miracles that we need. to make this happen.

That appealed to me. Um Yeah, you don't have to give The answer you think people want to hear. Or you think people want to hear it's like, oh, I want to build God's kingdom, man. That's what I want to do.

Some I think are genuine, some are just saying it 'cause You know, it sounds spiritual. I've said we're supposed to. Yeah, and I have said it. But it doesn't make it untrue. I do want to build God's kingdom, but it's definitely not the, it's not the first thing that comes to my mind because I've.

It's like, on a sense, it goes without saying. Right. I want to build God's kingdom. But also, you taught me years ago that ambition, godly ambition, is not wrong. And I think there's so many Christians who.

Will try to convince you that it's wrong. You know, one of the things that I really admired about you when I first started here is when you were like, hey, listen, I'm. A lot of people will say that numbers don't matter. If there's 500 people in my church or if there's 5 million, that's the same to me. And you were like, no, I want to win as many people as possible and make the biggest impact possible.

I know a lot of people will balk at that and say, no, man, it doesn't matter. But just in my heart of hearts, I was like, yeah, me too. Right. Me too. And that's what we We have worked towards Nicole and I did before y'all came.

And then since you've come, it's really grown. And You know, one of my mentors did a math with me, a math problem with me. He said, numbers are our friends. I was like, you're right, numbers are our friends.

So How many people do you think live in this community? half an hour radius. Oh, I said maybe about forty five thousand people maybe.

Okay. How many people do you think out of the 45,000 Go to Church. I said, wow, that's a great question. If you add up j just the churches around here and Do a rough math. I would say.

Maybe four thousand people? That's generous. Right? Yeah, probably 35 to 4. Yeah.

Add them all up. Yeah.

Maybe 4,000 people. He said, okay.

Well, how much is 4,000? Uh to forty five thousand or forty thousand in percentage. Master about maybe 10%, right? Is it correct? Am I right on that?

So Ten percent. He said, Okay.

So now Ask yourself this question: How many of those people are on fire for Jesus Christ? That's it. I mean like sold out. All in. Like, man.

Even in our own church. Mm maybe Four to five. Who are sold out for Christ? I said, maybe more? I don't know.

Maybe ten? And at the time we were running probably about I don't know, two, three hundred people. Yeah.

He said, Okay, how many do you think in other churches? Like if I'm saying ten and We don't have that many people. maybe two, three hundred people. If all of these churches, if you add all of them up, I don't know. Maybe.

300 people who are on fire for Christ? He said, what is the percentage? Let's just say 400. to forty thousand How much would that be? That's 1%.

He says, I really have 1% of people who are totally committed in this. half an hour driving radius.

So What do you want to do? Yeah.

I'm like, wow. Yeah.

When you put it in numerical, like mathematical terms, you're like, wow, we. We really got a long way to go. Yeah.

So that motivated me.

So, of course, souls motivated me seeing lost people get saved, but that was a motivation. Like, what a challenge! Mm-hmm.

Okay, I I want to See what we can do to get into the community to. begin to preach, to begin to do ministry, to find creative ways to attract people, to find a system that that brings people in and teaches them and grounds them in the truth and makes them loyal to the church Loyal enough to invite other people to come, their family and their friends to come back and to build something. Like, wow, this is. This is something I want to do. Yeah.

Yeah.

Already I was doing it, but now. The vision was getting more and more laser focused. I think that's a good reminder, too, that they're not mutually exclusive. The things that you want, the things you desire, and the overarching, like the Christian answer that we should all give. I'm here with lost souls.

Yes, of course we are. But also, like, desiring to live in a rural community, desiring a slower pace of life, not outside of the urban city life. They're not mutually exclusive things. And in pursuing the larger Christian goals, you can attain the smaller ones as well. Yeah, I would say they're not smaller, more personal.

More personal, more designed to your personality, your. Your makeup, your way of working. Yeah.

That's a better way to say it. Or finding joy and energy. The phrase that my friend used a lot, or mentor used a lot, was energy. Does that give you energy? Mm-hmm.

He would often say that. And that doesn't sound spiritual, right? Because we want to say something like: well, is the Holy Spirit leading you? Yeah.

No, he would say Does that give you energy? I like that. And I think, you know, Ryan, you kind of just made me start thinking about that. These spiritual answers that we give that we know are the right answers. If you really think about it, they're just a way to not engage with the question.

What do you really want in life? I want to win souls for Jesus. What does that mean? It means I don't really want to answer that question because I haven't thought about it. 100%.

Or I'm afraid, how are you going to judge me if I say, I want to have a good relationship. I want to have a marriage. I want to have children. I want to. I want to Live in a smaller community.

Yeah.

And it goes back to what you were saying, Dr. Shaw. Like, what do you really want in life? At this point, I want to establish our church in this community. For the foreseeable future and hopefully forever.

Yeah.

And it's like, well, that's not what you should want. You should want to, you should want to glorify Jesus. You should be kingdom-minded. And it's like, it's like, sure, we can stay in the kiddie playground and have the same tired conversation. Like, let's move the conversation a level deeper.

You know what I mean? Like, we've more real. Yeah, it should all go without saying that we all want that. Cool. Surface level conversation over.

Now, what do you really want out of all that? Right. I think it's a great question. Yeah.

So today's conversation, I hope our viewers, our listeners are not confused where we're going with this. We're saying, stop giving pat answers. That you think people expect you to say, and start really in the power of the Holy Spirit with God's help. Start thinking what you Really? Want to do?

And of course, what you really want to do is what God wants you to do. We know that. But God wants you to discover. And then Clarify And then start working towards it. For me, it was academic.

But it was also Uh In the context of the church. For me it was a challenge. This is this is different. This is not just a job. This is something that motivates me to go this Sunday, what am I going to preach on?

Right now, we're finishing up our series to the book of Job.

So it's a challenge to go, okay. I'm coming to the end. Job chapter thirty eight through forty one is we're right towards the end. How many messages are left? I spent some time looking at it and I felt like maybe two messages.

Like, okay, two messages are left. What will they be about?

Well From chapters 38 to 41, is God speaking now? He's speaking to the whirlwind. He's challenging Job's schema. Job's world has been shattered. And now God is coming and talking to him based on what Job had said in chapter three, All in between chapters four.

through thirty seven is just Job and his friends back and forth and then Elhu. But now God is in a sense picking up on what Job said in chapter three, and there he is answering Job. He's helping him remake the schema. It's not like he gives Job the answer, Job, you didn't know, but guess what? Satan came to me, and that's why I did what I did.

No, none of that. It's being answered in a way that Job receives the answer and it is satisfactory, even if the scholars and the pastors and people like me may not go, may not understand, like, what is the answer? What is the answer? But somehow the answer is given, and it changes Job's life. Changes it so much that he goes out, has more children, blah, blah, blah.

All that happens. Right. What am I going with this? That gives me energy to know that I can get up and preach a fresh message. that will change lives, help people draw closer to Christ, Navigate through the traumas.

Win the lost That motivates me to study. I'm built that way.

So so I hope hope that little example Illustration helps someone know that What is it that motivates you to get back up every weekend? Oh, I discovered that. I need to teach that. And I need to explain. How can I do it in a way that will make a change and impact their lives for the gospel?

Amen.

So I hope our listeners, our viewers will. Ask God the same thing. What is it? That they want out of life. That's right.

That's right. I love it. And answering that question, it helps you to live on purpose. That's right. And we will talk about it on another episode.

But, like, what if you're just young? What if I never take the time to stop and ask myself that question? I wish we could answer that right now, but unfortunately, we are out of time. But make sure you join us next time. Yeah, same time, same station.

We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today Show. Thanks to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And if today was your first time listening to us, we just wanted to let you know we love you. We're glad that you joined us. We hope you tune in for the next conversation.

Don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show anywhere podcasting content can be found. And you can always support us financially at AbadadShah.com forward slash gifts. Nashville, we're coming to see you in just a couple of weeks, February 17th through the 20th. We're going to be at NRB 2026. It's going to be a great time.

Dr. Shah is going to be there alongside Pray.com, Truth Network, lots of other ministries are going to be there. Come say hello. We're going to be doing some shows on the convention floor. Also, Apologetics Conference is happening here at Clearview Church.

That's Henderson, North Carolina, March 28th. Link to get the tickets is in the description of this podcast. Make sure you go on ahead and get them now. If you use our special promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y, you're going to get 20% off your final price at checkout. Also, we talked a little bit about this earlier in the episode, but we did.

Have a Valentine's banquet if you're local in the area in the Henderson, kind of north of the Triad area. Even if you're in the triangle, come on, it's worth the drive. Absolutely. This Friday, the 13th, starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 a piece, and all of the proceeds from that event, tips raised, are going to go to support our Illuminate students as they get ready for their mission trips this summer.

If you have questions about how to get your tickets, you can text us at 252-582-5028. I would really love to see a lot of people showing up to our Valentine's Day banquet this Friday. That have never stepped foot in our church before and said, The Clear View Today show brought me here. Come on, it's gonna be a good time. That's right.

We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow. I'm Thamby Today.