Hi, my name's Fr. Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
I recently made a video — and it was posted — about living your life, so...
*Laughs* Living your life ...
I think that's kind of what all the videos are about.
But it was about how you need a vision for your life — God's vision for your life.
Because vision focuses your decisions, and your decisions determine your destiny.
Remember that one? In that video, I talked about three things that you could do, right?
You need to pray and ask God, “God what is your vision for my life?”
You need to say no to the obvious things that are getting in the way of God's vision for your life.
And then you take one step or pick one thing, one area of your life, that is a positive move,
that if you chose it consistently, over time it would get you closer and closer to God's vision.
Going off of that theme, I have a couple more things to say, because...
I got things to say.
So here's the deal: God's vision for your life.
You’re going to prayer and you say “God what's your vision for my life?”
And he doesn't seem to answer immediately.
And you think, “Well I don't even know... I don't know what God's vision for my life is.”
I will tell you what God's vision for your life is right now,
in three words...*laughs* In four words.
To be a saint.
That's it. To be a saint. God wants you to be a saint.
Charles Péguy once said this very famous thing:
“The only real tragedy in life is to not have been a saint.”
There are many things in life that are tragic,
many things in life that are sad and sorrowful and need to be mourned.
But the only real tragedy is to get to the end of your life and to not have been a saint.
So what is a saint?
One of my personal heroes, Father Benedict Groeschel, once said
that a saint is someone who says yes to God and then just never stops saying yes.
That's it.
A saint is someone who says yes to God and then just never stops saying yes to God.
So to be a saint is not necessarily to do a, you know, 30-day fast.
To be a saint is not necessarily one who stays up all night in prayer.
To be a saint is not someone who does all these — necessarily —
to be one who does all these heroic things.
To be a saint is nothing more than someone who does the will of God.
So God's vision for your life is that you become, and I become, someone who does his will at all times,
who basically says yes to God and then never stops saying yes, even when we fall.
Think about this... we're all... we're not... none of us are perfect.
We're all gonna fail, we're all gonna fall.
What happens after you fall? You say yes to God by going back to confession.
So being a saint is within your grasp is what I’m trying to say.
It doesn't mean you have to be perfect.
It just means God's vision for your life is to be a saint,
and a saint is someone who says yes to God.
So right now, in this day, in this moment, at this time right now,
what does your yes to God look like?
For many of us it might look like showing up for confession the next time confession is offered.
That's your yes to God.
For others it might mean going to prayer because we haven't done that like we should be doing that.
That's your yes to God.
For others, it looks like looking at the people you're living with and being willing to serve them.
That might be your yes to God.
And so, of course we have to say no — as I said last time — to the obvious no’s,
the obvious things that are in my life right now that can't be in my life right now.
There's this well-known story about Steve Jobs — Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, right?
He founded Apple then he got fired from Apple then he got re-hired by Apple,
and at the time, Apple was competing with IBM and some other big computer companies
and they were not winning, they were not succeeding.
So Steve Jobs walks in — according to the legend — and he goes to the whiteboard
and he draws one vertical line and draws one horizontal line and four quadrants, right?
And in it he says “Okay, laptops, desktops — one quadrant.
Laptops for professionals and laptops for domestic use.
Desktops for professionals and desktops for consumer, or home use.”
He says “Those are the things we're doing.
These two kinds of computers for these two kinds of people. That's it.
Everything else we’re saying no to.”
He presented Apple with a clear vision. Here’s what we’re gonna do ...
anything that isn't these things, we're not interested in right now.
He was ruthless with those ‘no’s’
so he could be relentless with the yes, with the vision.
My invitation, just like last time, is for you — and for me too, right?
Cause this is not just for you, it's also for me — to say no to those things that I already know are obstacles.
Number three: I mentioned to take that step forward.
What's one positive thing you can do?
But you might say “I don't know, I don't know what God wants for me.
I don't know if he wants me to be a priest, wants me to be a nun,
wants me to be a husband and father, wants me to be a wife and mother,
or wants me to be a consecrated a single person.
I don't know what he wants from me, so I don't know what to do today.”
I remember there was young man years ago that I was in spiritual direction with.
And at one point after he graduated college, he discerned to go to seminary,
and he actually decided to go to seminary, which is awesome.
He got to seminary and really leaned into formation and after a while he realized,
“Okay I'm not called to be here.” So he discerned out of seminary and left the seminary.
He started dating this young woman he absolutely, really, really cared about —
really, really liked a lot. He thought, “Okay, I'm pursuing marriage.”
And then that ended and then he came to me. He was like,
“Okay, so I leaned into seminary and it didn't work out.
I leaned into this relationship and it didn't work out.
I don't know what God wants from me. I don't know what he wants me to do.”
So he kept praying about it, we kept talking about it,
and one day he came back and he said, “I realize whether God's calling me to be a priest
or to be a husband and father, or to be single for the rest of my life,
he is calling me to be a virtuous man, and that's what I can do now.
I don't know if he wants me to be a priest,
but if he does, he needs me to be a virtuous man who becomes a priest.
I don't know if he wants me to be a husband and father,
but if he does he needs me to be a virtuous man who becomes a husband and father.
If he wants me to be a single man consecrated to him,
he needs me to be a virtuous single man who's consecrated to him.”
So he said “Well, I know what God wants. He wants me to pursue virtue right now.
I don't have to wait for him to tell me this big vocation
in order for me to pursue the immediate vocation, which is virtue.
To say yes to him right now and to say yes to whatever virtue he wants to form in me.”
So my invitation to y'all, and to myself too, is choose a virtue —
what is one area in your life that you know doesn't match up to God's vision for your life?
Maybe you need to grow in gentleness.
Maybe you need to grow in humility.
Maybe you need to grow in perseverance.
Maybe you need to grow in charity, in peacefulness — being a peacemaker.
Maybe you need to grow in fortitude or chastity. Maybe you need to grow in generosity.
Did I say that one already?
Maybe you need to grow in justice, in temperance, in prudence.
So pick one of those virtues.
In fact, there's some been some famous people who have done that —
they chose a virtue every week and they worked on it.
This is the virtue I’m working on this week.
I'm working on my gentleness because I realize I've got a temper and I can be really abrasive with people.
So, gentleness this week.
Choose a virtue and work on it.
So that's the vision for your life, right?
What are the obvious no’s? Choose a virtue and work on it.
The next invitation I have for y'all is, please, pray pray pray pray pray pray.
You know how people sometimes say, “Well I had nothing better to do.”
When it comes to anything, like, “Well I'm glad you did that.”
“Well I had nothing better to do.”
When it comes to prayer you literally have nothing better to do [laughs]
It is the highest function of the human person —
the highest thing a human being can do is to pray.
So in the scheme of things, in life,
there is literally nothing better for you to do at almost any given moment than to pray.
Now, obviously, we have responsibilities to other people, right? Of course we do.
We have responsibilities to our job, responsibilities to your family, to your children, to your parents...
to whoever it is you are responsible for. You know what I'm saying.
They're never number one.
Now in the moment they might be the number one thing.
Baby's dirty diaper? I'm sorry I’m making a holy hour.
No, of course not. But God is number one.
Therefore at almost any given moment you literally have nothing better to do than to pray.
And if you and I are not becoming people of prayer,
then we are not becoming the people that God wants us to be.
Last piece is, in that whole discernment thing, you need to make some decisions.
Matt Fradd, who makes videos that are released on Monday's here on Ascension Presents,
he once shared with me what a priest shared with him.
And that priest shared that ever since discernment became popular, no one's made a decision.
I like that, because it's true.
Ever since discernment became popular, no one's made a decision.
You need to make decisions.
But we're so afraid of making decisions because we don't wanna be wrong.
We wait to make decisions until there have to be big decisions,
but that's a dumb time to make decisions.
Make small decisions, then you can correct.
That's why I like the image of sighting in a gun.
I live in northern Minnesota and we sight in guns once a year, essentially, before hunting season.
You don't sight in a gun on opening day.
What you do is, long before opening day, you go to the range, or wherever — the pile of rocks.
We always went to this sandpit where there’s a big... you know, it’s very safe.
Anyways, you go to the range, you line up the target in the crosshairs.
Then you don't just walk away saying, “Oh we lined up the target, I don't know, who knows?”
You line up the target in the crosshairs and then you have to pull the trigger.
You have to actually make the decision. You have to commit.
But then you're not done. Like, “Well, I guess I missed. Stupid, that's dumb. I shouldn't have done that.”
No, that's the point of sighting in your gun.
You line up the target in your crosshairs, you pull the trigger, and then you see where you need to adjust.
So then, you adjust it and line up this target in your crosshairs, and then pull the trigger again.
And then adjust as many times as you need to so that you're headed in the right path.
The same thing is true when it comes to you and the vision — God's vision for your life.
You say “I don’t wanna make the wrong decision.”
Well, make small decisions.
Evaluate where you got to, adjust if you need to, and make another decision.
I'm telling you guys, I promise you guys: if you do this you will — you cannot fail.
Because God's grace is with you. God's Holy Spirit is in you. And God is on your side.
It's only up to you to say yes to him.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Fr. Mike. God bless.
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