Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. I don't know if you find
yourself doing this but I find myself when people say, "Hey how are you doing?"
that I can go through the whole list of like how things are. Right? I think I can
I can go to all the positive stuff, I can go to all things that are going well, but
almost always—I'm not sure what it is—I always go to something that's off. Right?
Something that's wrong, something that's negative, and I found myself complaining.
I find myself kind of grumbling or I find myself just kind of like finding
the negative thing and focusing on that, like, "How are you doing today?"
"I'm just really tired. I haven't slept. Or "How you doing today?"
"I got a little bit of a stuffy nose." So, you know, "How are you doing today?"
"I've got so much stuff to do. I've got a lot of emails." And maybe you're in this place right now in your
life where you have a ton of stuff and it's just all crashing down on you,
when it comes to like assignments and projects and work and things people are
expecting of you, and when someone says, "Hey, how you doing?" you're thinking like,
well I've got assignments, and I've got projects, and I've got a hundred things
people are expecting of me; and I can almost always go to the complaint.
The problem with complaining is not that you're telling the truth, because that's fine.
I mean at some point sometimes you just need to, you know, be able to say, "Is
there someone to whom I can just say, 'Ah, this is the burden that I'm carrying right now."'
Can you share your burden with someone? And that's a really
good thing to be able to do, to be honest. You know? The problem with complaining is
sometimes we become a complainer. Right? C.S. Lewis talks about this in his book
The Great Divorce where he says, "Some people, they grumble so much they've
become a grumble." I don't want to be that kind of person, so how do I avoid that?
One of the things that I've found is that every time I want to complain,
and actually the Bible prohibits u says from complaining. Right? So St. Paul,
writing to the Philippians, he says, "Do everything without grumbling."
Do everything without grumbling, without complaining. I'm like, oh gosh I don't do
that very well. So here's one of the things I've realized.
Virtually everything I complain about, almost everything I complain about, is connected
to either an opportunity or a gift. What I mean by that is I will say things [like]
"I've got this project that I've got to get done. It's just hanging over my head," or
"It's just killing me," or "I've got all these emails are just like overwhelming,"
Or "I've got all these people that I need to get back to because it's just they need something."
Now those are all like weights, right? Those are all burdens. Those are all
things that I could complain about, but they're all connected to an opportunity.
Why do I have emails? Because people are asking me for their for help, and
actually I can help. Oh my gosh. so this complaint is actually connected
to an incredible opportunity. I have this big project that I got to get done and
just it's weighing on me. Well wait a second I have the opportunity to be part
of this big project. Like oh gosh I got to get the homily ready for this weekend
and just like weighs on me so much. But wait, I have the opportunity to preach
God's Word to the people of God. Almost everything I complain about is
connected to some kind of opportunity, or it's connected to a gift. Like I said, I'm
thinking well I'm a bit sick because it's the season for sickness. I'm a
little bit sick but I think about this. And like, "How you feeling, Father Mike?"
"Ah, I'm just so tired, I'm just really sick." You know, there were a lot of days
in this last year when I wasn't sick. And not one of them when someone says,
"How you doing," like, "I'm feeling awesome. I got rest and I can breathe out of my nose."
Like, I never said that. I did not realize the gift that I had
until now it's kind of gone when it comes to breathing, and a lot of times we
don't realize the gift we have until it's been taken away. So I can say like,
"My knee really hurts, ah." But yeah there were years in my life
when my knee didn't hurt at all, but now I'm complaining about this gift, a knee,
because something's wrong wrong with it right now.
Imagine there's something in your life right now too that you can complain
about that's connected to some kind of gift. You know, at some point I'll be able
to, I imagine, I'll be able to breathe again. You know, at some point I imagine
I'll be able to get some sleep again. And I want to be the kind of person that
says, oh my gosh, God, whether I have that sleep or whether I didn't have the sleep,
whether I can breathe freely and feel really healthy or not, you
know, I'm just coughing up a lung, that kind of a thing. Whether this is like not
just a temporary sickness but even if it's a permanent like life-threatening
or life-ending sickness, I want to be able to do a Saint Paul says in his
letter to the Thessalonians, "In all things give thanks, for this is the will
of God for you in Christ Jesus our Lord." In all things give thanks. Like yeah
I've got this burden but this burden is because of an opportunity. Or yeah I've
got this this thing I can complain about, but this thing I can complain about is
always connected in some way to a gift that I can be grateful for. In all
things give thanks, even in my complaints, cuz I don't want to become a grumble; I
don't become a complainer. I want to become the kind of person who ... when ... in
all things I give thanks to God. So today when someone says, "Hey, how's it going?"
yeah there's some people that you're gonna need to share your burden with,
you're gonna need to kind of say, "Actually, what's going on right now is
I'm feeling a bit low because of X," but there's also these other opportunities
to be able to say, "Yeah I'm feeling a bit low because this real thing in my life,
but you know what, I had an opportunity here. Or "You know what, I had a gift
here. So yeah I'm sharing my burden but I'm also sharing with you the gift.
Yeah I'm sharing the complaint a little bit I'm also sharing with you the
incredible opportunity the Lord has given me." Anyways, I think that's a pretty
good way to live. It's a pretty good way to honor God in all things as well.
So from all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike. God bless.