(cool chill voice) Hey 'suh, dude? ha ha ha
(cool chill voice) dude, suh?
(Normal Fr. Mike voice) Right? You know that?
You should check it out, it's all over Vine.
Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So a number of years, of years ago, I was here at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
at the Newman Center, and we had to build a shed in the backyard.
One of our students, his name's Mitch. He went out and he got the, the prefab, you know, shed,
you know, with all the holes previously drilled in it and everything.
And so we went out in the back and we laid a foundation and started building it
and put the frame up, and he took some time, you know, with this,
started putting the siding on, and the roof on.
And it turned out that because it was prefab
and because they're already holes previously drilled in, like, you know, right?
so "A" goes to "B" - that kind of thing?
Um, our foundation wasn't level
and because of that, everything was just off by like, two inches, maybe three inches.
So here I am, I'm thinking, I'm like, "We'll just, we'll drill, we'll drill new holes."
It's just, "Let's ... we already have the foundation, we already have the frame up.
Let's just drill new holes. It'll be fine."
And Mitch was like, "No, no. It's fine,"
because I'm getting all impatient, right?
Because when I'm on a project, I just want it to get done.
I want to be done with it and he was like, "No, no, no. We want it done, but we want it done right."
and so I'm impatient, but he's completely patient.
I'm like, "This is a waste of time." He's like, "No, this is actually how you build a shed."
So we disassembled the frame. We went out and he got some other kind of material
for the foundation, put it down, made sure that was level, re-checked it,
re-RE-checked it and then we started building the frame and, and then putting the
siding and the roof on and as we did that, because the frame ... because
the foundation had been leveled, because we went back and did it right,
everything just went: it's matched and just matched and it just matched, just everything went well.
Because, and I look back on this and think, "Man, that's how I approach life in so many ways."
Like, "I just, you know what? I just want to be done,"
and someone comes along and says, "No, no, no. I know you're impatient, but you can be patient because
you don't actually just want it to be done. You want it to be done right."
I think there's maybe too many of us, we go through life and regardless of what it is,
whatever it is, the project we're working on, whatever the work it is that we're working on,
we just want to be done with it.
I mean, think about this:
I mean I, I wanted to get done building the shed, why? Because I wanted to go on to do the next thing
and when I was doing THAT thing, what would I ... what did I want to do?
I wanted to be done with THAT, so I what, so I could go on to the next thing.
And so often, we go through life just wanting to be done with the work.
The problem with that is this, is I'm then missing then, the work of the moment.
In so many ways, if I just want to be done with it, when I miss the work of the moment,
I'm also oftentimes missing the WORTH of the moment.
We will never ever encounter God in the future, we will never encounter God in the past.
The only time we have to encounter God is in the present, in the moment.
In this moment is the only time that I really have to either say yes to God or say no to God,
to either pay attention to God or to refuse to pay attention to God, to ignore God.
Because this is the moment.
Now again, so often though, I just want to be done with this moment, I want to be on to the next moment,
because I'm always looking towards the future or I'm looking towards the past,
and yet, the only moment you, actually any of us, ever really have is right now, is the present.
You know I, but
again, let's go back to this, last thing here.
In so many parts of our lives, you just want to be done.
So I'll talk to people who will say like, "I wanna ... God, give me patience."
Why? "Because I want to be done with the whole like 'striving for patience thing.
I want to have patience, so God give me patience."
Or "I want to be the kind of person who is able to go through life without any fear
so I just ... God, give me that, give me courage so I don't have to go through life afraid.
I want to be the kind of person who's DONE with being afraid and now I have courage."
Or "I want to be some one who ... God, God give me the ability to love people, the people next to me,
the people in my life, so God just give me that thing, do that for me."
Why? Because I want to be done with the striving to become a
person of love, or a person of patience, a person of courage, whatever that kind of person is,
a lot of times in our lives, you recognize that there's a work
that God's doing right now, there is a work that GOD'S doing right now.
And for a lot of us, we want him just to be done with it. "God, just do it. Let it be done,"
and he's like, "No, no, no." He's like Mitch. God, in a lot of ways, is like Mitch,
like, "No, we're doing it right now. We have to take it back to the studs.
We have to take it back to the foundation. We have to take it back a bunch of steps."
Like, "God, no, just be done." He's "No, no, no. We're going to do this right."
The remarkable thing is this: God is so much more patient than we are
because he doesn't just want it done and over with.
He doesn't just want the final result.
He wants US and the only moment that he gets to have us, is right now,
because if we live the "right now moment" in God's presence
that means we become the kind of people who can live the "forever moment" in God's presence.
You realize that right now, the work of the moment
is to become a person of love.
Right now, the work of the moment is become a patient person.
Right now, the work of the moment is to become that generous person or that fair person or
that person who is able to say, "I'm not just, 'I just want to be done.'
I want it to be done right," and to realize that when we recognize
this is the only moment I have to do that work, then we begin to realize the worth of every single moment.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God bless.