Fr. Michael Schmitz | God's Plan Revealed | Steubenville Youth Conference

[Music] [Music] you are in a cap could you decapitate in the name of the Father Son Holy Spirit Father in Heaven we give you praise and glory we thank you so much for this incredible weekend this incredible day we ask you to please send your Holy Spirit upon this space and upon all of us gathered here this afternoon as we just ask you to reveal you ask you to reveal your will for our lives to us in our lives we make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord in through the intercession of our mom as we pray hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen in the Father Son Holy Spirit so um little while back maybe two years ago I heard of this story about this man named Ted Leonsis Tim beyoncé's was just a he's kind of a guy who would like go after it just go after life um by the time he was in his early 20s he had already you know graduated college and he had already actually started a couple businesses I mean started two businesses sold one already and so he was kind of a guy that if you were to see Ted at like whatever 23 24 years old he'd be like that dudes crushing it like he's killing it out here in the world but something happened to Ted that made him realize he was not crushing him he was not killing it and that thing was he almost got crushed he almost got killed he was in even a small passenger plane and it began to falter I guess yeah he went into a crash crash diving and he thought in that moment he was gonna die and he realized in that moment as the plane was going down that yeah I've done some things but I realized I have not done everything I could have done up until this point did he realized that I kind of have been living but he realized I haven't truly been living right he's been alive but he says I haven't been living what happened was the plane didn't crash and he didn't get killed he walked away from this but he walked away with a new perspective and the new perspective was this he says I no longer want to just exist I want to live and he said I don't just want to be a passive observer in my own life anymore since I wanna start living life on offense that's his phrase was I'm gonna start living life on offense because he realized up to that point even though again he was involved in a lot of things and did a lot of stuff you could say he was a passive observer of his own life and not an active participant in his own life and I bring Ted up because when he decided that he wanted to live life on purpose or when he wanted to live life on offense he sat down and he prayed about it and he wrote a list of a hundred and one things he wanted to do before he died here's some of the stuff that he wanted to do before he died number one he was at Ted Leonsis said you know I've been living but I haven't been living living living on offense he said he wanted to fall in love and marry that's number one thing he wanted and he actually did he'd met his wife and married her in 1987 and they are still married until through today number two he said he wanted to take care of his mom and his dad when they got too old to take care of themselves that was one of his goals for life he wanted to be able to do that um number three he wanted to have children who would grow up to become mature and self actualizing adults he wanted to raise good kids who become great adults that's number three thing he wanted to do number four actually this number twelve on his list he wanted to pay off his college debts so some of you might share that number twelve who might be number one for you on pathologist number number 19 he wanted to create this is blows my mind he wanted to create a 1 billion dollar company he's done that actually he's accomplished set at least seventy four of these 101 things he also wanted to do this number 23 he wanted to own a beach home that stayed in his family that is his kids and grandkids could enjoy um he wanted to own a rare and valuable piece of art that was number 28 number 31 he wanted to restore an antique automobile it's not like yeah would it be great to find a beat-up old truck beat-up old car and and just restore this antique make it make it great again I mean number 34 he wanted to change someone else's life via charity to that end number 38 he's done this blue again both of mine he wanted to see said by the enemy I want to have given away over 100 million dollars to charity and he's done that number 78 he wanted to sail the Mediterranean number 75 wanted to go on Safari he wanted to own a sports franchise and actually he ended up buying a team that plays in the NHL so if you consider hockey a sport that's up for debate anyways um I know number 51 he wanted to catch a foul ball at a major league baseball game number 55 he wanted to play golf at st. Andrews golf course in Scotland Scotland there in number 64 there he wanted to shoot baskets at Madison Square Garden number 89 you wanted to swim with dolphins number 92 wanted to hold elected office number 98 he wanted to see the Rolling Stones in concert these are all these things that he basically said I want to stop being a passive observer of my own life and I want to start being an active participant because Ted Leonsis realized what most of us don't realize most of us in this room exist this is my just going out in the lemon saying this most of us are in this room we'll get to the end of our lives and realize that we've wasted it this is true most people by the time they get to their last breath they will realize I have wasted my life I've been a passive observer of my own life and not an active participant and one of the reasons is because of this is because um a lot of us live like our decisions don't matter a lot of us live like our decisions don't matter here I want to say that that there's two ways of looking at the world one is if God exists and he created you on purpose like this world doesn't isn't made on purpose the other is if God that God doesn't exist and this world is an accident again two ways to look at life two ways to look at the world and all around us there are people who choose one or the other either God exists and so this world is not an accident it's on purpose or God doesn't exist in this world as an accident now the problem with this is it was a good thing I guess if God doesn't exist in the world's an accident then you can do whatever you want because none of it matters again if you don't believe in God if you an atheist hey this you can do whatever you want I mean honestly do whatever you want cuz none of it matters there's a cost to that though because if nothing matters then yes you can't lose but you also can't win when it comes to life if nothing matters if this whole thing's an accident yeah you know you can't lose just do whatever you want but also nothing means anything and you cannot win it's impossible to win if this whole world is an accident on the other hand if God does exist and this world's on purpose that means you can't you may not do whatever you want but whatever you choose to do mean something again if God exists you may not do whatever you want but everything you choose to do mean something so yes you can lose but you can also win that make sense that distinction makes make a big big difference because again one way looking at the world is this God doesn't exist this world's an accident therefore no matter what I do it doesn't mean anything can't win can't lose on the other hand if God does exist you're made on purpose just think about that for a second if God exists that means you're not an accident I remember dating a girl in high school um I'm saying I always have I always have to specify in high speed for seminary um and I remember talking to her little brother who was a number of years younger than her and she's like oh yeah this is Chad he is it kind of an accident and oh man whenever I hear parents say that one of their kids was an accident I'm just like just come over here so I can punch you in the face please because there's there's no such thing that if you exist you exist on purpose now you might know here's the deal you might say oh no father I get that because I'm at the Steubenville Youth Conference for the weekend clearly I believe God exists and like he's made me on purpose I didn't just say there's two ways of looking at the world as if God doesn't exist and there's no meaning no purpose or if God does exist there is purpose there's two ways of living and I find people who will say no yeah God exists and there's there's something life means something but they don't live like that they don't live asked if their life has purpose they don't necessarily live as if the life has meaning because why because I just walk through life as a passive observer of my own life but if you believe your life has meaning you can either live if you if you believe you're made on purpose you can either live on purpose or you can live off purpose I want to say that again if you believe that you were created on purpose then you can either live on purpose or you can live off purpose and if your life actually means something if your decisions actually matter then what that means is if I have a limited amount of life I do not want to get to the end of my life and realize I've wasted it that means that I cannot waste my time on things that don't matter if you want to live on purpose that means that you can't just do whatever you want it means you also have to make the decision I'm not gonna waste my time and things that are matter here's it even even further because our lives are so minute limited we only have 24 hours a day 168 hours a week not only can't you waste your time on what doesn't matter you can't waste your time on what doesn't matter the most so my good meek is really really clear you cannot waste your time or what doesn't matter most st. Paul writing to the best he wrote this to me he said I want you need to know this brothers and sisters the time is running out you know that might be hard to believe you when you're 16 but like know that the clock is tickin like the hourglass is tipped over already time is running out he says and we're limited and even at the end of it you'd have to wait to the end of your life you can even ask this question at the end of the week at the end of your day you can say okay did I waste my time or did I spend my time that's gonna be the question did I waste my time or did I spend my time did I waste my life or did I spend my life was it thrown away or was it given away this is gonna be absolutely important and good as I said because every one of us gets 24 hours every day we all get 168 hours every week but you know they did a study of Americans asking Americans um if they wanted more time 55 0 % of Americans said that they could use more time how many people would say here like yeah my life like yeah I totally I would be among those people I could use more time so whenever I'm talking about college students I'm like yeah do you guys say this it's a hundred percent of them and say I could use more time and I have to look at them I don't know if I'm looking at you cuz I hardly see I would say that's not true I could use more time where most people who say I could use more time I'd say I don't think that's true because I think most of us waste most of the time we've already been given isn't that true with your life we already waste most of the time that we've been given I don't have to go through the list video games Netflix Hulu Facebook Twitter Instagram snapchat just doing nothing like a lot of us waste actually um I had to do this a little while ago there's this website called tiii Emmy tiii dot Emmy and it what it is basically you can type in a TV show like say if say for example you like Parks and Rec or something like this like you meet you watch all the entire series of Parks and Rec just type in Parks and Rec into T III Emmy and it will tell you exactly how much of your life was taken from you when you watch that series I have been known to occasionally have watched the TV show at the office and that I typed it into T III that Emmy that that means basically in one if you just watched every episode one time that cost me three days 21 hours and 12 minutes of my life if I've watched it more than once just do the math on that one again again this is not like one of those the kind of situations I'm trying to like make everyone feel bad about this because I do the same thing I mean I have watched the office maybe maybe more than once um but like you go to those websites that are like you know I'll totally clickbait you know so it's like to find out you know something something you won't believe number 12 and I'm like oh I can't wait click through this for a while I'm like why is it taking so long to load I've been here for five minutes and I just need to pull away and I'm realizing oh my gosh lord help me right now I can't like just click out of this in this log out it's just dumb I don't need to know this information but BuzzFeed you've got me by the neck and I can't do anything about it you know we're all part of this in fact there was this isn't anything new the Roman stoic philosopher his name was Seneca he realized people all around him were complaining we don't have enough time you don't have enough time in Seneca said this about time he said it's not that we have a short time to live but that we waste a lot of it life is long if you know how to use it it's not that we have a short time to live that we waste a lot of it life is long if you know how to use it yeah I was thinking about this especially because our Lord says to the Prophet Jeremiah I know the plans I have for you says the Lord I have plans for your life again remember I made you on purpose so how come you're living off purpose I made you on purpose how come you're not like actually living with a vision in mind I don't know if you guys can tell you know we don't we've never met each other until today or yesterday anything can tell by looking at me but uh the last I don't know eight months nine months I've been watching a lot of YouTube exercise videos can you can you tell and that's Sharon I'm like update like two or three a day so it's kind of serious these days but I was watching one I don't know how long ago it was on bodybuilders and it was just fascinating about lugging all these these men and women who are doing bodybuilding how every part of their day is oriented towards just getting bigger muscles and sculpting the muscles they have so everything they eat is already thought through they already know exactly are there any what they're going to eat for the entire week in fact for like they know what they're gonna eat for the entire season down to the you know the smallest grain of rice when it comes to when they go to bed when it comes to when they get up they already know exactly when it comes to the workouts they know exactly what they're going to do when it comes to the rest when it comes to their their fun time they know exactly what they're going to do and you might look at them and say that's a waste of a life I can't believe you're spending your life I'll just you know sculpting your body you're she's gonna become dust eventually no maybe that's true like it is it true but I think those body builders do something that we don't do I'm not saying they're wasting their time on something I won't last and we don't waste our time and things that are last week we waste our time and things just as maybe even more petty but the thing that they do that we don't do is they have a vision for how they want to be and they're making decisions to try to get to that vision we realize this decisions determine your destiny but your vision focuses your decisions say that again our decisions determine our destiny like what you do with your life is who you'll become but you're a vision focuses your decisions and so again at least with the body builders they're like yeah I know what my I know my vision is here's the goal so all my decisions are oriented towards that the question I have to ask for you ask you is is God says through Prophet Jeremiah I know the plans I have for you have we stopped for a moment and asked God what is the vision you have for me because I could get to the end of my life and realize I have been living off purpose and I could hear those words from Jesus I don't know if you've stopped to think about them there's a there's a moment in the Gospels where Jesus says two people who are following him he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven and they say what wait no like we Jesus we like healed people in your name and we perform mighty deeds in your name and we did all these other great things in your name and he says not all those who say Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only those who do the will of my father question how many of us have that as our vision for who we want to be meaning to do the will of the Father and I want to get to the end of my life and look back over my life and say I made the decision to do the Father's will as often as I possibly could because I know this that decisions determine my destiny and my vision my vision of being one of the fathers sons or one of the father's daughters that focus is my decisions or will I get to the end of my life and realize I've just wasted all that time now I fear that too few of us spend our lives getting to know the Lord too few of us spend our lives trying to get to do the will of the Father which is really crazy because you think that if you weren't gonna you know spend your life doing what you should do then at least you should like really go big when it comes to sin like a lot of us like we're like no I'm not really doing the Father's will well thank well then why don't you go out and rob a bank for crying out loud like do something big like I'm not gonna do the Father's will then why aren't you can become a better criminal than you are like I'm not going to the Father's will then why don't you become like a really big sinner because it's just basically gonna end up the same if you're not gonna do what you ought to do you might as well do what you want to do you guys aren't responding I thought I thought you would I thought you'd be like ha ha ha are you serious but I kind of am serious you know CS Louis one of my buddies CS Lewis you wrote this book called the Screwtape Letters and in the book the Screwtape Letters it was written from the perspective of a master tempter like a demon tempting our teaching a junior tempter like how it attempt a guy and in it he says this he says you know there if you really tempt him well you will no longer need a really good book that he really likes to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep a column of advertisements in yesterday's paper will do the trick again if the guy's not gonna do what he ought to do you know what you don't even need like something like really really big to keep him from doing what he should do something just distracting might might as well do it goes on the big temperature says you can make him waste his time in conversations that he enjoys with people he really likes but you can also make him waste his time on subjects that bore him with people he doesn't like how many of you have been in that kind of situation or is like yeah I'm not doing what I should do because I'm really enjoying this or like I'm not even doing what I should do I don't want something I guess goes on you can make him do nothing for long periods of time you can keep him up late at night not roistering roistering things like partying rippin it up not roistering but staring at a dead fire in a cold room my father we don't have fireplaces down here I don't know what you can keep him from doing what he ought to do not because he's out ripping it up but because there she is just looking at or tablet all night here he is not going to sleep because he's growing through something on his phone here they are scaring it staring at this cold light from their computer again not doing anything crazy just not doing anything he goes on to say all the healthy and ongoing activities we want him to avoid because he's a devil right doesn't want you to do the healthy not outgoing activities all the healthy now going activities he wanted to avoid let them be inhibited and nothing given in return so that at last when he stands in the truth he will say about himself this is the line at the end when he stands before God when he stands knowing the truth about himself he will say I now know that I spent most of my life neither doing what I liked nor would I odds how many of us could look back over the course of they you know that since break started summer break and say I realize Hobbs spent so much time not even doing what I ought not doing what I ought but even not even doing what I like to do I just did something cuz it was something to do if I did that the last week what's it gonna mean if I just string together a whole lifetime of those kinds of weeks it's the end of my life and realize not only did I not do the Father's will I didn't even do something that I enjoyed to do yet st. Paul says to the Christians he says brothers and sisters please live a life worthy of the call you've received live a life worthy of the call you've received like say yes to God so here in the last just a few minutes here uninvite you do I wanna give some practical tools like practical tools for like okay if I want to do God's will and not waste my life I want to get to the end of my life and not be realized oh my gosh I not only did not do what I ought I didn't do what I liked how can you hear God's will number one pray first thing you need to do is pray but here's what I want to steer you everyone away from a lot of times here's what happened to me when I was in high school I had a conversion and counter to the with the Lord and so then I started to pray but one of the moments of the conversion also involved like gosh Lord are you asking me to be a priest what do you want me to do right I want to do your will so I'm gonna go to pray and you're gonna tell me what your will is so I'm gonna go on retreat you're gonna tell me what your will is and I'm gonna go to mayor Prep mirror mass in prayer and you're gonna tell me what you will is or I'm gonna do this rosary and you're gonna tell me what your real is and I would leave that retreat I would leave that conference I would leave that mass I would leave that prayer time thinking that it was Ystad because I didn't get the answer I wanted I think about this now and realize all I wanted from my prayer was I just wanted God to tell me what to do all God wanted for my prayer is he wanted me to get to know him when you pray for your vocation when you pray for discernment when you pray for that next step I'm inviting you please don't let that prayer become a tool just to get your answer let the prayer become the place where you get to have a relationship with God remember mark Hart once said this he said he's so good such a great quote he said sometimes people think that prayer is working on their relationship with God it's not prayer is your relationship with God which means if I'm not praying I cannot have a relationship with God so again ask God his vision if he doesn't give you a direct answer it doesn't tell you immediately here I want you to go to a convent marry that person go to the seminary like he doesn't tell you that he's at least told you something can ask God for his vision for your life there was a young man who was in direction with me I did spiritual reduction with him and at one point he went to the seminary and he realized Brella tably quickly that he wasn't called to the seminary so then he left the seminary and he dated a couple people and realize not that not there and he was like but father Mike like what you know what's God want from me and in the course of our conversation he came to the conclusion he said I don't know if God wants me to be a priest I don't know if God wants me to be a husband and father but I do know that God wants to be me to be virtuous I knew I do know God wants me to be the kind of person who tells the truth who works hard who prays who serves others so don't need to know if he wants me to do that as a priest or as a husband or as a dad I can start doing that right now yeah I don't know God's big will for my life but I do know that he wants me to be virtuous and I can start on that right now I don't need to wait at all number one pray the second thing I would ask invite you to do is whatever you do is just gather data what I mean by that is how many people here have done algebra okay like two of you um just kidding we've all done algebra and two you know in the algebra problems you have to solve for X you know if you have a bunch of other like unknown variables you're trying to solve for X you can stare at that problem as long as you want but they're like no I need more information I can't solve this problem for X unless you give me more variables I don't know what Y Z Q L I don't know what any of these other things are so what happens it happens you have to figure out what those other pieces of data are you know if you know what Y is oh no I'm one step closer to being able to solve for X so you can stare at the problem the problem of your location if you're the problem of what God wants you to do for your life so I can't figure it out yeah or you can go and get more data what that might look like they might look like when you get home from the conference that guy's German my brother's that girl you were noticing the whole conference when you get I'm emphasizing this when you get home maybe a little text e-text yeah maybe send her a little message message you know kind of like I hey it was really nice to see you pray would you like to pray with me someday I don't know whatever but wait to you don't do it during the conference weekend to ruin her weekend um I or what I'm what I'm saying is take a step right then you find out the data when she says who is this you're like oh never mind I get it friendzone um or it's saying I don't know if God's calling me the convent well go visit a convent I don't have God's calling me to seminary well go visit a seminary not because when you walk in sometimes people say you know you walk in I was like I'm home this is it that's not always the case even if you're supposed to be there it's I'm going here why not cuz I now I know I'm going here because now I have more data same thing as true when it comes to dating like yeah if you don't know on your first date like dude get out of there no you're just getting more data so do stuff that gets you more data maybe that's visit the seminary maybe it's ask that person out maybe it's talk to your parents if you like have a good relationship with your parents and when it comes to that kind of thing maybe it's talk to a vocation director whatever it is though just get more data there's so much stuff that we don't know that if we just ask someone we would know number one pray number two gather data and number three make some decisions I remember hearing this a bunch of couple years ago they said ever since discernment make a popular no one's made a decision hey you're gonna go do the thing I'm really just discerning that kind of a thing you know so you guys been dating for six years are you gonna get married oh we're still discerning if we should get married listen if you don't know after four years you don't know actually no if you don't know after four years you know make a decision we need to make decisions back john paul ii he's pretty smart guy pretty holy guy right st. John Paul the great at the end he would counsel college students all over the place they say you know father why do you uh what should we do here what should we do here and it would give them counsel but then he would say these very painful to hear for words he would say I'm making sure I'm counting he would say you have to decide you have to decide you know all the information now you have to decide I don't know if anyone here is ever citing it in a gun you've recited in a rifle good oh hopefully I'm like no listen it's like Louisiana Minnesota Minnesota is like Louisiana the north and you guys are like the Minnesota the south so like we're in the same state we're siting in guns all the time you guys have roadkill that looks like crocodile alligator 's we have roadkill looks like deer and raccoons and beaver and other things we just don't have dinosaurs up in Minnesota but when you're siting in a gun then we think you know this how this goes you don't cite in your gun on opening day if you do you don't get anything you know what citing your gun and opening day what you do is you go out to the we go to like sand pits I don't know where you guys go um maybe like gun range you go to the range and you line up the target and you line up you know your sight on the target you don't you know didn't hear say interesting thing you don't just line up your sight on the target and then go like oh that looks good and then walk away what do you do you line up your sight on the target and then you pull the trigger you shoot and you discover something when you shoot you discover oh oh the it's off by this much I'll adjust and then you line it up again and you I shoot you pull the trigger and it might be a little closer you like oh I'll just it some more and then what do you do you line up the sight on the target and then you shoot and you keep doing this you keep like lining up and shooting lining up and shooting liquid shooting not afraid I co my gosh what if the deer run away they're not there this is the this is the gun range same kind of thing is true when it comes to our discernment when it comes to moving forward you gather the data you pray you'll line up the target and say oh no take a step you say guys again my brother's he say like I don't know she's really nice and she seems to kind of be interested in me and so I don't know I'll take a step and say hi would you like to have coffee with me sometime or whatever you guys drink it's like to have a snowball I don't know she's like that sounds like a great idea I'll call some of my girlfriends okay gotcha you do not want to take me um but what it is is it's lined up take a step learn something just take a step line it up take a step so many times the last thing too many times in fact too many times when we say God just tell me what to do I just want to do your will so tell me what to do maybe yes we want God to let us know what to do but I think sometimes we just want to be left off the hook for making a difficult decision but God gave you a brain and he gave you a free will and he expects you to use it he gave you put you on this earth on purpose and he wants you to live on purpose and the best way we can live on purpose is when we recognize our decisions determine our destiny and our vision focuses our decisions God's made you to be a saint that's the vision what kind of decisions can I make today that will determine that my destiny is to become the man or the woman that matches up with God's vision for the man of woman he's man or woman he's created me to be brother I just invite you you were created on purpose please please make the decision to live on purpose and not waste your life all glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen how many god bless you all the Father Son Holy Spirit amen

Channel: Steubenville Youth Conferences

Views: 81,642

Keywords: Catholic, Charismatic, Youth Conference, Youth, Conference, Evangelization, Steubenville Conferences, Steubenville

Id: KVmSJlD6UqM

Length: 34min 58sec (2098 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 17 2018