How Do I Know if I Made the Wrong Choice?

all right all right all right all right all right here we go is it too bright I think it's fine probably fine right probably fine okay hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and this is essential presents so I don't know if you've ever been in a situation like this where you were so sure that something was God's will and then you pursued it whether that was a major in college or where that was a career path or that that was a relationship or maybe even discernment in religious life or discernment in a in towards oriented towards marriage and he was so convinced you were so certain that this was what God wanted you to do and then then it wasn't right then it didn't turn out and sometimes I you know I hear from a lot of people who say like I thought I was I was I thought for sure this is what God wanted for me thought for sure this was his path and then it didn't work out you know the uh I didn't get the job or um I didn't get accepted into the program or the person broke up with me or the people in discernment and formation they they said I wasn't I couldn't go on again continue formation whatever that thing is sometimes we can be certain that something is God's will and it turns out that it's not and it's really easy in those moments to second-guess ourselves it's really easy in those moments actually even to get upset with God and so like what do we do in those moments and so in order to kind of dive into this I want to look at a couple different aspects of this maybe even four things uh the first is the things we have to consider one is that while God has made it very clear in some areas this is what I want always do this and this is what I don't want never do this um like you know we know those things the Commandments that kind of thing teachings of the church there are some things that God always says don't do this don't commit murder don't commit adultery Etc down the line and there's something God says always do this like always go to mass on Sunday and always have a prayer life those those things we need to do take care of the people around us a lot of our choices God lets us have the choice like God lets us have the freedom to choose like how are you going to live my Commandments how are you going to live out my will in your life that God gives us if he doesn't make it clear that here's what I want in a lot of ways I think what God is doing is he's saying okay go ahead go ahead and choose you know my broadly speaking my will my perfect will for you so now I'm giving you some freedom and you have this freedom to be able to choose in the midst of my will the direction you can go this way or that way your major could be engineering your community your major could be architecture your major could be education it could be nursing you don't even have to go to college like all of those things can fall under God's permissive will and he doesn't necessarily have a perfect will in those moments right it's kind of like this so number one God gives us a lot of freedom to choose our own now on those lines sometimes we don't like that why because we have this idea that if I choose God's perfect will if I choose God's will then it'll be smooth sailing and if I am up to it's up to me then um I'm having I don't have anyone else to blame except for myself so sometimes we really like the idea that if God's Wills out there it's this mysterious kind of a thing and if I pick the right thing then things are going to be absolutely perfect of course that's never a guarantee God never promised that ever ever did he ever promise that if we follow him and do exactly what he asks that our life is going to be perfect in fact it's the opposite sirach chapter 2 verse 1 says my son when you come to serve the Lord prepare yourself for trials Jesus himself says in this world you will have trouble you will have trouble but take heart I've overcome the world so keep this in mind that just to say yes to God's will as it as as as he wills it does not preserve us from Pain and secondly if it's my choice then I have no one to blame I have no one to blame about myself and I can't just automatically blame God so that's the first thing you have some Freedom second thing is okay when it comes to discernment I thought I'd discerned the right thing and it turns out it wasn't the right thing well we we realized this we realized that our discernment can be wrong like if I was praying I was talking to people and I I thought I was following God's will I was really striving after that even in the midst of that our discernment can be wrong I mean think about this the history of the church is full of people who um claimed heresies right they they thought this is absolutely this is what the truth is they had to be corrected by the church I mean even kind of a lot of the Reformation that was led by what that was led by people who were praying and people who said they were listening to God's voice but they did exactly the wrong thing they took the unity of the church and now it's splintered into ten tens of thousands of different denominations and they did this while they were praying we couldn't discern wrong we just know that if that can happen on a massive scale like the division of the body of Christ that can happen in my life too so number one I have a lot of freedom number two I can just earn wrong I could get it wrong even if I'm praying number three this is important just because things have not panned out how I wanted them to pan out doesn't mean that this isn't part of God's will just because uh the road is now marked by pain or the word the road is now marked by failure doesn't mean that isn't this isn't part of God's will I mean look at the life of Jesus himself Jesus did the father's will perfectly and where did it lead him it led him to a place of yes incredible uh Beauty and power and miracles and and and people accepting him and and yeah receiving him and being converted but it also was marked by rejection it was marked by betrayal it was marked by failure or apparent failure he was marked by torture and death so keep this in mind one of the Criterion is not going to be this is clearly God's will because I've succeeded and because I have everything I want and this clearly can't be God's will because I failed it because um it's hard and painful we recognize that when we come to serve the Lord we have to prepare ourselves for trials and so keep that in mind but the fourth thing is this first thing right we have a lot of freedom secondly we can discern wrong thirdly so keep that humble humility thirdly the the Criterion right for judging whether this was a discerned well or poorly is not failure or success but fourthly it's possible that you discerned incredibly well and you said I thought for sure that God wanted me to go down this road but now all of a sudden there's a roadblock I thought for sure God wanted me to go down this road but all of a sudden I'm being forced to down this Alleyway down this side street who's to say that God did not want you to start going down this road so that you could get to the roadblock who's to say that God didn't want you to start going down this road so that you could get to the side street now see our problem is this our problem is we thought that when God set me on this road I knew the destination I thought when God sent me on this road that I just said oh yeah this is how it's going to be for the rest of my life or the rest of whatever the next Placebo future is and God was like no no I just wanted you to get on the road so you discerned that completely correctly that was accurate you did it discern well you said here's a relationship this I thought that this was the relationship for my whole life yes you might have but maybe it was merely the relationship to get you to that next stage in life I thought this was the major that you know that that I was gonna pursue and get his career in this field maybe but maybe it was just the beginning of getting you to the place where you got to make the next decision again every Every Act you know life is not a crock pot this is not crockpot Christianity where you kind of set it and forget it God wants to be actively engaged in our lives and so we don't just say I made this decision no I'm on this track and this is I'm going to go until the end and how I see the end it could be okay I'm on the road and I'm constantly every day waking up and saying okay God here we go okay God are we are we still on this road are we taking a side street are we on this road are we taking a trail are we on this road are we doubling back God where do you want me to go today no it's not to be um obsessive about this but it is to be active right it is to be cooperative with the Lord himself because it might be the case that you made the exact right decision that you discerned completely accurately and God got you on that road and got you moving so that he could get you to this Fork so that he could get you to this roadblock so that he could get you to this side road because he has other places that you and I cannot even imagine where he wants you to go so don't give up discernment don't give up Discerning because what you thought it would be turns out to be something different continue Discerning knowing that God you're in the driver's seat I am here cooperating with you and I will go wherever you lead me even if it's not exactly what I thought it would be anyways for all citizens presents my name is father Mike God bless foreign [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 122,130

Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, fr. Mike, father mike, catholic advice, catholic inspiration, catholic motivation, fr. mike schmitz, fr. Mike schmidt, father mike schmitz, michael schmitz, fr. Mike advice, fr. Mike videos, vocation, vocational discernment, discernment, principles of discernment, discerning your vocation, what if I discern wrong?, videos on discernment, advice for discernment, what is god’s will for me?, Discovering God’s will for your life

Id: I1zwK-K5Wwg

Length: 9min 29sec (569 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023