Is It Ever Okay to Give Up?

remember when tiger king was huge like six months ago if that would have come out um and been as big in non-quarantined times i guarantee you how many like steubenville hosts and presenters would have referenced tiger king so hey all you cool cats and kittens [Music] hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents so um the movie rudy is great and i know i'm throwing it way way back there i mean that that movie came out i think i was in high school this is early 90s here's the story it's the story of rudy rudiger or something like that i should look these things up i'm just going up from memory who has from a family that loves notre dame and loves notre dame football more than anything so rudy is a football player he wants to play at notre dame and so he enrolls in notre dame and he gets on essentially works works works gets on their i don't know they call practice team and he gets pummeled like every single day by the real team but he's there to like take the hits and run plays with the real team that goes on on the field and it's like years and years of this like just getting beaten and beaten and beaten and um but he doesn't give up he doesn't he doesn't quit he keeps moving forward he keeps getting in the game and then finally i think it's the last game against georgia tech remember the fact that i remember that is remarkable notre dame's leading by a thousand points and so they put rudy in and he gets a tackle and it's like he gets carried off the field i've been going rudy rudy i had a professor in college who was he said he was at that game and he said yeah we really cheered rudy and i didn't know i i guess it's that guy number whatever down on the field anyways the movie is like this triumph right it's one of those awesome trying for the human spirit type movies where um here here's this guy and he has this goal and he doesn't give up and he gets everyone tells him you gotta give up you're too small you're two whatever and and uh he doesn't give up and then he gets in and he does the thing like gets in the game and he does the thing gets in the game and he gets the tackle and it's just this like that's amazing um and then i read a book and i loved it too i thought this is fun then i read a book couple years after that that that said what a waste what a waste like rudy you're clearly not built for football for college football you're clearly not fast enough for college football you're clearly not strong enough for college football that no matter how hard you work you're never going to be like a college football level player yes you might get thrown in that's the thing you get you put in the last game where they're leading by a thousand points and you score one tackle was that all worth it that's the big question and i thought oh my gosh you just like shattered all my that's right whoa if he would have taken all that energy all that drive all that passion all that determination discipline and put it towards something that he was actually more naturally inclined to like he could have been awesome rather than just getting in one play and making one tackle the reason why i'm bringing this up is because someone asked me um this is more serious actually someone asked me they said uh father here's our situation my situation is a close friend of mine that michael's friend wants to get pregnant and has been trying with her husband again and again and again can't do it um if you see that's a turn i'm sorry i mean to go from like haha to like depths but it's how life is right and she said for for her part um uh the country in which she lives has a lot of violence and has a lot of uh injustice and has a lot of kidnapping in villages and towns and just like a really difficult place to live and both of them were saying in their situations with like one of their pregnant and just the other like just wanting to live peacefully wanting to live freedom wanting to live without this injustice that's when is it okay to give up like when is it again serious when is it okay to give up because we have this dream for a baby can i can i hold on to that dream or do i need to give up give it up i have this dream of a a village or a town a peaceful country and he just give up that dream when is it okay to give up i thought that is an incredible question the answer is when it when is it okay to give up hope never never it's never okay to give up hope okay now what is hope hope is trust in the lord extend it into the future i may never give up hope ever ever ever i know that he will always be with me i know he will always be with you regardless of your circumstances regardless of your situation when is it okay to give hope give up hope never uh what about faith like trusting in the lord when is it okay to give up faith never never um it's never okay to give up uh faith when is it okay to give up trying well that's the question is trying what when is it okay give up a living never but when is it okay to give up on this piece the outcome when is it because the question is when is it okay to give give up on god or his promises never ever ever never we'd never give up on god or his promises but when is it okay to reevaluate the outcome that i want and say i need to change my expectations i need to change my uh my desire for this particular outcome well the answer for that is when reality makes it obvious one of the challenges of the outcast catholic christians or any human being is recognizing that we're called to acknowledge and accept the reality of the situations we're in i don't mean that in a harsh way the reason the reason why i started off with talking about rudy is because what would have been helpful for him probably is to acknowledge and accept the reality of the situation that he's in is that okay you're you're not going to be a starter on the notre dame team notre dame team um they're acknowledging and accepting the reality of life of this circumstance could be again if you are okay with of being you know on the practice team and you're okay with maybe getting in one day that's great that's wonderful but you have to acknowledge and accept reality about this it's not giving up on dreams that's acknowledging this is what i have to work with and the same thing is true with some of those those those tragedies in a person's life where here i am i wanted to get married and i there's no one around or i wanted to have a child and we can't seem to have a child or i wanted to do this for my life and i can't do this or like i wanted to have a country that lived in peace and there and i don't have that right now the question i always ask is okay let's acknowledge and ex well the thing is acknowledge and accept reality and then in the midst of that reality now next now is the next question now what can i do with this that's the big thing because you have agency you have it i know i can't do everything but just because i can't do everything doesn't mean i can't do anything and the same thing the reality here is i you have agency and so even though i can't get pregnant i can do something so what i have to do is this or even though maybe i can't establish peace in my village or in my town or my country but i can do something so the first thing we do is we acknowledge and accept reality and then in the midst of that say okay god now what do you want me to do okay god now in this situation this current reality in this present reality what do you want me to do what can i do because you have agency and it might not turn out it might not turn out the way you want it to turn out and that's the thing is like when can i give up the outcome i don't know when you give up the outcome but you can when i give up hope will not give up trying when they give up faith never because this is the lesson essentially of rudy is if the outcome was i want to be in the in the game i'd say well that you worked really hard for probably not the greatest goal or if you're to say my goal was to get on the start starting lineup of the team like well maybe if you acknowledge and accept a reality you would realize that that's not going to be necessarily something that happens but people say yeah but all that work all that discipline all that that time under tension all that perseverance like it forged something in him like it changed him and i say yes exactly because we realize that when we give up on particular outcomes like it has to end up this way and start embracing the reality of but this action is doing something to me then we've discovered the power of trying the power of just not giving up the power of saying i can give up the outcome but i'm going to persevere in the midst of reality i'm going to acknowledge and accept reality and do what i can and even if i don't get the outcome that i want what happens is in the process i have the possibility of becoming the kind of person that god wants me to be the kind of person who can experience um pain the person can experience suffering the person who can experience failure and not give up but becomes more humble and more hopeful the kind of person who becomes more reliant on god and more confident in god i might have to give up on the outcomes but you and i we never give up acknowledging accepting and acting in reality yeah rudy was pretty good movie and i think that uh what all those hits all that trial all that all that stress did is it forged um maybe a man of character and what's happening in your life with your disappointments your heart breaks when you keep going it's forging a person of character in fact maybe even forging a person after god's own heart for all of us here at ascension presents my name is father mike god bless [Music] you

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 92,120

Rating: 4.9657316 out of 5

Keywords: Is it ever okay to give up, giving up, Fr. Mike, Fr. Mike Schmitz, fr. Mike on giving up, Ascension Presents, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, Father Mike Schmitz, just try, when is it okay to give up, rudy, rudy movie, God’s will, hope and faith, the reality of trying, following God’s will, person of character, giving up hope, mental health awareness, never give up motivation, never give up, fr. mike motivation, fr. mike inspiration

Id: CkY2tVYDPJQ

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 23 2020