← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Politics Are Distracting You From This (w/ Fr. Mike Schmitz)
00:07:27
Are headlines, podcasts, and politics consuming your attention? Fr. Mike Schmitz encourages us to step away from the constant noise of news, politics, and our phones and turn instead to Scripture. In the Bible, we encounter the wisdom, truth, and peace that no news cycle can provide.
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- [00:00]
A
So I've been looking at the world and the issues and looking at crises not through the lens of Christ, but through the lens of whatever the latest podcaster or the latest news channel was. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents. I got this incredible email from a man named Pastor Mark. Pastor Mark is a pastor of a different denomination. And he had emailed me because he said that he had an unhealthy preoccupation with politics. He was always constantly feeding his mind and feeding his heart, feeding his. His emotions with whatever the latest political issue was. Probably many of us would have a reason for that or excuse for that. We'd say, no, I've got to be informed. I'm a participating citizen in the goings on of my nation. I need to know what's going on in politics. A lot of times that can be our excuse. And maybe that was his excuse. Well, what happened was at the beginning of Lent, actually the day before Ash Wednesday, he was trying to figure out what he was going to do for Lent. And his wife actually said, I think you should give up politics for Lent. And he was like, no, I don't want to. And he said, which is why I knew I needed to do that. He said, but I needed to replace all of this input of all this political talk radio or talk Internet, all these kind of things with something else. And so what he decided was he decided to do the Bible in a year. And he said his goal was to do it in 40 days. His goal was to do it between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. He said he just finished like two weeks after Easter. So that's incredible. Amazing. But he said what was even more incredible than just the fact that he was able to get through the Bible in two months? He said that he noticed a difference in his mind, heart and soul. His wife noticed a difference in his mind, heart and soul. He said even his congregation would talk to him and say, you seem less. I don't want to get the words wrong, but like, you seem less stressed, you seem less anxious, you seem less angry, you seem more at peace. And he was like, I am. And it was one of those situations where he realized in this detox from just all these arguing people constantly and listening to God's word and letting that permeate his mind and his heart, that God was doing something remarkable. And I got his email, and it was just one of the coolest things to read to know that here's a brother in Christ again, not Catholic, maybe, yet, who knows? I Don't know. But who also allowed God's word to refashion his lens. I mean, the whole point of the Bible, Bible and Ear, at least podcast, was to look at the world through a biblical lens. One of the reasons why we even started the Bible and Ear was it was during COVID and I was just like Pastor Mark. I was listening to Every podcast, every YouTube expert who was talking about, here's what we need to do. Here's what we can't ever do. And I always say this, I always say I found myself getting really distracted and distressed because, like, man, we gotta fix this. This is the worst. But at the same time, I was reading the Book of Judges, and if you know anything about the Book of Judges, one of the lines, of course, is that in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That it was generations of chaos. It was generations of people just not having a clue. And here we were in the United States and around the world with COVID and it's only been months, and we're like, what do we do now? And I remember realizing with generations, this is not the first time, and this is also not the worst time this has ever happened. But there was this conviction of what I needed. I needed to reclaim what Monsignor Shea out at Umarry in Bismarck called a biblical worldview. Because what I had done is I had embraced this, a worldly worldview. Like, I embraced the world. Like, how I would assess policy, how I would assess even just, is this a good strategy or is this a good decision? Is this a good way of looking at the world? I would assess it from the wisdom of the world, which sometimes is wise, but the wisdom of the Word of God is eternal. So I've been looking at the world and the issues and looking at crises not through the lens of Christ, but through the lens of whatever the latest podcaster or the latest news channel was. I'm so grateful to be able to have walked through the Bible with so many people for many reasons, but one is I feel like I reclaimed my inheritance because our inheritance, what Jesus said, he says, my peace I leave to you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give you my peace. And yet how often do we exchange the peace Christ offers for this kind of worldly? I want to know. I want to get the latest opinion. I want to figure this out. And we sacrifice the peace, the shalom, right? That shalom, that deep, abiding sense of peace that Christ offers us for curiosity. I think it's really good to be informed. We in the United States, we're citizens of this country, right? We're not subjects. We're not residents of this country. We have to be actively engaged. But let's be honest, 90 plus percent of our being engaged with news or politics is probably more of a curiosity than it is making actually an impact on the world around us. My dad talks about this all of the time. The difference between our sphere of interest and our sphere of influence. My sphere of interest is huge. My sphere of influence is not huge. And so I think when I'm honest about that, I realize that there's only so much impact I can make. So there's only so much of the news I need to take in. But I absolutely need to allow God's word to form my mind and my heart and my soul, to let God's word to form the way I look at other people, to let God's word form the way that I look at him, the way I look at myself, and the way I look at the world. So here's my invitation. Just like Pastor Mark, Pastor Mark got done and he said, I'm starting the catechism in a year. I'm like, that's amazing too, because when we let the church, the wisdom of the church, form the way we look at the world, it gets better and better, more and more, clearer and clearer. So my invitation is, if you've never gone through the Bible in a year, please do it. If you've already gone through the Bible in a year, do the catechism in a year. If you've already gone through both, do it again. I'm on my second or third, I don't know how many times around in the Bible in a year.
- [06:29]
B
What are you listening to?
- [06:30]
A
Oh, I'm on day 276 of the Bible in the Air podcast. Two times speed.
- [06:35]
B
Oh, I love that podcast. Have a good day.
- [06:37]
A
Have a good day. You too.
- [06:39]
B
I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast where we encounter God's voice and live, like, through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
- [06:44]
A
I have to listen on two Times Speed or else it sounds like me. It's a whole thing. Anyways, I listen because.
- [06:48]
B
Why?
- [06:48]
A
Because I know I need it. I don't need my voice. I need the Lord's Word to shape the way I see this world. And I think we all do. If you've already done it, take another trip around the sun. If you haven't done it yet, let this be your invitation to be like Pastor Mark and let go of the worldly wisdom or the worldly peace that this world offers and experience the wisdom of God and the peace that only comes through Jesus Christ. Anyways, from all of us here at Ascension presents, My name is Father Mike. God bless.