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Recently someone asked me, they said, why in

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the world, how in the world is something

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like discouragement connected to something like pride? You

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can't afford to be discouraged. You're too weak.

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I'm your name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is The

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Sentient Presents. Before we go any further on this, I want

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to clarify because this might be what the person was asking.

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You know, sometimes we are facing things in life that just

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like, man, oh man, I am exhausted.

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I am so worn down. Our hearts get

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sad. Our hearts get broken. It's

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easy to become discouraged when it comes

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to the circumstances and situations in the

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seasons in our lives. And that's not what

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I'm talking about. Let me just reiterate this.

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When it comes to how hard life can

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be sometimes and those moments

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where it's just, I feel beaten up,

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right? Maybe you're in a place right now where

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you would say, yeah, that's, that's my experience. I

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feel beaten up right now.

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And maybe you're discouraged because it's like, I don't

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know if I see any way forward. That

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isn't necessarily connected to pride, right?

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That just might be, I'm tired. And

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again, I might not have the hope that

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I once had, or maybe I don't have

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the hope that God is inviting me to have

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when it comes to moving forward. That might be

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a video for another time. When it comes to

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the kind of discouragement that's connected to pride, this

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is the kind of mean I'm discouraged with myself.

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That's the kind of mean. Not I'm discouraged

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because I'm so, so tired of fighting. I'm

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so tired of our situation. I'm so tired

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of, you know, all this external things. When

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I'm discouraged with myself, I want to give up. Discourage

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and despair are very, very closely connected and despair

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is connected to pride. Here's what I mean.

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I thought that I would be better and

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it turns out that I'm not, right? A lot of times

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that's what we're saying. When it comes to spiritual discouragement, that

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is at the heart of all of this. If you've been

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pursuing the Lord for any amount of

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time, whether that be one day and now you're

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listening to this video or watching this video, or

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that could be the last 50 years of my

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life, I've been pursuing the Lord and I keep

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falling and I'm discouraged by that. That's

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connected to pride. Why? Because

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of this, because underneath that discouragement is

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that mantra. I thought that. I would be

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better. I thought my self-assessment,

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my assessment of myself, was that I

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would be over this, whatever the thing

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is that is discouraging me. I

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thought that I would be past this. Maybe you have a

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sin in your life, maybe a situation in your life where

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it's just like, oh, I thought that I would be free

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of this at this point. The

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mantra underneath is, I thought that

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I would be better than this. Another

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way to say it is, I don't

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want to have to need God's grace so

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much. I don't want to have to need

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God's mercy so much. And I'm

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discouraged because I need God's grace. We have

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the infinite amount of God's mercy. Like, that

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God has no limits to his mercy. God

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has no limits to the number of times

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he will stoop down and pick us up

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and put us as high as possible. There's

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no limit to this. I think Pope Francis

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was the one who said it, right, that God

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does not get tired of forgiving us or giving

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us mercy. We get tired of asking for it.

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That's discouragement. I'm so tired of asking

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for God's help because I thought

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that I would be better. Why is that connected

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to pride? Because pride is that. Pride says I

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want to not have to need God so much.

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If the problem is pride, right, the problem is

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that since I have a wrong sense of self,

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right, I thought that I would be better and

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I'm not. The remedy is humility.

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Like, truly, the remedy is humility. How

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do we grow in humility? How about this? One,

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you know that humility is not beating yourself

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up. Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

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It's thinking of yourself less. In that sense,

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that, okay, so if I'm

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going to get rid of pride and grow in

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humility, it's not I need to gang

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up on myself and punch myself in the humility

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bone. No, you do not have to beat

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yourself up. That's not humility. So number

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one, humility is not beating yourself up. How about

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by thinking of yourself less? Or how about this?

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How about G.K. Chesterton

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once said, the reason why angels can

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fly is because they take themselves lightly.

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To develop the ability to

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laugh at yourself is a

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great gift. Satan cannot

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laugh at himself. He could not possibly take a

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step out of of himself and set aside

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his pride, set aside his ego, and laugh

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at his situation, laugh at his circumstances, laugh at his

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own weakness. But you

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and I can. That is an

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incredible sign of humility. Now, he's saying, well, no, I'm not

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going to laugh at my sin. Yeah, you're right. Don't laugh

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at your sin. We don't laugh at

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evil. We can, though, we

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can, however, laugh at our own weakness. We

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can laugh at the reality of, wow, Lord, maybe

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you have that mantra. I thought that I would

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be better than this, but I'm not.

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Do you able to laugh at this? Oh my gosh, Lord, I look

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at me. Oh, I thought that I would be better than

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this, but I'm not. And I need you. That's

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it. That's the growth and humility

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that every one of us needs. God,

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I thought that I'd be over this

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by now. Apparently, this knucklehead needs some

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more growing. Apparently, this knucklehead needs

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your grace more. And that's okay. Why?

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Because God gives us his grace as

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much as we need and more. So

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here's the invitation. The next

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time you find yourself discouraged, take

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a beat, realize, okay, wait a second.

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My mantra is, I thought that I would be better than

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this, and then realize, but I'm not.

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Okay. All that means is

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God, I need you again. I mean,

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even to recognize that even

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the most profound weakness you have in your life, because

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of Jesus, is

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actually the road by

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which you can get to Jesus. Man,

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if I didn't need God so much, I would forget

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him quickly. So

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I'm grateful for my weaknesses. Don't

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get me wrong. I'm still on this process as

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well. I still hate my weaknesses. I still hate

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when I fall. I still hate my failings. But

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I love him. And

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so I'm not discouraged. I remember years

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ago, one of our missionaries, she said, why

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am I so surprised when I find out

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that weakness is actually weak? Why am I

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so surprised when my weakness is

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actually weak? We shouldn't

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be surprised. We can laugh at

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it because we have a Savior. Again,

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we're not laughing at evil, we're not laughing at

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sin, but we can chuckle

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at ourselves and say, here I am, Lord, I

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need you. One of my

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favorite prayers was of a man named Saint

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Philip Nery. And apparently Saint Philip Nery was,

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I think, the saint of Rome, the

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joyful saint. He was full

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of joy, but his prayer, apparently,

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every morning before he left his home and

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went out into the world, was,

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God, please watch

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out for Philip today. Because

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if you give him the chance, he

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will betray you. Write

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the idea, like, God, God, watch out for me. Take

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care of me. I know this, I know

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this. If you give me the chance to sin, I

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know my heart, I know my weakness. If you give me the

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chance to betray you, I will. So

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help me. I believe that one of

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the reasons why Saint Philip Nery is so closely associated

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with joy and laughter is because of

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that. Because he could

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laugh at himself. Not

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only his strengths and his gifts and all good

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things, he could also laugh at his weakness. Because

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he knew that, just like Saint Paul, in

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my weaknesses, he is strong. In

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my sufferings, he is glorified. And remember this,

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last thing, here's the last thing, you guys.

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I'm just so, I'm so convinced of this

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because if we miss this, we

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miss out on so much joy. Every

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time you and I need

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God, we

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have God. The deeper we

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have a need for God, meaning the more

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broken we are, the weaker we

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are, the more desperate we are for

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him, the more

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we get of him. The greater the

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weakness in our heart, the

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greater his power comes to save us. We

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also know this, the greater the sin, the

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greater the mercy, the

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greater the fall, the greater the

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grace God gives to the person who

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asks for God to lift them back up.

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This is so true and this is so powerful

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that Saint Paul, when he discussed this, he was this? He

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said, what then? Shall we, you know, sin even

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greater so as to get more grace? He says,

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no, no, no, don't do that. That

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is reworking the equation in a bad way.

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So don't do that. Don't fall mightily so

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you can ask God for His mercy mightily.

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But if you find yourself having fallen mightily,

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do not be discouraged. God,

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I thought that I'd be better than this. Apparently,

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I'm not. And apparently, I need

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you in a

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way that I had never realized.

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I thought I'd be over this by now. But

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apparently, I'm not. And I need you

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even more desperately than ever possibly could

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have imagined. That's

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humility. And

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it's also hope. How

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could you not love a God who

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comes to our aid in a weakness like that?

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He never gets discouraged. He never

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gets tired of loving you or loving

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me. We sometimes

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just get tired of asking for

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that love. Anyways, we're all here

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to present my name is Father Mike. God

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bless. What am

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I saying when I'm discouraged with myself? What I'm

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saying is he

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could never possibly take a step

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back out of his own pride, out of his own ego

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and say, my

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little machine made a little noise.