Stop Trying to Figure it Out

[00:00:00] What's up, you guys? I'm at Franciscan University at Steubenville, where I just filmed with Father Dave Bavanka for a core confirmation program. In two days, I'm going to film with Bishop Barron. Please keep this work in prayer. There's a device used in Greek plays called Deus ex machina, which literally means God from the machine. And when the Greek playwright wrote his characters into a corner that he couldn't quite get them out of and he didn't know what to do, he would literally write into the play that a God, a deity, would appear on the scene and just kind of make everything right. And so deus ex machina that comes from. They would literally use this. This device where they would lower a God from this crane, and boom, he's center stage, and he just makes everything better. Aristotle critiqued that as really lazy writing. [00:00:51] You kind of see why. [00:00:52] You know, you think this. This plot's building up somewhere and, like, the drama's building, and then how do we get out of this? I can't figure it out. Here's God. Okay, if you think about it, though, the Bible is filled with deus ex machina moments. [00:01:08] And why? Because God is a bad writer? No, because we, like a bad Greek playwright, tend to be the bad authors of our own stories. And we kind of work our way into corners we can't get out of all the time. And here's the thing, guys. We think that our problem solving brains will find a way out. [00:01:29] And your brain is a problem solver. It's a problem solving supercomputer, and it's working all the time. That's a beautiful thing. [00:01:36] Until you can't control it, which happens to all of us. Look, if you're facing a problem or crisis in your marriage or crisis in your business, or honestly, just trying to figure out your future, what we so often end up doing is thinking. Thinking and overthinking, and it just never seems to end. And you try to enjoy a moment somewhere. And the problem solving computer brain is always active in the background, and it can be completely exhausting. [00:02:00] Now fast forward to the road to Emmaus, which is what I want to talk about today, by the way. This story is so filled with beauty and meaning that I can't fit into a short video. I want you to click below this video. Sign up for the Daily Anchor. Going to be talking about the Road to Emmaus story all week. [00:02:15] Boom. Got so much more in store for you, by the way. Daily Anchor, dude, there's no strings attached. I just Want to inspire you. Please let me. So this couple is walking on the road to Emmaus. And a lot of theologians think that it was a married couple. The reason for that is that it talks about Mary, the wife of Clopas at the end of the Gospel of John, standing at the foot of the cross. And Clopas is the same name as Cleopas, which is one of the disciples named, who was walking on the road to Emmaus. And often back then, when you're writing about a story that happened, people would mention the man and not the woman in the story. [00:02:48] That's an unfortunate thing, but it's just what it was is how people wrote back then. So I talked about this disciple Cleopas, walking with another disciple who's unnamed. [00:02:58] Another reason though, that they think it was a married couple is that the language used is that they're walking to their home together and they invite Jesus to stay with them with the same kind of language you use if you're inviting someone into your house, into your home. But here's the thing, guys, they were dealing with a serious problem. [00:03:16] When Jesus came up to them and they didn't recognize him in the story. He said, what are you guys talking about? And they said, are you the only person here who hasn't heard about what's happened in Jerusalem these days? [00:03:24] How this guy we had hoped was the Messiah, was the Savior, he was killed, he was crucified, game over. And he said, but some people are saying that he rose from the dead. But they were clear by saying we had hoped that was past tense. They didn't buy that part of the story. They didn't think that he rose from the dead. Now why is this a serious problem for them? Because they had just given up a lot of time following this guy. [00:03:48] They probably given up a lot of income that they could have earned. [00:03:52] They may have been some of the people that donated to keep the apostles going. [00:03:55] And they were walking home that part of their life that they'd given, I don't know how much time to that chapter was ended, that page was closed. And they probably went home feeling like fools. They were working through their lives talking about all the implications of this. Maybe they were doubting faith, maybe they were doubting the meaning of life itself. [00:04:16] And their problem solving brains were trying to figure all this stuff out. Do you see the connection here with Davis ex machina? Because the solution plopped himself into the middle of their story. [00:04:29] There he is walking with them. [00:04:32] God drops down, guys, so often in life. We're facing A struggle or a trial. And it's okay that you try to figure things out. [00:04:41] God gave you that beautiful piece of machinery between your ears for a reason. You're supposed to use it. [00:04:47] But there is no solution that compares with simply doing what that couple did. At the end of the conversation, when they realized it was Jesus, they invited him home with them. [00:04:58] Look, Jesus loves you if you're a married couple, I gotta tell you, he loves marriage. [00:05:04] He launched his ministry with a wedding and he launched his post resurrection ministry walking with a married couple. The first people he appeared to in the Gospel of Luke were not the apostles. We're not the official leadership. It was a husband and wife walking along together in their low moment, in despair, unsure about what to do with their lives. [00:05:25] He loves you even in that moment. He delights in your love for each other. [00:05:30] Guys, invite him into your home. Respond to that by inviting him in. But whatever problem or crisis or trial you're facing, invite him in. Because so often the solution isn't you figuring it out. [00:05:42] It's you inviting the Lord into your life. And man, there's some times where I find myself just in these endless thought cycles, trying to figure things out, solving the problems in my life, solving the problems in whatever my marriage that I might be facing. [00:05:57] I've gotten to a point where I just. I just want to say, Lord. And I do. I pray like this sometimes, like Lord. I just. I don't even want my mind to figure this out anymore. I want the mind of Christ. [00:06:07] The stuff I'm trying to make sense of. I'm done trying. [00:06:11] Give me your mind to think with. Give me your eyes to see this situation with. Come, Lord Jesus. [00:06:17] There's times where you're in a serious crisis where the most practical and most important thing you could do is stop trying to figure it out and just get on your knees and start praying and invite the Lord in. And if you don't know what to say, man, a great place to start is praying the rosary. Say David slew Goliath with a. With a sling and five smooth stones. Five ducats to the rosary. Sometimes very big, big problems can be knocked out with the simplest of solutions. A sling and five smooth stones. Anyway, I love you guys. Pray for me. I'm praying for you, Jesus. [00:06:50] Come into our homes. Come stay with us. Whatever problems that anybody watching us right now is facing in life, we just invite you in. We can't make sense of it, but we trust in you. [00:07:01] Lead us through all these things. We glorify you. We praise you. We thank you ahead of time. Amen. See you next time, guys. Keep me in prayer.