Understanding Human Brokenness and Faith with Father Mike Schmitz

Karen Potter: 0:05

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Covenant Eyes podcast. I'm Karen, one of the hosts for Covenant Eyes, and I'm joined by my partner in crime, brandon Clark.

Brandon: 0:13

How's it going, brandon, I'm doing great. Karen, we're just having a wonderful time here recording some podcasts in studio, very excited for our guest today, father Mike Schmitz. We've had him on the podcast before and at that point, in religion and spirituality and Apple Podcasts, he was number one. Well, a year later, he's still number one with Bible. In a year. He's added catechism in a year, which is number three, and even in like. I was even looking at just all around podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Bible in a year is in the 50s, and so we'd really just want to dive in with Father Mike today, talk a little bit about Bible in the year and just this deep thirst, this deep longing for truth. I think that exists in our culture, because a lot of people have been fed a lot of different messages over the past three, four years and I think there's just a longing for something deeper, don't you think?

Karen Potter: 1:03

I agree. I'm hearing a theme too with all of our interviews that people really want the truth and they're seeking it. So with that, I want to welcome Father Mike Schmitz. How are you?

Father Mike: 1:12

I'm doing well. Thank you guys very much Awesome.

Karen Potter: 1:15

Thanks for coming back. We're so glad to have you.

Father Mike: 1:17

It's so good. I mean, I love what you guys do and I'm just honored to be a part of it.

Brandon: 1:21

Yeah, we really appreciate that. Let's talk about I mean, I mentioned Bible in a year, catechism in a year, one and three respectively on the charts for religion and spirituality. Did you ever think, when this idea came up to record Bible in the year a couple of years ago, that this is where we'd be sitting?

Father Mike: 1:37

No, no, actually the idea came from a couple of different places, but one was one. The idea, I mean, the thought, was I need this, that sense of I find myself because we started recording it in the year 2020. And if you know anything about the spring of 2020, there was some upheaval and what not Couple things. Well, little something, and it was a matter of a really. I was just like man, I'm getting.

Father Mike: 2:01

I guess the phrase I would say is I'm getting really distracted, like I would, I'd be just constantly clicking on different podcasts and different, you know, youtube smart people to hear what they had to say about what's going on in the world, and but I just kept going for the next one and the next one, the next one, like what's the next smart thing?

Father Mike: 2:17

And then also really distressed in that sense of not finding peace there, but just really kind of finding like the next talking point or the next opinion.

Father Mike: 2:25

And I was really convicted that I was reading the book of judges at the time and I was as I was reading through judges. It was this I was struck by wow, this is generations in pop upon generations of chaos and of things much worse than they are right now. I mean things can be bad, but but that in the time in the history of the people of God's life, that's just chaos. And I was like, wow, this is nothing new. And then I was just so convicted I'm like I need to get back to a place where, every single day, rather than looking for the wisdom of the world, I need to go through the entire Bible and reshape my lens so that I have a biblical worldview. And once it got me I hope I already had, but just that sense of a renewed biblical worldview where it was okay, let's look at things through the wisdom of the word, not just the wisdom of the world.

Karen Potter: 3:11

That's awesome. I think you were alone in that journey because during, I think, that time and that season, a lot of people went on a journey seeking truth and I think you just you God put you in a position to really reach people at the right time with this message. I mean, obviously, it's a podcast chart to reflect that.

Father Mike: 3:29

So well, it's such a good, it's such a grace too, because there is. You know, I just got to narrate God's word, I mean that's. I mean there's some commentary at the end of every episode, but but the reality that is the heart of that podcast is just God's word, it's just the Bible, and so, again, I'll not discount the fact that at the end of every episode or the second half of the episode, there's some trying to have some commentary, trying to explain things or contextualize things or making them accessible. But I believe the appeal is just like you're saying, it's a hunger for God and a hunger for okay. So what is the truth? A hunger for what does God have to say? Not just what does the next smart person have to say. What does God have to say about reality and life, and himself and us?

Brandon: 4:13

And what I love about Bible in a year specifically is when you pick up a Bible, it's like it's overwhelming right.

Father Mike: 4:21

Where do you?

Brandon: 4:21

begin? Do you start in Genesis? Do you start with the New Testament? Like it could be such a confusing thing to be able to navigate it. And so you're using Jeff Kavan's Great Adventure Bible timeline and walking through salvation history right, Piecing it apart and walking through it each day as it makes sense. Can you just talk a little bit about that?

Father Mike: 4:41

Yeah, so Jeff is a great guy. Jeff was raised Catholic and at one point he became a Protestant pastor for about 12 years and while he was just studying the Bible and getting really deeply into the Word, he was trying to teach people the Bible, and one of the things he found was exactly what you said where do people start? And also, when they do start, at the beginning they read through Genesis great, this is awesome. Go through Exodus wonderful. And they get to Leviticus and like, okay, I'm a little confused Numbers it seems like this is very familiar territory and they lose the story. And that's one of the things that he noted is that we lose the story Because Genesis, exodus that's part of the story.

Father Mike: 5:17

But then what happens when we get all the rules of Leviticus and such? And so then what he did was he said, okay, what are the main narrative books of the Bible? Where, if you read them, you'll stick with the story? And so he found 16 narrative books of the Bible that begin with Genesis and end with Revelation and just like, how can you read this through where you won't lose the story?

Father Mike: 5:39

And then when we came to the Bible in the year, it was okay, we're going to follow the narrative books, but also we're going to find out, or just not have to find out we had to put the non-narrative books or the extra narrative books in context. And so, yeah, you're reading Leviticus, but you're reading Leviticus in the context of Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, where it's oh, okay, this is what's happening as the Lord God is giving His laws, or when it comes to the prophets as well, Like, okay, this is what's happening in 1st and 2nd Kings and following when it comes to what the prophets are coming on and they're saying what they need to say. And so it's trying to hold on to the story, stay close to the story, while getting the entire bigger story of the Bible.

Karen Potter: 6:24

That's incredible. It's funny because I'm actually in Leviticus myself, Bible studies. I was just joking with Brandon this morning about the segment I was on talking about all the different wounds on the body and flesh wounds and how God.

Karen Potter: 6:37

I was like not really the best choice for breakfast time, but that's okay, but that's great. I think it's really important that you know, as someone that you know myself. I'm on that journey where you know I want to understand God's word deeper, being able to see it in the context of history and how it all plays together. I think that's really helpful, father Mike. So I appreciate the fact that you offer that.

Father Mike: 6:59

No, I'm grateful because I mean even Leviticus. Once you, once you understand, here's some context, it, it, it is not boring. I mean there might be some redundancy and there might be some things that like, no, no, no longer apply, but it's fascinating to realize. Okay, this is how God was shaping his people and this is why Leviticus exists. Or even when you get to the prophets and the prophets, I found the prophets were more difficult for people to you know, persist and persevere through than something like Leviticus, because there's so much, again, redundancy and there's so many things that are just foreign to us. But when you know the context, here's, you know, the Assyrians, here's the Babylonians, here's the, the call that God is putting on all of our hearts at every moment, not just, you know, 3,000 years ago or 2,500 years ago, but even now, to remain faithful to him in a world that is trying to get our hearts away from God and to any, you know, false God or any kind of idol it can.

Brandon: 7:54

I think that's really important. Father Mike, I'd like to talk about something that has just really struck me as I've gone through Bible in a year, and that's how scandalous the Bible can be. Like there's a lot of stuff in there that you don't really know about until you start diving in and walking through it and even like in talking about, like, the relations between Adam and Eve and married couples, which shouldn't be scandalous. Right, there's something to search for in there. But can you just talk about, maybe from an Ecclesiastes standpoint, how we see a lot of things around us in the world today that are quite scandalous, but these same things have appeared for centuries and millennia, even before that?

Father Mike: 8:39

Yeah right, there's nothing new under the sun in that sense. And yet at the same time it's remarkable because I think a lot of times we disqualify. We look at the Bible again when it remains a mystery book. We look at the Bible and think, like all this bunch of holy things, and I think sometimes maybe not everybody, but we imagine the Bible to be one of two things or maybe one of three things.

Father Mike: 9:01

It's either a children's book, because that's kind of the version that we got at some point, that we just here's the kids version, here's a couple of Bible stories. We look at it as a book of inspiration. So you pick it up and every line, every story is just like wow, another inspiring story of someone who's faithful, another inspiring story of someone who's great. Or we look at it as like the what I would call like the Hallmark Channel version of the Bible, where everything is neat and clean. There might be some kind of tension, but the tension is like oh shucks, I have to spend the weekend out in the small town rather than back in the big city, and that's my Hallmark Channel reference. Very well done, thank you very much. But everything is clean. And then you go to the Bible and realize, okay, so those children's stories I heard of, let's look at them like an adult. Like Noah's Ark, okay, this is the destruction of humanity because humanity was God phoned, humanity so evil, that like, okay, wow, let's take an adult, look at this. We have the fact that not everything in the Bible is inspiring and not everything in the Bible is meant to be inspiring. And, lastly, there's so much brokenness, I mean so much brokenness, that there's this is, I mean it's not for children. I mean, in so many ways I kind of keep going back to this place of and it's not for children in the sense that it's not G, it's not PG, it's not even PG 13. There is, there is some explicit stuff in terms of the brokenness of humanity. And here's the crazy thing God worked through all of that, god was entering into all of that and he used all of this.

Father Mike: 10:34

One example would be you know the story of Judah. So here's the fourth son of Israel and what's the prophecy? Of prophecy is from the tribe of Judah will come to Messiah. So here's this great, you know, descendant or ancestor of our Lord Jesus. And Judah's story is you know he has a daughter-in-law named Tamar and she's married to one of his sons, but the son dies before she becomes pregnant. So the rule is, the law is you give the next son to that to give her children. He dies. And so Judah is basically like, yeah, I'm kind of not. I know there's a third son I'm supposed to be giving to my daughter-in-law, but yeah, I'm not going to do that. And so Tamar takes matters into her own hands and she disguises herself as a prostitute. On a way she knew that Judah would be passing by. He stops in, he visits the prostitute. He didn't know his own daughter-in-law, she gets pregnant and that's how you have. That's how Judah continues his lineage and, like, there's the descendant or ancestor of Jesus himself.

Father Mike: 11:37

And you realize there is so much brokenness in this story, in this one story. There's so much just use and distortion. And again, the people who listen to covenant eyes. We're all very, very sensitive to the reality of the brokenness and our sexuality and this is a part of the story that God uses to bring about the Savior of the world, not because God wanted that happen to happen, but because God is willing to work with the messiness, he's willing to work with the brokenness and it's fascinating to realize that some people, when they hear this, they're like, oh my goodness, that means God's part of my life too, and they're encouraged by this.

Father Mike: 12:14

I have come across many, many people who have contacted me after the experience that the Bible is not a children's book, it's not inspirational book and it's not the Hallmark Channel version of the book and they've said I don't know if I can handle this anymore, like I don't know if I I don't know if this is actually a God that I want to follow. I don't. I got I want to believe in because he's too real. And but the reality, of course, is, if this is, if I have my own version of God, meaning I don't let God speak for himself through his word, then it's not really God I believe in. It's again, it's only my flavor of God, which is to say it's an idol that I believe in. Has that make sense?

Karen Potter: 12:52

Yeah, for sure.

Brandon: 12:53

I think that tension is good in the heart, though, isn't it, as you're going through and you're finding things that are uncomfortable, and to just take those deeper into prayer, I think that's an important part of the journey, especially, you know, when talking about sexual brokenness. You know, why am I drawn to these things and why do I continue to struggle with that, wouldn't you say, father Mike?

Father Mike: 13:15

Oh, absolutely. I mean to allow ourselves to be challenged. That's, that's the. That's the one thing that they. That definitely is necessary. What I was maybe trying to comment on was was the.

Father Mike: 13:24

Are you familiar with Christian Smith? He's a psychologist and sociologist. He used to be in North Carolina, now he's at Chapel Hill, now he's at Notre Dame, and he did this survey of the faith light, of faith life of American adolescents between 15 and 20 years ago, so a while now. But one of the things that he and his team discovered was that when they researched the faith lives of whether the teens who were raised a mainline Protestant, evangelical, catholic, jewish or even kind of raised agnostic or atheist, they all had the same vision of God. Even though different religions, they had the same vision of God and basically what he was, what he termed moralistic, therapeutic deism, which is God more or less wants us to be good. As you know, most religions teach therapeutic God's not really involved in your life unless you need him to resolve an issue and deistic in the sense that he's he made this world and then he's just, he's distant, now he's he's, he's not really involved in anything. And he found that most Americans that's what they believe in about God, even those who are checking the box and saying, oh yeah, no, I'm Christian or I'm Catholic or I'm whatever. And so it's fascinating because we now have the rise of the nuns. Right, the NONES is the people who have no religious affiliation. No religious affiliation.

Father Mike: 14:34

Someone asked me about this the other, the other week or whatever, and they said what do we think about this? And I I think that this is nothing new. I think the only new aspect of this because it's been there forever. In fact, one of Christian Smith's coworkers co-teachers at professors at Notre Dame has broken this out and said how is this possible that you have so many adolescents who do not embrace the faith of their parents? Because that's what's been going on for for years is is that your, your parents, hand down their faith to their children and they hand down the faith to their children? And how? How is this that this whole new generation are not embracing the faith of the parents?

Father Mike: 15:09

And this coworker of Christian Smith pointed out they are because, because moralistic, therapeutic deism is not the religion merely of adolescents, it's the religion of America, it's the religion of the West, and so this is the religion of boomers and this is the religion of Gen Xers, and this is the religion. And so there's this fascinating reality that when, then, people are exposed to the Bible, and then it's okay. No longer Is this just my version. This is the God that who's presenting himself to me has revealed himself to me. So the NONES is the nuns. They're merely. The only thing new about them is they believe almost exactly what their parents believed. They're just willing, they're just not willing, to check the box that says they believe something that they don't believe.

Karen Potter: 15:55

Wow, that's really fascinating. Yeah, I haven't heard of that before and that's.

Karen Potter: 15:57

That's incredible. I think that explains a lot about the young generation, though, because they tend to be very much looking for and seeking truth and knowledge, and so maybe that's why they're more responsive and open to receiving the message in your podcast and others like you, because I feel like the younger generation is a huge opportunity for the church in America and across the globe, because I do believe that they absolutely want that information, they want truth. They don't want what their parents had. They see that that faith that you mentioned that's not working and is not real, and they want the truth.

Father Mike: 16:34

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And also the great news. That's good news, but the great news is the number of I would say for lack of a bitter term boomers who have written to me. I mean people, honestly, people in their 70s and 80s who have basically allowed themselves like you said, brandon, allowed themselves to be challenged by God's word and it's like, oh okay, this is a struggle, but I'm going to stick with the struggle and found that I thought I had faith in God. I now have more faith now that I've allowed him to speak to me and not just, you know, cherry picked verses or not just.

Father Mike: 17:09

I like this book, but I don't really enter into that book. But realizing that God constantly wants to speak to us and wants to reveal himself to us, and therefore what they're finding, is there many of them saying yes to that which is so encouraging?

Brandon: 17:23

Father Mike, do you have any practical advice for people who come across that tension in their hearts as they're facing the reality of God, for how to work through that?

Father Mike: 17:33

Well, I think that's a great question, because right away, we know that. I would say that the very first sin comes from God. Popes jump out the second. Years ago he had said that at the root of the very first sin, right the serpent going to Adam and Eve and tempting them. He said at the root it was an attack on fatherhood. And it's an attack on the fatherhood of God, because here's the evil one that says did God really say that you can't do this? Like no, no, no, god knows full well that if you eat of this fruit, you'll be like him. And the reality, the secret, is he doesn't want you to be like him. And so here's the tempter, the evil one that attempts them to doubt the fatherhood, doubt the love of God. And so I don't know if I can trust God. And this is in fact.

Father Mike: 18:24

I think there's a line in the Catechism that says with this first sin, trust died in the human heart. Wow, and there's that. It's so powerful because that is. I mean, think of how many of our sins just come from that. They come from a lack of trust. That here's God who says okay, if you choose this, you have life, if you choose that, you have death, like yeah, but I don't know if I trust you. I think I want what I want and yet the battle over like will I trust the Lord is going to be there? So the first aspect is I have to examine my heart and ask the question am I approaching God's word with skepticism or cynicism or distrust, or am I approaching God's word with an openness of God? God teach me, like I'm not going to understand everything, but I do want to trust you and I'm showing up with that open heart. I would say that is one of the first things to acknowledge and if I do have some distrust, that's okay. Just acknowledge it. It acknowledged that. Okay, when I come across some of these scriptures that I don't understand, my initial thought is pull back and protect rather than dive in and investigate, because that would be what distrust would do, would be I want to pull back, I want to scoff at or I want to. You know, hesitate, but I would say that if I recognize I'm called to grow and trust, then the next step is when I.

Father Mike: 19:38

This is what St Augustine said back in the you know, fourth century, fifth century. He said when you find something in scripture that you don't understand, pause and ask if you understand it in the way that it was written Like, the first thing we need to do is, rather than say, oh, this is ridiculous, and that's what he did when Augustine's own story is at one point, his mom was a Christian, gave him a copy of the scriptures and he read it and said this is horrible Greek and this is dominant, it's beneath me, and he threw it away. So he knows what it's like to approach the scriptures with this kind of arrogance in some ways, or distrust, we could say it like that. And so the first question I get to ask when I'm challenged is do I understand it in the way that the author, or the Lord, god himself, intended, and or or is there a problem with my understanding?

Father Mike: 20:21

Is there a problem with the translation? Is there a problem with? I don't get it. And to have that what we call docility, which means I'm just open to being taught, and so that, again, that comes back to being to trust as well. If I'm not open to being taught, then I'm, or if I'm not trustworthy, I'm not going to be open. If I am striving to be trustworthy, I keep coming back to this place of okay, maybe I don't understand it, teach me, and I think that's a really good disposition.

Karen Potter: 20:46

Wow, that's incredible and in a world, I think, that's filled with so much distrust, I think there's a lot of that happening all around us. I think that's a really a really interesting point. How are you navigating, Because you do a lot of work on on campus, obviously, with students how do you, how do you navigate some of their tough questions, because I know a new trend kind of on college campuses is this deconstruction of faith, and how are you, you know, navigating that and working with students on the campus to kind of get through that and build that trust with them?

Father Mike: 21:16

Yeah, that's a great question because it is the deconstructionism is a big thing. And one thing I, one thing I've found is I've, I've already, I've always, kind of always done a certain kind of deconstruction when it comes to when someone comes with questions. One of my, my maybe pedagogical techniques, I guess, would be if they say I don't know if I believe in X and I'm having a crisis because I don't even know. But if they're asking the question A, that's a really, really big thing. B, it's, I will go back and say, well, let's keep going, let's pull the layers back until there's something you do know. And sometimes it's just like, okay, it's going to. Like Descartes, you know, he had to question all of his beliefs until it was okay, here's something I can't question, I know it's actually true, I think therefore I am the kind of a situation where it's okay.

Father Mike: 22:05

I don't know if I believe X, like okay, but do you believe that Jesus is God? I don't know. Okay, well, do you believe that God exists?

Father Mike: 22:11

Well, yeah, okay let's start there and we just I just it's one of those situations of let's start from wherever you're at and then build on that, but we might have to actually tear it down, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of assumptions, a lot of presuppositions that I have that I don't know where that came from, and so I always like the idea of if you're having a kind of a crisis, you're going to have a crisis, you're having some questions. This is really great, because what it maybe means and doesn't always, but what it might mean is that you have a lot of assumptions or a lot of presumptions, and you don't know where they came from, and so they're. They're kind of flimsy because you've never tested them and now they've been. Kind of the weight of your vision of the world has been tested, is it true? And so let's go all the way back to what's something you know is a firm foundation and build on that, and I think that that can be helpful, at least the way we sometimes do it.

Karen Potter: 23:02

That's amazing.

Brandon: 23:03

Yeah, I think that's important, Like to continue to search, to continue to dive deeper. I think when we stop asking questions and stop searching, that's when we begin to run into problems. I'm curious because you've been on campus now, for you said 19 years. Yeah, this is my 19th year. Congratulations, by the way. The college ministry is so important.

Karen Potter: 23:23

It is.

Brandon: 23:23

I'd love to know about the transition of the of the student, like the evolution of the student in terms of struggling with things like sexual sin and pornography, because you're getting generations now that are coming in that grew up on phones and probably can't even put them down at this point. Like, how do you manage that, especially when what we're seeing in statistics is that many of them have already been exposed to pornography at young age? Is there a different mindset now on the campus than there was maybe five, even 10 years ago?

Father Mike: 23:58

That's a great question, because even when I started, you know, the internet existed and so pornography and the internet and whatnot existed. It was relatively accessible. I mean, I guess the iPhone now is only what? 14 years old, 15 years old somewhere in there, that's it, it's crazy to think of that.

Father Mike: 24:16

But yet at the same time, there was a, there was a proliferation on the internet. You could you could get to. One of the things I found with this generation, or the last couple of number of years, of people who were raised with these magic rectangles in our pockets they're raised with complete access is there are a couple different people who come to me. Sometimes it's the person who is done. They are done and they're ready to make a change and it's like tell me what I need to do.

Father Mike: 24:47

I am burned out on the whole thing. Like I'm burned out on if I need to get rid of my phone, I'll get rid of my phone. I don't care what the thing is, I just want freedom. And there's an aspect of kind of like that bell curve of, at one point peak, I need this, to have this device, or I need to have this internet access and need to have this whatever. And then I realize I don't need it. I need it less and less and less because it doesn't deliver anymore, that it just steals, it just takes, takes, takes from me. And I find a lot of students like that.

Father Mike: 25:18

I didn't find as many students like that 15 years ago or 19 years ago they were kind of dabbling and it was like I have this under control, in the sense that I only fall once a week, every two weeks. But some of these students were like I'm so enslaved that I'm done, I'm not gonna dabble anymore, like it's just and that's awesome, because because I mean it's good, it's good and bad, right, it means that there's something that's been really in their clutches.

Father Mike: 25:46

At the same time, I mean, I think we have to get to that place where it's like no, no compromise, no, I'm gonna be ruthless with my environment, that's what I need to do, and more and more students like that. There are also, of course, the others who are just discouraged. I can't get away from this, and that aspect of it is a matter of you know. Part of what I'll try to offer is try to offer those words of encouragement of you haven't tried everything, I know you haven't. You haven't been to the place of you know, like Dave Ramsey was talking about, you haven't been to the place of Gazelle Intensity, where you have to run away from the cheetah because you're just kind of like loping away hoping it doesn't catch you, but kind of hoping it does.

Father Mike: 26:29

And they're like yep, yep, okay, so let's get to this place where it's be patient with yourself but be ruthless with your environment, because until that's gonna happen, we're gonna be stuck and you're gonna be. I've seen so many students I've been here's a third kind of seen so many students more recently who have been so stuck that, like the idea, like all of the news reports say, you know they're not interested in dating, they're not interested in going out and doing even mediocre things, much less great things, because that's in them, but they're kind of being so distracted and so drained from this constant bombardment of pornography that it's just another sexual act and acting out, but with themselves, that they're lacking even, oftentimes, this desire to go out of themselves, in which case I just one last point. It's so fascinating because just for years, for years, I've been hearing and we've been kind of teaching that one of the many problems with pornography and whatnot is that it turns you in on yourself and like, okay, well, that's fine. Okay, no big duck can handle that. But now we see that the a lot of the fruits of that.

Father Mike: 27:40

What does it look like when you have a life turned in on yourself? And then we see this, some antisocial behavior, we see a lack of meaningful relationships, we see a lot of despair and hopelessness because of a lack of connection, and we realize, oh man, we are in so many ways reaping that whirlwind that we had sown. And so the great news is, a lot of our students are waking up to that and they're like it's time to make a change. And so then what we do, this is not a commercial, but I'm like, okay, first step Covenant Eyes, let's do this, let's get some accountability, let's get some taking the steps so you know that freedom is actually possible.

Brandon: 28:17

That's great. Wow, you know I'd love to have you on again just to talk about that very topic, because I feel like there's a lot more to unpack. Unfortunately, we're coming to a close in our time. So, father Mike, we've got Bible in a year. Catechism in a year came out this year. What's next? Can you give us a little inside baseball you?

Father Mike: 28:34

know it's interesting. I got a message I have to get back to him soon from a man. I don't know if you've all heard of a thing called the theology of the body. Yes, but the theology of the body is this beautiful teaching of Saint John Paul II and someone who does a lot of teaching on theology of the body. He reached out and said hey, would you prayerfully consider doing a year you know theology of the body in a year, wow.

Brandon: 28:59

I'm going to second that.

Father Mike: 29:00

Yeah, I'll third that. It could be. It could be remarkable. Unfortunately, right now, the next project that my bishop has asked me to do is we're in the process of trying to raise money to build a church and a Newman center or a student center here right on campus, and so that's going to take a lot of energy and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do a podcast every day and also try to again raise this, raise these funds so we can reach these students on this campus.

Brandon: 29:27

Well, that's just as important to Father.

Father Mike: 29:29

Mike, absolutely yeah.

Karen Potter: 29:30

The college campus.

Brandon: 29:31

Really I see it as a war zone when it comes to whether students are going to come out of college with a faith or belief in anything. Really.

Father Mike: 29:39

Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree it's. I'm so grateful that I've been able to be here for so long, and I know that the day is going to come when they tell me to go somewhere else, but I'm just grateful for every day.

Karen Potter: 29:50

That's awesome. Well, thank you so much, father Mike, for being on the show today. I know our listeners were truly blessed by everything that you had to share with us, and it's been a great conversation.

Father Mike: 29:59

Well, I'm really grateful for you guys and thank you not only for the two of you individually particularly, but for everything that Covenant Eyes is doing and for this podcast and, just grateful, every person you've had on your show too.

Brandon: 30:10

Appreciate that and for our listeners, I do want to encourage you to go to Apple Podcasts. Check out Bible in a year. Check out Catechism in a year. The way that Father Mike breaks it down and really dives into Scripture is just its bite size and it's easy to understand, easy to process. The episodes are only like 20 minutes at most, which is also really nice because not everybody has an hour a day. So we'll drop the links to both of those in the show notes so that you can check those out. Father Mike again, just really appreciate what you're doing for our church and Christianity as a whole. I think it's making a lot of huge changes.

Father Mike: 30:44

Thank you. That means a lot and I'm just honored and humbled and grateful to be able to be a small part of this.

Brandon: 30:50

Awesome. Well, karen, I think this is a great call to action obviously being able to go and check out Bible in a year and some of these things, because I really think you know we talk about accountability being a key to, one of the keys to success and breaking free from pornography. But unless we have that faith in Jesus, unless we have that deep spirituality and continue to put time and effort into that and grown our relationship with Jesus every day, we're going to face an uphill battle.

Karen Potter: 31:17

Absolutely. Yeah, you're correct, brandon, and I think you know to all of our listeners out there. You have a queer call to action, a next step that you can take. It's an easy next step 20 minutes a day, not asking a lot and it will bless you in many, many ways. And with that we're going to wrap up today's session of the podcast. We do want to encourage you to share the podcast, like the podcast and leave us feedback. We'd love to hear from you on how we can better serve you in the future. Take care everybody. God bless.