growing up I was the I'm the fourth of six kids and so I don't know if you had this experience if you had any older siblings but um a lot of life was about like hey we'll wait you have to wait for your turn because your older siblings get to do something and you have to wait for your turn because you'll be you'll be able to do those things when you get to that whatever that age is so like I can't wait until I get to stay up past whatever time like well you wait your
turn kind of a thing or I can't wait till I get to drive and I wait your turn I can't wait till I get look get to look after my little brother brother and sister cuz that was the thing like I was I wanted to be the one babysit I don't know was about me but I I wanted to do that but I was like no no wait your turn even when it came to college this as I mentioned this is the Freshman weekend for us here at the University of Minnesota duth a bunch of
freshmen just arrived this last Wednesday and Thursday and so this is their first weekend on campus and remember I remember my first weekend I I remember actually dropping off um my oldest sister my second sister my older brother at College their first day and and then it was one of those things like okay wait your turn and then it was one day it was my turn just like one day it was my turn to drive one day it was my turn to be able to um stay up late was one day it was my turn
to watch after my little brother and my little sister it's one of those things we're like okay now it's your turn again I had seen my sister and all the stress of moving onto campus her freshman first day my other sister all the stress moving on to campus my older brother all the stress and then I can distinctly remember okay this is now my turn to experience all of the stress and all the fun the joy of trying to Wrangle in your emotions as you're like I don't know if Mom and Dad should leave yet
you should probably leave but don't leave you know like all those things it was finally my turn and there's something about when you realize you look up basically and you realize okay it's it's it's my turn now and so for our freshman it's one of those realities of okay now it's your turn and you don't want to miss it that you don't want to lose your turn I've been praying about this because not only because the Freshman are r are here now but because of the first reading he right the Book of Joshua now if
you know anything about the Book of Joshua this is chapter 24 this is the final chapter these are the Joshua's last words to the people of Israel before they enter the promised land for good and he he tells them you know your ancestors came before you right your ancestors ancestors who lived in Egypt they made their choice your ancestors who they were set free from slavery in Egypt they saw the promised land and they were too afraid they made their choice Choice even 30 years before this people who went into battle in the promised land
they made their choice and now we saying okay you guys you saw this you saw your parents do this you saw your grandparents do this now it's your turn and he has this big line where he says decide for yourselves today whom you'll serve like basically when you go into the promised land there will be a bunch of different people and a bunch of different gods and so what you need to do is you need to decide for yourselves today whom you'll serve now it's your turn and I just really think about this like how
difficult that is like when we hear that even that word decide just choose make a decision it is so difficult for us because we know this we know that the word decide actually at emically it comes from the English word it just basically means to cut off so every time you decide every time you make a decision you're making an incision right every time make a decision you're cutting off every other opportunity and life is so full of so many opportunities right we have so many options in our lives that it's I think I wonder
if right now in our day and age it is a harder time to decide than at any other time why because we have more options than any other time we just we think we just reflect on our own lives we have I mean I saw a package the other day that had eight different kinds of mustard like what I thought there was one oh there there are two right there's yellow and brown like that is it there's great Pon which is very fancy and for people way above my pay grade but you have this reality
that you have so many options that we get we develop this this syndrome called called optis right optis is there are so many opportunities there are so many choices there are so many things I could choose so many options that I just I don't want to choose and so what happens is we don't move what happens is we like how how could I possibly choose and we find ourselves oftentimes not making a decision when we have an idea of but what could happen if you did like what could happen if you just chose um so
back when Peter Jackson who's the director of Lord of the Rings back so this is the Lord of the Rings moment when back when Peter Jackson was was casting Lord of the Rings he was casting for froto right so he tells the story about how he was in London doing the casting and he said we had seen over 300 photos and no one was right meanwhile back in the United States in La um Elijah Woods wanted this what he wanted the part and so what he did on his own like no one asked him to
do this he um hired a dialect coach to get get the get the dialect right he went to a local costume shop and got like a kind of a Hobbit costume he um went up into a tree had he had a friend film him in a tree and he didn't have any of the script but he had the books from load of the Rings and so he just read lines from the actual JRR tolken book Lord of the Rings and then he sent the VHS tape across the ocean to Peter Jackson and Peter Jackson said
we put it in the in the VCR and played it and saw that's our photo and and he said this word he said he cast himself again no one had asked him to do this no one no one had told him what you need to do is you need we need to come here you need to come to London you need to go he just said I want this thing I'm going to choose I'm going to act and that's that's the reality he cast himself because why because he made the decision this is something that
I want and there's a comedian who said something about this I I saw this like kind of video talking about this and the comedian said this he said that's the terrible thing about life it's self assignment reflecting that for one second the terrible thing about life is its self assignment we get to choose the person we will be tomorrow today and no one's waiting for us to make a decision because most of life just we don't make a decision so back to Joshua in the book of Joshua chapter 24 and he says okay people of
Israel decide for yourselves today whom you'll serve now keep keep this in mind who are these people these are people now God had set the people of Israel free from slavery they had 40 Years of wandering in the wilderness the Book of Joshua chapter 1 happened 31 years before this so this is now 7 21 years after the people of Israel have been set free from slavery by God in Egypt and Joshua says okay but now is the day you need to decide he says decide for yourselves today whom you're going to serve why because
you're going into the promised land and I've got news for you it is dangerous you're going to go into the promised land and here's the reality the reality is there are people and there are things in the promised land that will do everything they can to steal your heart there are people and there are things in the promised land that will do everything they possibly can to steal your faith to steal your time to steal your life the promised land is dangerous it is a dangerous place and yet here's the other part of it yet
you're supposed to be there yes it's dangerous and it will do everything it possibly can to steal your heart from you but you're supposed to be there this is your turn don't miss your turn don't lose your turn and the same thing is true for again back on campus here same thing is true for every one of our students this our our campus like any other campus it's a dangerous place because there are people and there are things on every college campus including ours that will do everything they possibly can to steal the hearts of
our students to steal the time of our students to steal the life to steal the faith of our students it's a dangerous place to be on campus and yet for every one of our students the truth is also this you're supposed to be here and wherever you're at in life you know this the the world is just like this the world is dangerous and the world does everything it possibly can to steal your heart and to steal your time to steal your life to steal your faith and yet you're supposed to be here wherever you're
at that's where you're supposed to be and the challenge is the invitation is don't lose your turn but to decide for yourselves today whom you'll serve which I think is I think is so cool like an incredible opportunity you get to you get to decide for yourself will Jesus Christ simply Remain the god of my parents I was raised Catholic you might have been raised Catholic a lot of our students a lot of them were raised Catholic and the question they get to ask is will the Jesus Christ be the god of my parents or
will he be mine because we we know we have to choose because we've said this many many times God the father doesn't have grandchildren right God is not a grandfather and he doesn't have grandchildren he is a father he only has children and it reminds me so much I met this young woman this last summer in Chicago name was Kate and Kate was raised by Catholic parents who you know sent her to Catholic school and went to Catholic mass and so Kate actually went off to a Catholic University and uh she said while she was
there she did the things because that's you're supposed to do right she went to mass because that's what you're supposed to do and and she like tried to like you fast on Good Friday and you go ashes on Ash Wednesday and she said I did all the things because that's what you're supposed to do but it was just doing that I was just I was just doing the things but then she said she went on a focused mission trip and on this focused mission trip she said one night they were in adoration and they were
having praise and worship and just adoring Jesus in the Eucharist and she said something happened in that time where all of a sudden I realized Jesus is real he is God and I choose him and she said in that moment it's kind of like Peter in the gospel today where he like where you where am I going to go like I don't know where you're going to lead me I have no no idea where you're even teaching Jesus all I know is I know you in that moment she was like okay I know Jesus and
she said it was that moment that the faith of my parents became my faith wasn't it wasn't just their faith anymore that was mine and she could actually choose she made a decision so here's the question so if you were to make that choice if you we not you if we were to make that choice to say okay actually I'm going to let Jesus be the Lord he's the God I'm going to serve what are we choosing I think sometimes the hesitation is I'll make the decision and I'll choose to follow the rules I think
sometimes we think well what I'm choosing is I'm choosing the restrictions right so if I choose Jesus at any point in my life but including our you know time in college I'm just choosing okay I guess I'll just do this and not do that and sometimes we can reduce Faith to Simply a set of rules or Y I'm going to do the things like Kate had said but what are you actually choosing I think one thing we choosing is you're choosing friendship what I mean by that is not just friendship with the Lord although that's
the preeminent thing I mean that we invite our students to actually not just spend time with us like for an hour on Sundays but to actually be part of the community because I think about this your freshman here in college you actually get to choose who you'll spend time with and we know how important it is this is for all of us it doesn't matter how old you are who we choose to spend our time with is of almost absolute importance this man named Jim ran and years ago he had this quote that I think
is really it's accurate he said we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with so if I'm I if the five people I spend the most time with are people who are pursuing the Lord then I'm going to become the kind of person who pursues the Lord if the five people I spend the most time with are positive people I'm going to become a more positive person five people I spend the most time with are people who who um actually embrace life and embrace Joy I'm going to become a kind
of person who Embraces life or Embraces joy we we're the average of the five people we spend the most time with so here's the question when I'm choosing Jesus what I'm also choosing is who will I spend my time with couple years ago we had a student um she was graduating and she was a TA for one of the professors here on campus and and in kind of the exit interview the professor looked at her her name is Emma and said Emma okay so you're part of Newman right read the bully Catholic the campus ministry
here and she said yeah she and she said can I ask you a question she said over the last number of years all of my best students have been involved in Newman and you're among them Emma and she's like a shuck you know she said but no why what is it about what is it about this group what is it about Newman that all my best students are involved in Newman and Emma said well I don't know here's my guess one is my guess is uh we spend our time with people who help us like
we spend our time with people who actually care about us we spend our time with people who who know how to be friends or or are learning how to be friends again we don't have a perfect Community but it's a community where people genuinely care for each other she said the other thing is uh we know for part of Newman we know that our lives matter that if if we've chosen Jesus we know that our time matters and we know that what we do matters and so we're not here to just kind of run out
the clock and have four years and end up with a piece of paper at the end we know our lives matter our time matters what we do matters and so I think we just naturally bring that to academic Excellence so I think those are things you get to choose you get to choose friendship you get to choose Excellence but of course the ultimate thing when the disciples had the opportunity today in John's gospel they could stay with Jesus or they could walk away from him they had the opportunity to do what they had opportunity to
leave Jesus or they opport had the opportunity to choose Jesus and this is the most amazing thing on earth we can't always choose the community we're part of we can't necessarily always choose whether we have meaningful tasks in front of us or not but the reality is if you choose Jesus you get Jesus if you choose Jesus you get Jesus and this is your turn to choose him again no matter how old you are no matter where you at in life this Sunday this day this moment is your opportunity to choose Jesus it's to realize
just like the Israelites as they're being led into the promise line and Joshua is saying okay listen decide for yourselves today whom you'll serve realize that Joshua was also pointing to them and saying realize that everything has prepared you for this moment everything that you've lived through those 40 Years of wandering in the desert those 31 years of battling in the promised land all those things have prepared you for this moment for today when he says decide for yourselves today whom you'll serve and this is same for you and for me everything that's gone before
you and me in our lives to this moment has prepared ourselves for this choice and this is your turn it's your turn to actually meet The God Who has loved you you might have spent your whole Catholic life if you're Catholic your old Christian Life just doing the things going through the motions like I do it because they told me to do it this is your choice this is your opportunity this is your moment to be able to actually choose to meet The God Who died for you who lives for you who sent out his
holy spirit to change you and I'm telling you you will F if you do this I promise you you will find out that God is is real if you do this make this choice for Jesus I promise you you will find out that not only is God real God is good and you'll get him now I know of course that there's people who would be like yeah but it's like our students right be like ah but I don't want to choose like it's my first weekend on campus just let me not choose I don't want
to choose and we know this we know this the truth is not to choose is to make a choice not to choose is to choose so I either choose the discomfort of deciding or I choose the pain of regret that I didn't decide here's the last thing maybe today your answer is yes like maybe today you're say Okay Lord here we are in the middle of the mass I'm going to I'm going to choose you yes I will decide for myself today whom I will serve Jesus I choose you that's awesome that's amazing um if
you want to read Joshua chapter 24 the rest of it I invite you to do this because after the people of Israel say We'll choose to serve the Lord Our God Joshua's response is yeah that's great but you're going to fail I me literally he says you may not be able to actually follow this the Lord God you may not actually be able to belong to him you might you might say you want him now but Joshua is kind of saying hey spoiler you're going to fail and that might be us we might say okay
today Jesus I Choose You I know who you are just like Peter where am I going to go Jesus you have the words of eternal life I've come to believe and I'm convinced that you are the Holy One Of God yes I choose you and then we fail okay and then what what happens then I'll say this if you choose Jesus today if you decide for yourself today whom you'll serve and you say I will serve Jesus and then you fail then you will have the profound privilege and the great joy of being able to
meet the god of Grace you'll have the profound privilege and the great joy of being able to meet the God who loves you even at your worst moment you will have the profound privilege and the great joy of being able to encounter God at your worst and so he gives us his best so really we have nothing to lose you know every one of us has a limited number of heartbeats in our lives it's finite every one of us has a limited number of steps that we get to take in our lives that's that number
it's finite so the questions are this who will my heart beat for with this finite number of heartbeats and where will my steps take me with this finite number of steps I might fail but you don't need to worry about that day Joshua says decide for yourself today because why because it's your turn it's your turn to decide don't lose your turn [Music]
