Asking the Right Questions

"If you don't change direction, you'll end up where you're heading." - Chinese proverbFailure to Launch was the title of a popular movie a few years ago about a shiftless young man with no direction in life. The term "launch" in the movie's title is used by psychologists to describe the period when a young person is trying to make a life for himself outside of the care of parents.

For many young people, there is often a time of "spiritual launching"-of making decisions about what to believe, what to value, and what to pursue in life. This is precisely the time to be asking God about one's vocation.

Fr. Joe Hirsch, a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, says that during this launching period, it's critical to ask the right questions: "The questions we ask determine the direction of our lives. If we ask the right questions, we'll go one direction. Ask the wrong questions, and it's likely we'll go in the wrong direction."

Many people have internalized these kinds of questions: