An Encouraging Word – A leap of faith

With my God to help I can leap a wall. Psalm 18:30

I’ll be 72 next month! Even my finger stumbled over the keys as I typed “72” to let my brain know that it needs to face facts — even though it wants so desperately to slip into denial. For some reason, I have it in my head that 72 means that it is time to grow up, be sensible and start acting like an old person.

As I continue into my 70s, this kind of shut-down thinking is colliding with new interesting opportunities coming my way. I find myself these days in a constant battle of the minds. The mind that says “yes, you can” and the mind that says “no, you can’t,” the mind that says, “yes, you should” and the mind that says, “no, you shouldn’t.”

Here is a case in point. At 72, as I was about to think that maybe my speaking/traveling days have about run their course, I got two invitations from two separate, but neighboring, dioceses in the south of Nigeria.

It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see parts of Africa, to observe part of the new, growing and vibrant Catholic Church of the future and to discover if some of my ideas will resonate with 400 priests on the other side of the world.

I am torn. I am torn between talking myself into it and talking myself out of it. My scared and lazy self has already come up with 100 good reasons for not going. My curious and ambitious self is fighting back, desperately trying to come up with better reasons for going.

When I poll the audience, some tell me about all that could go wrong “over there” and that I should not “risk it,” while others cheer me on with how much of an opportunity it is and why I should take the risk.

It occurred to me that, in reality, this is not just another of my “senior citizen” dilemmas. Is this not the epic battle I have been through all my life? Is this not the battle most of us engage in almost every day of our lives — the battle in our minds over whether to choose safety or adventure, whether to choose predictability or calculated risk?

I was in this same spot when Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly asked me if I would be willing to become pastor of the Cathedral of the Assumption. Even though I had 100 reasons to say “no” and only a handful of reasons to say “yes,” I closed my eyes and took the leap. It changed the direction of my life.

Who or what is inviting you today? For me, it’s Nigeria. What is it for you? I don’t believe in being foolhardy, but I do believe in calculated risks. What about you? When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Nigeria or not, let’s hold hands and leap!

Fr. J. Ronald Knott