Saturday, March 15, 2025

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" 2025 # 11

THE DAY THAT THE POSSIBILITY OF DEATH BECAME A REALITY 

This photo is a "selfie" I took on August 6, 2014. It was taken a few weeks after my official retirement and a couple of days before I was scheduled to fly to France with a close friend as a retirement celebration. That day, I noticed that my left leg was red and a bit swollen. I thought it might be the result of the time I had been spending on the treadmill as part of my new pre-retirement health regime. However, since I would be flying to France in less than two days, I thought I should drive myself to the Audubon Hospital to have it checked out, just in case. 

I had never been in an emergency room as a patient, but I had heard the nightmare stories about how long I might have to wait. After four hours, I was getting restless and edgy. I decided that I would spend some of the time walking around consoling the other patients and offering some encouragement. After a hour or so of that, I was so disgusted that I seriously thought about forgetting the whole thing and "just go home and forget it." 

I don't know if I stayed because I had second thoughts or because I had already registered and did not want to embarrass myself by cancelling, but I stayed a little longer. Finally, they called my name and I was taken to a small alcove and placed on a gurney. 

A technician arrived and did an ultrasound around my knee area, concentrating it seemed on the back of my knee. As he was leaving, he told me to lie still and a doctor would be in shortly. A few minutes later a doctor arrived and told me, "Mr. Knott, we are admitting you right now! You have a blood clot in your leg! Do not move around! If it comes loose and goes to you lungs or brain, you could have a stroke or be dead in a few minutes. We will start a blood thinning IV right away!" With those words, the reality of possibly dying became a reality for the first time in my life! 

I was admitted for about three days as they thinned my blood and did what they could to dissolve my blood clot. I left the hospital with a prescription for oral blood thinners. After taking them for a few years, I found out that my blood clot was "probably situationally triggered" by all the regular flying I had been doing over the past few years. It was not lost on me that if I had left the emergency room that night, I would not have made it to France. I probably would have died on the plane going over. Then my "retirement" would have been permanent!     

Being the independent type, I drove myself home from the hospital, just like I had driven myself there.  Besides, my car was still in the hospital parking lot and I lived about a mile away. I left there a lot more thankful and a bit wiser than I was when I had arrived. Patience has never been my strong suit, but this time it saved my life. Lesson learned!

 


 

Thursday, March 13, 2025

SOME CALL IT "KARMA"

 THE RETURN THAT COMES FROM HELPING OTHERS  
 

"Those who water others will themselves be watered."
Proverbs 11:25


I am a project addict. I swore off church projects a year or two ago, but I have had a relapse. I take on these projects to help others, for sure, but I also do it because of the good that comes to me from doing them. Some call it "karma." The Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs says "karma" is the Hindu view of causality in which good thoughts, deeds, and words, may lead to beneficial effects, while bad thoughts, deeds, and words, may lead to harmful effects. Jesus put it this way. "Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." (Luke 6:38)

I also love having partners in my mission projects. It's not just about having people to share the burden of funding, but it's also having someone to share those good feelings and sheer joy that comes from helping other people out of their difficult situations. In the end, to be able to say "we did it" feels a lot better than "I did it!"

My newest project, a new St. Veronica Church in Kenya, is coming along quite nicely. (See the blog post for March 6 below.) We are not "there" yet, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel already makes me think that the completion is not that far off. I am feeling very "blessed" right now and I hope that the people who stepped in to help will by now be feeling "blessed" as well.

Soon we will all have the joy of looking at photos of the completed church, looking at the photos of the local dedication celebration and knowing that the poor people of St. Veronica Parish will be praying for us from a country on the other side of the world! All of this together is going to make our LENT 2025 "different" and "very special."




 

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

PRAYER FOR THE HEALING OF POPE FRANCIS

 





Heavenly Father, We humbly come before You, the Divine Physician, seeking Your healing touch upon our Holy Father, Pope Francis. Grant him strength and courage as he endures this time of illness. Surround him with Your comforting presence, and guide the medical professionals entrusted with his care. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen!


 

Sunday, March 9, 2025

WEIGHING HIS OPTIONS

           

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
For forty days to be tempted by the devil.
Luke 4:1-13

There are two great “temptation” stories in the Bible – the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden and the temptation of Jesus in the desert. In the first temptation story, in the garden, Adam and Eve are tempted by the serpent. They are seduced into “giving in” and the serpent wins. In the second temptation story, in the desert, Jesus is tempted by the devil but refuses to be seduced into "giving in" and the devil loses. Both temptation stories present us with evil that appears, on the surface, to be good but underneath is bad. Adam and Eve fall for the serpent’s good-sounding offer. Jesus sees through the devil’s good-sounding offers and resists them. 

At his baptism in the Jordon River, Jesus heard his Father say to him, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Not understanding what those words actually meant, he goes to the desert, a place free of distractions, to hear himself think, to discern his path forward and get some clarity about the direction of his ministry.

We are told that Jesus was “tempted” by three attractive options offered by the devil during his desert retreat. (1) The devil suggested to Jesus that he could attract a lot of followers if he would just turn rocks into bread. Jesus said “no” because he knew that there were enough resources already to feed the poor. What was needed was not “magic bread,” but people changing their attitudes toward sharing those resources with the poor. (2) The devil suggested that if he would just align himself with political power and glory, he could easily accomplish his mission. After all, who would make a better king than Jesus? Jesus said “no,” because he knew that if they turned their sights toward God, they already had a king! (3) The devil suggested to Jesus that he could get lots of followers if he would just suspend the laws of nature and jump from high buildings and land unharmed with the help of angels. Jesus said “no” because he knew that if people would just open their eyes, they would see that life is already a miracle. He knew that with a new way of seeing, they didn’t need dramatic stunts and cheap miracles - there were already "real miracles" right under their noses! 

After rejecting these three attractive offers for going forward, Jesus comes out of the desert with his simple one-word answer. Metanoiete! Change the way you think! You don’t need magic answers! You don’t need dramatic stunts! You don’t need outside power! All you need to do is change the way you look at the things right under your nose, the way you think about things you see and you will see God already working right there in front of you!

The story says that Jesus was “tempted.” What exactly is a “temptation?” A "temptation" is a personal inner struggle between good and evil, both appearing to look good, with a choice that has at its base a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise. Temptations are such a part of our everyday living that they get their own special mention every time we say the Our Father. We pray that we will "not be led into temptation."

I am reminded of a wonderful passage from the Old Testament Book of Sirach. “Before you are life and death, good and evil, whichever you choose shall be given you. No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.” (Sirach 15:15-20) That is worth repeating! "Before us is life and death, good and evil, whichever we choose will be given to us!"

A lot is made these days of our "right to choose," but little is said about our responsibility to choose wisely and even less is said about our responsibility to accept the consequences of our choices. Many of us today are like kids who go through life eating the filling out of the Oreos and throwing the cookies away. We want freedom without the responsibility that goes with it! We want the right to choose, but we are not necessarily willing to accept the responsibility and consequences that go with our choices. Even our country is famous for its citizens' The Bill of Rights, promulgated in 1791, but it was only two years ago that a new book by Richard Haass, entitled The Bill of Obligations about our obligations as citizens, was published to balance them.

We may have the right to eat French Fries and Chicken Nuggets three times a day, but we also have the responsibility to eat healthily. If we only exercise our right to eat whatever we want, without accepting our responsibility to eat well, we will sooner or later have to accept the consequences of our choices. Those of you in school, may have a right to skip classes, but you also have a responsibility to go to class. If you only exercise your right to skip, you must be willing to accept the consequences of flunking out of school. If we only exercise our right to a credit card, without accepting our responsibility to pay for what we charge, we will sooner or later have to accept the painful consequences of our choices – a cancelled credit card and a ruined credit score for years to come! Our culture is filling up with people who keep trying to beat this basic truth! They want their freedoms, but they do not necessarily want to accept their responsibilities for choosing wisely!

One of the benefits of being a young adult is finally being able to enjoy the freedom to make your own choices. One of the upsides of the freedom to choose is the ability to build your own life the way you want it through a series of personal choices. One of the downsides of that freedom is the ability to ruin your life through a series of poorly-thought-out choices. The freedom to choose, combined with the ability to choose wisely, is the ideal. Yet there are many who cannot handle their freedom well and end up losing it. Giving into the temptation to choose what appears and feels good at the moment, without the personal discipline to choose what would actually be good over the long haul, is a recipe for disaster.

Hearing about people ruining their lives has actually become a favorite American entertainment. Many think it is funny to watch stupid people on trash TV tell the world how they have ruined their lives and the lives of those who have been associated with them. Every day programs like Judge Judy, Maury Povich, 60 Day Fiance and Catfish  make big bucks featuring people who have ruined their lives and the lives of those around them because of the poor choices they have made. They have the "freedom to choose" but choose poorly. They have the "freedom to choose" but they don't have the ability to discern what is of value. Illegitimate children, ruined marriages, sexually transmitted diseases, financial ruin, family disintegration, squandered opportunities for a good education and loss of reputation are only a few of the consequences of making choices without the ability to choose wisely.

To be able to "discern what is of value," we must develop self-mastery. By self-mastery, I mean we have to be able to name and then "stand up to" our own temptations, to our addictions, to our cowardice and to our laziness in order to create the life we want to have! We must be able to "handle" ourselves and "handle" our cravings - for a higher purpose and for our long-term good. We must be able to continually clarify what we really want out of life, constantly focus our energies to reach for what we want and consistently deal in truth rather than in deception. People with self-mastery approach their lives like an artist approaching the task of producing a work of art. People with self-mastery know how to discern what is of value and use what they have discerned to live on purpose! The spiritual disciplines of both East and West speak often of the practice self-mastery.

One of the sad things about our culture, in which freedom of choice is so highly honored, is the growing tendency to deflect responsibility for our bad choices after we make them. We throw the blame onto others. If our culture is to survive, the freedom to choose simply must be combined with personal responsibility. To demand the freedom to make our own choices and then throw the blame on others when those choices backfire is the height of cowardice and irresponsibility - and yet it is so very popular in our culture. As Flip Wilson's character used to say all the time, "The devil made me do it!" As we hear all the time on TV, "It was my parents’ fault. They didn't raise me right!" "It was right there for the taking. What could I do but take it! They shouldn't have made it so easy to take!" Freedom without responsibility is wreaking havoc all around us.

When enough of us have the ability to discern what is of value and when enough of us have the self-mastery to choose what is of value, marriages will improve, families will improve, neighborhood will improve, the economy will improve, churches will improve, nations will improve and the world will improve. These problems can only be fixed one person at a time. In reality, no one can save us from us, but us! Yes, lack of self-mastery has a direct impact on the quality of multiple areas of people’s lives. Those who cannot establish mastery over their appetites and impulses will no doubt see many aspects of their lives quickly unravel. The ability to subordinate a lower impulse to a higher value is the essence of a satisfying life. Leonardo da Vinci was right when he said, “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”

The ability to discern what is of value and self-mastery in the face of severe temptation is at the heart of Jesus’ desert experience. To do his Father’s will, not his own, Jesus had to be able to see the difference between what “looked good” and what was “actually good.” Once he was able to discern what the will of his Father was, he had to have the self-mastery to follow it, no matter how tempted he was to do otherwise!