Diana Nyad challenges us to act on our dreams in another of our Lenten TED Talk series.

By Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB

“You go ahead and sit back in your comfortable chair and you be the critic, you be the observer, while the brave one gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets dirty and fails over and over and over again, but yet isn’t afraid and isn’t timid and lives life in a bold way.” Diana Nyad paraphrasing Theodore Roosevelt during her TED Talk

How often do we sit back and criticize?

How often do we say, “What does she think she doing?” Or, “How dare you think of saying that, posting that or doing that?” Or, “I wish things were different.”

How often do we hope that, somehow – by magic – things will improve and change? That, “Someone else will do it.” Or, “I can’t do it because no one will support me.” Or, “I can’t do it, because no one will like me.”

There’s a big danger in that.

The danger is, we will never change the world.

We – You and I – must engage, we must try over and over again … even when we fail.

What a powerful Lenten message. We are Christ’s hands and heart. We are called to act, even if we never know what our effort ultimately produces.

“We are never to old to chase our dreams.”