A reader recently shared the following story:
An interesting thing happened on my way home today. The road was narrowing to a single lane and I heard the sound of thunder rolling up from behind me. I glanced to my right and saw a big, bearded, bandanna and leathered Harley rider passing and flashing me a big thumbs up. For a moment I was puzzled and then realized he must have been responding to the “CONVERT” bumper sticker on the back of my old Ford, one ton, ladder rack bearing, cargo van. A half mile up I caught him at a light and got a read on the colors he wore; “The Devils Disciples.” I waved as I passed him in the right turn lane and saw in my mirror his question mark expression behind his mirrored shades. Maybe he doesn’t like the “Coexist” mentality, maybe he’s just happy to see someone standing for something, or maybe he’s Catholic or even a lapsed Catholic who yet holds some belief of where the ultimate truth is.
The unfortunate truth is, this may be the only time that biker ever encounters an explicit call from anyone – priest, bishop or otherwise – to become Catholic, as opposed to just a generically better Christian, or God forbid, simply a better person.
Who knows? Maybe a seed was planted that day.
I have come to the conclusion that most of us will never see the fruits from the seeds we plant. For anyone reading this, this is no reason to not constantly plant seeds. I know this sounds silly, but my boy brought home a book one day about Johnny Appleseed. I knew of him, but I read through it anyway. It occurred to me that he lived much like a Franciscan type and would never live to see the orchards he was responsible for. He did it anyway and asked for nothing in return. Same goes for us.
Well as long as he just follows his conscience…