Sin & Stewardship

Barriers to Spiritual Growth

I have never been much of a runner.  Although I played Big Ten College-Level Rugby at the University of Iowa, I was never into running for enjoyment, it was always a fitness thing.  Even today, when I exercise, I prefer the Elliptical Trainer to the Treadmill.  My daughters on the other hand, have both been runners at various points in their young lives.  Mainly they ran Cross-Country, but they also had to participate in the Track Meet distance events as well, and I would go and watch.  The Hurdle Events always held a special fascination for me.  I cannot recall one single Track Meet, where at least one runner didn’t bite the dust, by spectacularly colliding with a hurdle.  It was painful to watch!  On the other hand, with the sprinters running non-hurdle events, I can only recall ever seeing just one girl take a tumble, by basically tripping over her own feet (not my daughter).  My conclusion: you are much less likely to stumble, fall, or have a crowd-horrifying catastrophe, and actually finish the race, if you are running without those pesky waist-high hurdles in your way!  Brilliant, I know.  What does this jog down memory lane have to do with Stewardship?

Well, as we should know by now, Stewardship is essentially the physical expression of our spiritual lives.  Our use of Time, Talent, and Treasure in the world is the manifestation of our Faith through material means.  It is nothing less than Salvation given living flesh, because after all, we are the Body of Christ.  As essentially a spiritual manifestation in the world, our Stewardship is also subject to sin.  As psycho-somatic beings, we understand that sin plagues not only the spiritual self, but the physical as well.  Therefore, in order to obtain the maximum spiritual benefit from our considerable Stewardship efforts, we need to remove all those barriers that keep us from reaping God’s considerable rewards.

This is why our Stewardship should be considered, and dealt with, within the Sacrament of Confession.  That’s right!  Not only asking for forgiveness for not using our material means for our benefit and the glory of God (sins of omission, as well as commission), but seeking guidance from our Spiritual Father as how to overcome those barriers that hold us back.  Sins like greed, covetousness, laziness, anger, and idolatry are like well placed hurdles around the track of our spiritual lives, just waiting to try and trip us up as we run our holy race.  It is only a matter of time before we lose focus for just a moment, catch the toe of our cleat on the hurdle we thought we had easily cleared, and go down with a sickening thud.  One other thing that I’ve noticed from watching hurdles events, is that when a runner goes down hard, they usually don’t finish the race.

It is much easier, and safer, to take the time, and expend the effort, to remove those hurdles from our lane before we are confronted with them in the middle of the race.  Remember, we are not racing against our fellow runners in this case.  The race is with ourselves, and the goal is to finish!  A crown of glory awaits each and every one of us when we arrive, from the hand of the Savior Himself.  By doing our best to remove the obstacles of sin from our path, we can then focus on improving our personal best, as we hit our stride.  Stewardship is not the warm-up lap, but the race itself.  Let us therefore run the race in a way that is not only ultimately successful, but that glorifies God.  We might even find that we can enjoy this spiritual running thing after all.  Happy running!  That’s My Two Cents!