2024 Reflections: Clean Conscience, Contentment, & Stewardship Of The Body

Over the past year, I’ve contemplated three vital facets of life: a clean conscience, contentment, and the stewardship of the body. These have become my consistent and daily reflections. 

 First, a clean conscience is only possible through the assurance of baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection. While a clear conscience can be safeguarded by meticulous attention to details—crossing T’s and dotting I’s—it is ultimately found in the comforting act of making the sign of the cross, remembering that all sins of thought, word, and deed have been plunged into Christ through baptism. Just as Christ is mine, so I am His. 

Second, true contentment arises from the gift of tentatio—the struggles and sufferings of this life with God’s Word. The gift of contentment comes through reliance upon Christ. Still, such reliance often comes through the painful knowledge that we have brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it. This humbling awareness teaches us to expect nothing and cherish everything as a gift of grace. 

Finally, the stewardship of the body reminds us that, though our bodies are perishing, they are neither evil nor prisons to escape. While the temptation may arise to either reject or obsess over perfecting the body, the Christian perspective is one of gratitude and care for good health. The body is a gift from God, deserving of training and nurturing as an act of reverence to the Creator and giver of life. Though the perishable body will one day rest in a holy grave, it will be raised imperishable on the Last Day. 

These 2024 reflections of a clean conscience, contentment, and stewarding the body are not only good and right but deeply salutary, for they are gifts unto us.