In addressing the concept of stewardship, Osborne related his experience of battling depression when he was not experiencing “success” in ministry on the level that he had hoped or expected.  He says, “I was taking too much blame for my lack of success in much the same way I’d taken too much credit for my previous victories.”  He goes on to saw, “…results don’t always matter in  the spiritual realm.  They can’t be trusted as an accurate measure of God’s approval or disapproval.”

How counter-cultural is that?  It’s been so ingrained in me to measure results in the ministry that sometimes the spiritual dimension sometimes gets put on the back burner.  I think measurements are important and I think Osborne agrees as well.  His point is that there often are things going on in the bigger picture that really transcend any kind of objective or material measurements.

He draws from Psalm 73, the story of Achan in the book of Joshua, and a couple of other passages to make the point that we often cannot control our results and that stewardship cannot be completely linked to results sometimes.   In drawing from the biblical language, he says we are not responsible to win the battle, but we are responsible for whether our horse was ready and prepared for the battle.

I think this is an important lesson for me and for any leader.  We can spend all of our energy seeking to manage or control results, but can easily neglect to nurture and hone our spiritual attentiveness to what God is doing being the scenes.  We may not always know or be able to discern, but a humility and awareness that there is more to the story that what we see or have control over can lead to greater stewardship than just maintaining what seems like worthwhile results in the eyes of men.

It’s got me thinking about how I may be trying to win battles without a horse that is really prepared for it.  How do I need to prepare my horse for the day I may face the next big battle?