Hard Work On The Front End

Some time ago, an old student of mine called for spiritual counsel. He’s been playing professional baseball since his graduation from high school and faces a tremendous amount of pressure in the big league. I recommended to him a morning prayer routine with Scripture, preferring the beginning of the day, because very little good happens in the night time.

Visiting with him last week at his parents home on the Island, he shared that the morning prayer has been helpful. I was glad to hear it. Then, when I shared with him that I’ve begun starting my own days with exercise before prayer, he said to me, “Yeah, I’ve learned it’s better to put in the hard work on the front end.”

That expression has had me thinking. It seems to me that when it comes to living our Catholic Faith, we’ve got two options. We can either do the hard work now, or pay for it later. We can pray and serve with Christ now, or repent on the back end of life, but it’s better to put in the hard work now - on the front end.

Just as exercise contains within itself its own reward, so does prayer. Neither are easy. Both require discipline. But they strengthen us to face the demands of the day. Together, they sharpen our minds and fortify our spirit. If, however, we forsake them we are abandoned to survival techniques and evening-time coping methods, which only weaken our body and soul.

Doing the hard work on the front end is therefore better than staying up late to do what we should have otherwise done in the morning. They are two different things with two different outcomes. One gives life to the day ahead, while the other drains what little life we have left after our failing to make use of the morning. The evening is for resting.

The best investment strategy is a morning routine of exercise and prayer. The day’s evils will still be prowling about the world to devour us, but we will be able to face and overcome them with Christ - with the confidence that comes from praying with a mind and heart clarified by the blood flow of bodily discipline.

I will probably always be numbered among those whose bad decisions and sins have made life harder than it needed to be. But as I make the effort firstly to live well and to pray, I hope my conscience will not condemn me when I say to Christ that I did put the hard work in on the front end of life. It seems to me that death, like the night, is for resting. +