Several days ago, my two-year-old son turned into Ethan Hunt, the protagonist from the Mission Impossible movie series. He managed to scale his crib walls and jump right out. It was a hilarious event, which…

I want to grow my thankfulness to God. Gratefulness is a key attitude for any believer in Christ. But it can be hard to maintain a grateful posture considering that we live in tough times. With the rising costs of almost everything, uncertainty in our world due to…

I'm not a big fan of silence. This might sound a bit strange given that I'm attempting to become a modern monastic, which includes spiritual practices like silence and solitude. Don't "monks" go about their days with a lot of silence? They sure do. But it's not something…

How many of us want to be better this year? The whole idea of "new year resolutions" comes from the fact that we, as human beings, have a desire to grow and flourish. In fact, God created us with the capacity to grow and develop. It was His idea and He delights to see His children flourish in life. We each possess…

I have more time in my hands than I normally realize. My days can be very busy. I live a modern lifestyle after all. This includes taking care of a family, fulfilling responsibilities at home, and serving in multiple work arrangements. Time is tighter than ever these days. However…

Coming before the Lord in stillness is hard. Even after several months of training myself to spend lots of time with Christ in prayer and meditation every day, I still find it challenging every single time to…

On this Christmas Day, I want to write about a person who had a posture that modern monastics such as myself hope to have. This person had a posture of listening to God and obeying Him. He had a deep desire to obey the Lord with His whole life. This is also the goal of any modern monastic—to please the Lord in…

When I started spending a lot of time in prayer each and every day, one of the initial problems I faced was actually knowing who or what to pray for. This is a bit strange since the simple answer should be: just pray for…

Some of the earliest followers of Jesus speculated that among all the virtues, humility was the hardest one to cultivate in a person. Augustine of Hippo once said, "The way to Christ is first through humility, second through humility, third through humility." It makes a lot of…

I have a son who is now two years old. He's a bundle of energy. One of the things he has a hard time with is just sitting still. He wants to explore. He wants to experience. He wants to try different things. Sitting still is hard for him. Even as adults, it's hard for us to…