Faith Venture

Ryan Holliday has built a career writing about the Stoics and their set of virtues. I’ve read often of the set of Buddhist virtues. This is not a term common in my Christian reading. So, I asked claude.ai (one of the large language model AI services) to provide a list of Christian virtues.

1. Love and Compassion

2. Dignity of Human Life

3. Service and Humility

4. Forgiveness and Reconciliation

5. Hope and Resilience

6. Community and Mutual Support

7. Ethical Framework

8. Stewardship and Responsibility

9. Personal Transformation

10. Sacrificial Love

These all nestle nicely within my outline of spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices. These should be considered as a guide to living a life with-God. More of a guide or attitude than as a checklist.

More on these later. 

Instead of aging causing your muscles to lose their magic, the lack of physical activity reduces your muscles’ ability to respond to protein intake and exercise, accelerating muscle loss.

Instead of aging causing a closed mind and fixed opinions, the lack of reading widely and conversations with a diverse set of friends accelerates a fixed mindset.

Get out. Exercise the body through movement and resistance training. Exercise the mind and soul by reading widely and cultivating a diverse set of friends in conversations. Take time for meditation and prayer to bring some calm into your life.

The spirit resides in the body as the Apostle taught. Take care of both.

Real health is never a three-month change, no matter how many online influencers and companies sell quick transformations. It is a lifetime commitment.

We read many experiences where a diet (pick your poison) helps people lose weight only to discover a year later the weight that once was lost now was found.

How many people have you met who have prayed “the prayer” after a sermon asking Jesus into their heart and yet whose life has not changed?

Good health, as far as genes and environment permit, requires a lifetime commitment lived fully a day at a time. Eat real food (not super processed manufactured stuff), not too much, mostly plants. Exercise including some form of resistance training.

Good spiritual health is similar. Maybe you have that moment where you decide to become a follower of Jesus. Good. But now a lifetime commitment lived fully a day at a time. Study the New Testament and other spiritual writing, practice serving other people, gather with others regularly.

If you are not regularly reading Seth Godin, you are missing a treat. He’s not a spiritual writer, but his thoughts will make you think. Perhaps you’ll see some things in an entirely new perspective. I consider that a good thing.

Here is a recent post:

Professional woodworkers rarely have to be reminded to sharpen their tools. Of course they know this. The rest of us, on the other hand, regularly use digital tools we don’t understand, don’t maintain and haven’t optimized. Sometimes, our lack of care in the choice and use of tools only wastes our time. Often, it actually degrades the quality of what we’re seeking to create. If you’re not regularly getting better at your digital toolbox, you’re actually getting worse. 

A starting tool set might be a good study Bible. A small (or larger) library of respected spiritual writers. You might start with, say, Henri Nouwen. Or perhaps Thomas Merton fits your personality better. 

Many quality study guides exist on the Web that can offer a passage in multiple translations and even with an explanation of the original Greek or Hebrew words.

I think the best beginning tool is a regular location, a favorite chair or desk, to set the mood for study, reflection, mediation, and prayer.

Even before that a regular time when everyone knows you are not to be interrupted.

Take care. Choose your tools wisely. But don’t stop with the tools, build something—like your life.