Desires can be good when they point us in a healthy direction. When our desires are disordered, they can easily control us. Then our lives are only about the chase, and we lose agency over what might be best for us.

The Enneagram has been marketed to Christians as a way to shape their spiritual path. It’s sold as something mystical and esoteric, which might attract people who flirt with progressive and New Age practices. It’s neither spiritual nor psychological. It just attracts people into thinking they have the answers to what God wants for them.

The Biblical story of Mary and Martha provides some insight about our inner struggle. We complain about how stressed we are, but we don’t carve out time to rest our bodies, minds, and spirits. Sometimes this rest is when clarity happens.

It’s sad that our modern Western culture doesn’t value elders the way other cultures do. Dementia and Alzheimer’s plague the elderly in such awful ways. Even though it’s difficult, we must find ways to remind them that they are human and that has value.

Honestly, sometimes I just don’t want to go to church in the same way I don’t want to eat vegetables. I’m not crazy about vegetables, but I know they’re better for me than brownies. We get swept away so quickly in the ways of the world and lose our center. That’s where we return to our spiritual disciplines to keep us grounded. Like vegetables, we might find them boring, but we know they keep us spiritually healthy and grounded.

Many resist rules because they don’t like constriction, but rules can serve as guideposts if they serve to benefit the ruled. If leaders make rules but don’t follow them, they are meaningless. We can learn something about ourselves and others by asking, “What rules do you follow?”

When we feel our lives coming apart, it can be exhausting to continually fix things. When we reach this state of exhaustion and don’t know where to go, we drop down on our knees and surrender. Here’s Day 1 of a 9-day Surrender Novena created by Don Dolindo Ruotolo to remind us that we haven’t been abandoned.

Life can bring us disappointment. We can easily blame these disappointments to create more misery, which pulls us into more disappointment and suffering. On the other hand, we can look with humility into our disappointments and recognize the patterns that led us off course.

When a hermit crab outgrows its shell, it leaves what’s comfortable to find a new home. Staying in its old shell would limit its growth and it would eventually suffer. Sometimes we fear leaving what’s comfortable because the unknown leaves us vulnerable. However, this is only for a short time.

Temptations often lead us down the wrong road, and we feel helpless. We believe we can’t turn around. Marcus Aurelius says no, you can recover your principles at any moment.