“Keith, by taking the vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience for life, you are doing something profoundly important, not for your sake, but for the sake of the world. What some see as a waste, as running away, as hiding, even as a death, is actually the way of Jesus. It is the way of self – spending, redemptive love. It is the way God has chosen you to change this old world.” On the joyous occasion of Br. Keith Nelson's profession in Life Vows, Br. James Koester considers how the monastic vows point us all toward the way of Jesus: a way of self-spending, redemptive love.