There are times when we humans make simple things difficult and difficult things too simplistic. 

Mark Bauerlein was speaking to his friends about a group of monks in Vermont who spend most of their time in contemplation and prayer. 

His friends respected the monks, but were puzzled by them. “It doesn’t occur to them,” Bauerlein writes, “that unleashed desire, the gospel of our liberated age, can mean a loss of freedom, or that immersion in media can become a mode of ignorance.”*

That, my friends, is a profound commentary on our modern times.

So many people, including some Christians, have come to think of “unleashed desire” as the best thing since sliced bread. When we live as individualists who simply exist to satisfy our worldly dreams and desires, we can actually shackle ourselves and lose what matters most—living with self-sacrificial love in a way that blesses others and glorifies God.

Further, we think that a life immersed in digital media “enlightens” us, when it often makes things darker, not brighter, especially as we start to stumble through the hazy and deceptive bog of Artificial Intelligence.

There is an enduring steadfastness in Christ which tethers us to beautiful hope even when the world spins uncontrollably. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Only he offers infallible wisdom that will never go astray. Only he offers unsnuffable light through the dread of life’s most painful chapters. Only he offers soul-satisfying peace both in this life and the life to come.

There are times when we humans make simple things difficult and difficult things too simplistic.

Look to Jesus and find abundant life—forever. 

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Notes:

-“Is there an angel and a demon on my shoulder?” Click here. Sermon.

-*Mark Bauerlein, “The Carthusians of Vermont.” First Things, May 1, 2024. Accessed October 6, 2025.

-Bible quotes are from the ESV.