At the conclusion of 2023, my family was living in Italy because I was serving on active duty and we had been assigned to a U.S. military base overseas. We were about 18 months into a three-year European adventure when God began placing different men in my path—each from separate walks of life. Interestingly, they all shared one thing in common: each man was seeking clarity and guidance as he struggled with the same addictive behaviors. They all desperately attempted to stop what they were doing but failed to remove these unwanted behaviors from their lives. Everyone acknowledged the need for change, recognizing the destruction these habits were causing, but each felt helpless to stop.
It was through those interactions that God revealed to me what I was about to undertake.
I first put together a workbook to help men grow into more effective individuals and to break free from sexually-related deviance. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), around the same time, God placed 2 Peter chapter 1 on my heart. I felt God leading me to step out in faith, combining my experiences with His truth to guide these men. I called the initial workbook Arete, the Greek word for virtue. It also happens to be the first attribute listed by Peter in 2 Peter 1:5. Since I had only six months remaining before we moved back to the States, I created the workbook as we met each month. The experience felt like flying an airplane while building it midair.
After moving my family to Rhode Island in the summer of 2024, God didn’t relent regarding the Arete work. He continued pressing me to complete what I had started back in Italy. So, I went back to work, refining the workbook into a unified, standalone product. Just when I believed the work was finished, I quickly learned (the hard way) that I was only getting started.
Since the fall of 2024, God has opened doors that have grown beyond the original Arete workbook. A good friend once told me, “Pay attention to what God is doing in your life.” I’ve come to realize that life often doesn’t go the way we want, but we must learn to see what God is doing through it all. To date, new opportunities have arisen—such as reflective writing concepts, speaking engagements, a book, and the broader vision of The Arete Way.
My pastor recently shared with me the significant decline in the usage of the word virtue in English literature over the past 200 years. I hope and pray that God can use platforms like this to help reintroduce and restore virtue to the modern world.