For four years I was an Assemblies of God minister and a monk with the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at the Little Portion Hermitage. This is an excerpt from an unpublished book I’ve written called Talking Off My Comfortable Clothes, from the chapter on Holiness.

As I was sitting in a Starbucks going over this chapter, I kept thinking, “What is it I want to say to my readers?” Here are my final thoughts on Holiness.

• Be real with who you are. Accept and embrace your gifts and talents as well as your sins and limitations.
• Beware of succumbing to someone’s personal (or organizational) standards for holiness, especially if they have no Scriptural basis.
• Find people in your life that will hold you accountable for living a holy life — a life sacred to God and separate from the standards of the world — but who will also encourage you and your dreams at the same time.
• Run from every naysayer who will try to make your life conform to his or her mediocre box of fears.
• Holiness is not a matter of eating, drinking or dressing. It is living the character of Christ.
• Memorize this quote from Albert Einstein: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”