Anvil & Arrow
Reflections for men seeking to grow in faith, virtue, leadership, and responsibility—and carry that formation into the world.
A Story That Followed Me Home
Read the latest Anvil & Arrow reflection.
Read the letterLetters Closest to My Heart
These may not be the most popular letters I have written, but they are the ones that remain nearest to me—the ideas and stories I most hope are worth carrying forward.
The Good Stuff
This letter captures how I want to see the people around me. The little habits that sometimes annoy us may one day become the very things we miss—and opportunities to love someone more fully now.
There Are No Ordinary People
This letter helped me remember the eternal significance of every person we encounter. No one is ordinary when each of us has been created to exist forever.
The Love Letter in the Leaves
This letter captures the wonder and awe I sometimes feel when I slow down and look around. God has filled the ordinary world with reminders of His love—we simply have to look up and notice them.
Mental Models #2: Learning to Walk
This letter helped me become more patient with myself. I will stumble and fall, but God is a patient Father who picks me up, encourages me, and teaches me to try again.
“And They Forgot”
This letter felt like a breakthrough for me. When we forget our history, we lose the lessons others paid dearly to learn and become prone to repeating the same mistakes.
What Made David Different?
David showed me what repentance looks like. God loved him despite his failures, but David still had to possess the humility to accept correction, repent, and return to Him.
The Heart of the Father
This felt like a capstone letter for me—an attempt to help people see God as He truly is rather than as He is sometimes portrayed. I could never capture the fullness of His goodness in one letter, so ultimately I could only point readers back to Scripture.
The Sky Had Never Seemed So Sky
This was a joyful letter to write because Coraline contains so many rich lessons beneath its modern fairy-tale surface. It reminded me to be grateful for what I have, to recognize how my choices affect others, and to trust that God can make straight with crooked lines.
Why Men Must Learn to Follow
This letter allowed me to confront a trap I had fallen into myself. I was eager to lead before I understood its responsibility and weight; learning to follow taught me to be gracious toward my leaders and help them become the best leaders they can be.
Get the next letter by email.
One thoughtful letter each week. No noise and no spam.
Explore the archive
Search the complete collection or follow a subject that speaks to the season you are in.
A Story That Followed Me Home
Read this Anvil & Arrow reflection.
The Man Before the Title
What makes a man worthy of a title? Aragorn and a childhood lesson show that leadership begins by serving others and carrying responsibility before receiving recognition.
The Heart of the Father
Who is God beyond a textbook definition? Scripture reveals a loving Father whose patience, mercy, correction, and sacrifice invite His children to know Him and return home.
The Reason We Live
What makes life worth living? Mr. Keating's defense of poetry leads from career and achievement to beauty, love, human dignity, and ultimately God.
The Whisper
What does carpe diem really demand of us? Dead Poets Society reminds us that life is finite and challenges us to give today's attention to what matters most.
The Good Stuff
How can we love people more patiently? This letter uses Good Will Hunting to show that the small habits that irritate us may also be part of what makes someone irreplaceable.
What Made David Different?
What made David a man after God's own heart despite his grave sins? His greatness was not perfection but the humility to repent and return to God.
The Characters Don't Know
Remember the Titans shows how our desire to know the whole story can become anxiety, control, and fear of disaster when life is going well.
A Better Question
Read this Anvil & Arrow reflection.
What Kind of World Are You Living In?
Coraline and Narnia reveal two kinds of worlds: one built to consume and control us, and another formed by a creator who loves and prepares us.
The Sky Had Never Seemed So Sky
What can Coraline teach us about temptation and gratitude? Her journey shows how dissatisfaction opens the wrong doors, sin harms others, and courage can help repair the damage.
There Comes a Time
Bruce Wayne and Alfred reveal that even noble missions have seasons—and that faithful leadership sometimes requires letting go and allowing others to carry on.
The Cost of Doing What’s Right
The Dark Knight shows that leadership requires difficult moral decisions, accepting criticism, and paying the personal cost of doing what is right.
The Cost of Acting Too Soon
A true idea can still fail when presented before we have earned the knowledge, preparation, and trust needed to carry it well.
“And They Forgot”
Why do generations repeat the same failures? This letter argues that strong men weaken when they forget what earlier generations sacrificed to build and preserve.
The Story You Don’t See
Men in Black III suggests that life's disconnected moments may belong to a larger story whose pattern we cannot yet see.
The Cost of Walking Away
Leaving teaching for HVAC work revealed the pain of walking away from a calling—and the unexpected formation God can provide along an unplanned path.
What If You’re Seeing It Wrong?
Men in Black challenges our confidence in appearances: reality may be far larger, stranger, and more meaningful than our first interpretation.
The Betrayal We Ignore
Gladiator, Braveheart, Narnia, and Holy Thursday expose a deeper danger than being betrayed by others: betraying our own principles and calling.
When Stories Ignite the Soul
Midway and the courage of Richard Best show why stories do more than entertain: they awaken gratitude, virtue, sacrifice, and a desire to live well.
Lead from the Front
Major Richard Winters teaches that trustworthy leadership begins with humility, personal example, and doing the hard work before asking it of others.
The Problem of Pain
The book of Job and C. S. Lewis confront the question of suffering by asking whether we can trust God's goodness when we cannot see the whole design.
The Strength of Limits
Gandalf's refusal of the Ring shows that greatness is not unlimited power but disciplined strength kept within the boundaries of one's mission.
Be Better Than Yesterday
A healthier definition of success replaces comparison and overnight achievement with steady, attainable growth from one day to the next.
Learning to Lead Through Failure
Peter Pevensie's mistakes show that leadership is learned through humility, responsibility, and the willingness to form people rather than shame them.
Why Men Must Learn to Follow
Why must men learn to follow before they lead? Edmund's transformation and a personal reckoning reveal how humility, loyalty, and right submission form trustworthy leaders.
The Power Hidden in Plain Sight
The quiet strength of mothers forms identity, sustains courage, and strengthens the missions of those they faithfully love.
Why We Desire Glory
Our desire for glory is ultimately a desire to be known and welcomed by God—not merely praised by an unstable world.
There Are No Ordinary People
A reflection on C. S. Lewis's claim that there are no ordinary people and how the immortality of every soul gives eternal weight to our everyday relationships.
The Crown Belongs to God
Jonathan's friendship with David shows that titles and authority are entrusted by God, not possessed—and must never outrank what is right.
Temperament and Idols: Reaction and Motivation
Temperament explains how we instinctively react; the four idols help reveal why we act by exposing the desires beneath our behavior.
A New Year Needs Direction
Instead of brittle New Year's resolutions, choose a guiding theme that can provide direction while adapting to the changes of an entire year.
The Strength to Forgive
The unforgiving servant and Christ's Passion show that forgiveness requires strength, mercy, and remembrance of the debt God has already forgiven us.
Your Moment of Choice
At the Council of Elrond, Frodo becomes an active participant in his story by freely accepting responsibility for carrying the Ring.
The Weight of Words
Genesis and Star Wars reveal that words can create or fracture: good mentors correct while preserving trust, dignity, and hope.
The Clock and the Calling
Stranger Than Fiction asks whether our comfortable routines serve our calling—or keep us from choosing a life that is truly alive.
Boone’s Lesson: Embrace the Conflict
Coach Boone shows that avoiding conflict preserves appearances, while confronting it with purpose can forge truth, trust, and lasting unity.
The Love Letter in the Leaves
Why did God make autumn beautiful? The changing leaves become an image of divine love, gratitude, mortality, mentorship, and the legacy a man leaves behind.
A New Day Will Come
Sam's speech in The Two Towers reminds weary men that darkness passes and that persistence matters more than perfection.
Memento Mori: Remember You Must Die
Star Wars and Tolkien contrast fear of death with sacrificial purpose, showing how remembering death can teach us to live.
MM3: Guiding the Ship, Not Scorning the Sailor
Children are like ships learning to navigate: correction should guide them back toward adulthood rather than condemn them for drifting.
Mental Models #2: Learning to Walk
A father watching his son learn to walk becomes a mental model for spiritual growth: we stumble and fall, but God patiently lifts us and teaches us to try again.
Mental Models #1: The Suitcase
The suitcase mental model helps us release disproven beliefs and possessions without confusing what we carry with who we are.
Pride at the Door
Desmond Doss shows how humble conviction examines itself for pride without surrendering what conscience knows is right.
Where Is Your Focus?
Qui-Gon Jinn's advice that focus determines reality reveals how attention shapes our perception, choices, faith, and performance.
From Thorn to Strength
C. S. Lewis's lizard becomes a stallion: surrendered temptation can become the very place where God forges strength and rightly ordered desire.
Avengers Assemble: A Spiritual Truth
Captain America's hopeless stand and the arrival of the Avengers offer an image of spiritual perseverance and help arriving when we stand faithful.
The Lie About Power: Why We Need Willing Leaders
Book and film versions of Aragorn challenge the idea that good leaders must avoid power; virtuous men should prepare to wield it willingly.
Qui-Gon Jinn: A Model of Virtue
Qui-Gon Jinn models presence, courage, compassion, and obedience to truth within a Republic and Jedi Order already losing their way.
Intentional Acts, Lasting Impact
A friend's intentional approach to soccer shows how ordinary activities can simultaneously build health, friendship, community, and purpose.
Forged in Community
Touchback reveals that the life we wish we could escape may contain gifts, relationships, and a community worth choosing again.
Fix Your Week
Reordering Friday and Sunday around Christ's Passion and Resurrection can repair the weekly rhythm of dread, distraction, penance, and hope.
Two Keys for the Journey
Becoming a new man requires two anchors: a worthy standard to imitate and a clear direction toward which our formation can move.
Your Story Is Not Over
Narrative identity is not destiny: the story we believe about ourselves can be examined, rewritten, and directed toward a better ending.
Forge and Aim: A Talent Inventory
A practical talent inventory helps men name their gifts, weaknesses, and tools so they can sharpen what God has given them for service.
The Talents We Bury
St. Joseph and the Parable of the Talents reveal that gifts are entrusted for faithful use—not buried through fear or protected for ourselves.
Forged and Launched
A leader who hires possible successors offers a model of formation: grow strong, prepare others, and launch them toward a mission beyond yourself.
About Anvil & Arrow
An introduction to Anvil & Arrow: Catholic formation on the anvil prepares men to be launched in service to family, Church, and community.