[Note: This post continues our two-month-long series through the month of July on the topic of “desire” and “longing” in concert with my recent book on the topic. Thanks for letting me be in your life each week. God is with you!]
This week is different. For my Thursday offering, I want to share a piece I wrote that has been published elsewhere. A few months ago, my friend Dr. Preston Sprinkle asked me to consider contributing a piece to Theology in the Raw relating to human desire. Naturally, given the work of Preston and his Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender, I thought a piece around understanding the nature of sexual desire could be something that could fit nicely. What came of that was an article I wrote entitled “Sexual Self-Knowledge.” Within, I talk about why it is not only important for us to be in touch with our own sexual desires—their glories and their dangers—it is Christianly to seek this knowledge. Desire that remains unknown can be the most dangerous of desires. This particularly intimate piece admittedly dove-tails a lot of work I’ve done in my own life in the last few years to find healing in my own sexual self; a place I have found Christ’s mercy, grace, and care over and over again.
So, for this week’s devotional, I offer you the piece in its entirety. I’ll return to writing an original piece for Low-Level Theologian next week. Until then, this week’s article can be found here. Please read. It is a scary thing to write about sexuality in public spaces. Particularly when you seek to write about it from a distinctively Christian, historical, orthodox perspective. So grace is requested. But also whatever words of feedback you may have—so long as they are generous, intentional, and open-handed. As I increasingly feel called to talk about human sexuality from a theological and biblical perspective, truthful words from friends are welcome.
Thanks, as always, for reading my work. You can always find me wasting time on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Or you can listen to my podcast, Slow Theology. If you found this content helpful to your journey, yay! Consider enjoying my most recent book The Gift of Thorns: Jesus, the Flesh, and the War for our Wants, which was released with Zondervan in February of 2024. Within, I explore what the topic of human desire from the perspective of Scripture, theology, and experience—with particular interest to how we can be formed into the image of Christ through our desires. In short, it’s about why our cultural mandate to “you do you” is so profoundly unhelpful to the follower of Jesus. You can support my work by reading it! And sharing about your experience. Click on the image below to get yourself a copy.
Hey AJ. Just wanted to encourage you. Your newest book was incredible. Such a deep concept that you made incredibly clear and accessible. Thank you for your work.
Fantastic article — so much truth and wisdom and vulnerability that's desperately needed. My experience has been that safe and trusted relationships that are willing to go as deep as confessing sexual brokenness and desires are rare to come by. And, partly because of that rarity, I find myself avoiding the topic because it feels like it could risk losing that level of relationship by going somewhere that difficult and messy and uncomfortable. So I pray that the Lord gives all of us both those safe relationships and the courage to take the steps of confessing and bringing our sexual desires and brokenness into the light.