From "Half-hearted" to Infinitely Joyful--Digging (Into) Desire with Jay Stringer (Pt. 1)

About this episode

The episode explores the relationship between desires and joy with guest Jay Stringer, focusing on healing from brokenness in sexual desire.

C.S. Lewis famously wrote in The Weight of Glory, "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." You may have heard that quoted in a sermon before. You may even have read it in the original text, or maybe even considered it on some deeper level. But I mean, really, what would it be like to live as if that concept were actually TRUE? Our friend Jay Stringer, an NYC-based psychotherapist and author, has spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about our relationship with our desires, and what if anything God might have to do with them. In his first bestselling 2018 book Unwanted, he suggested that paying attention to various forms of brokenness in the realm of sexual desire (whether through addiction or avoidance) might tell us something important about ways that we need to heal. The overwhelming positive response to that book, and the boatloads of people who…

People in this episode

Hosts: Chris Osborn, Wendy Osborn

Guest: Jay Stringer

Topics covered

• desire
• joy
• healing
• sexuality
• psychotherapy

Keywords

• C.S. Lewis
• desires
• joy
• psychotherapy
• sexual desire
• healing
• Jay Stringer

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Surviving Saturday

Books & works: The Weight of Glory, Unwanted

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