Today’s devotional comes to us from Josiah Jones. Josiah is a master’s-level counseling student from Oklahoma City and a Graduate Assistant for both Fraternity & Sorority Life and Housing & Residence Life at TCU. He is completing counseling internships focused on integrating art and tabletop role-play in therapeutic practice. His undergraduate degree was in youth and family ministry, and his current research and clinical interests include positive psychology, Internal Family Systems Theory, and overcoming spiritual & religious trauma. Josiah is happily married to his brilliant wife, Stella, and is her biggest fan.
Matthew 6:21
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Reflection:
This Lent, I’ve been thinking about St. Augustine of Hippo and his idea that we’re all desiring beings. He believed that our desires were meant to have a kind of God-given order, but over time, things have become disordered. According to Augustine, that’s where sin enters the picture: not because we have desires, but because they’ve gotten out of alignment. Francis Spufford describes it as “the human propensity to… (mess) things up”. Although Spufford uses a slightly more colorful word that I probably shouldn’t include in a Lent reflection. You get the idea.
Augustine believed that the task of the Christian life is to undergo the slow, patient reordering of our desires, to direct our hearts back toward their true center: Love itself. Lent, then, becomes more than just a season of denial. It becomes a sacred technology, a recalibration of the soul. It invites us to turn down the noise of our usual routines, to disrupt the default settings we rarely question, and to create space for new longings to emerge, longings that might actually be echoes of the kingdom Jesus described in his ministry.
Let us pray.
Whatever you’ve given up this season, I pray it’s not just for the sake of saying no. I hope it’s making room for curiosity, listening, and a deeper yes. May your fast make space for Love to redirect your desires, not through guilt or pressure, but through invitation. A gentle invitation to discover what you truly want, and who you are becoming.