Desire

Tim and Jon, along with Patrick Miller, emphasize that the tenth commandment uses the verb “hamad”, meaning desire. And it seems to imply do not desire that which God has not given us, or “an inordinate or ungoverned desire that leads to an act of taking what is desired”¹.

In their podcast episode on the tenth commandment², Tim and Jon suggest a practice of interrogating our desires:

Tim: Mhm. Maybe another way of not desiring is “Interrogate your desires.” I used that word—the word came to me, but kind of, like, get—get aggressive with them, like poke around. Like, “Why do I think that having my neighbor’s deck will make me happy?” Jon: Mmm. Yeah, your desires are a signal. Tim: They’re a signal of something. Jon: Yeah, yeah. Tim: Interrogate your desires, and let them take you on a journey. Jon: Mmm. Tim: To what it is you really want. What is it you really want? Jon: Yeah. Tim: And if you had it, would that really be the end of your desire, or is it possible that the eye is never full of seeing and the ear is never full of hearing? [Ecclesiastes 1:7-8] Jon: Yeah. Tim: And that you’ll never be done meeting that desire? Yeah.

Augustine’s comment that we won’t rest until we rest in God—resonates with Hütters’ dictum that without desire we’d cease to be human, but without God as desire’s ultimate end, we become inhumane.

[The Commandments] stubbornly keep our desires directed toward God. To be clear: Desire as such is not the problem; it is not “bad.” Indeed we are created as creatures with desires; to be human is to be desiring. All of our desires, however, are created to come to a rest in their one ultimate good, communion with God. Augustine’s famous sentence from the Confessions—“You have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you”—expresses how our desires find rest and fulfillment only in God. If other created things are elevated to the position of the ultimate good in ceaseless exchange, coveting is the unavoidable result, since none of these created things will ultimately bring our desiring to a rest. ==Without desire we would cease to be human; without God as desire’s ultimate end, we become inhumane.== (“Twofold Center of Lutheran Ethics,” 47)

All of this resonates with Kesler’s idea of intention—a foundational (primal) polarity. Tim and Jon’s interrogation piece is a nice elaboration on the IPP practice for this: seeing desires as a signal, interrogating those desires from a position of curiosity, letting them take me on a journey to what I really want, and asking if I had the object of my desire, would it be the end, or is it possible that the eye is never full of seeing and the ear never full of hearing, and will I ever be done meeting that desire?