Transforming Desire

Very little in our culture encourages us to slow down, simplify and modulate our desires. Even magazines devoted to “the simple life” have an uncanny way of drawing us into advertisements so we will desire more and different possessions.

The season of Advent, then, is counter-cultural.

While Main Street sees Advent as pre-Christmas sales season, the Christian tradition sees Advent for what it has been over the centuries—a time to let the cold weather draw us inward, slow us down and reflect on waiting with good hope for God’s desire to be fulfilled in the world.

How might we open heart to the movement and action of God?

One practice that can help is a prayer designed to allow God to transform our desires. It involves taking time to identify our deepest and truest desires, holding them before God in prayer and asking God to transform them according to God’s desire for us.

An excellent Advent practice would be to spend a few minutes each day doing this “Desire Prayer,” taking note of what is experienced, and then looking over those notes for any “aha” moments on Epiphany.

Here’s how the prayer is done:

• Begin by taking a few moments to settle down and become calm. Say a prayer of gratitude for all that has been, all that is, and all that will be in your life.

• Let your heart’s deepest desire be stated before God. Take your time naming that desire. If your desire feels too superficial to you, think about what is beneath the desire. When you settle on a deep desire, let go of judgments. God can work with your desire.

• Visualize your desire. Feel it. Touch it. Taste it. Smell it. Let it become real to you in your imagination. Linger there and see how the scene depicting your desire develops or changes. Stay with this step for several minutes.

• Let go of specific outcomes. Ask that God’s desire be fulfilled in your desire, or that God will transform your desire as needed. Notice what, if anything, changes as a result of that request.

• Ask God how you might assist in fulfilling this desire. Stay in silence as you allow space for God to speak in and through your imagination.

• Close by thanking God for this desire and for the opportunity to pray in and through it. Thank God for being present in this prayer.

• Spend a few moments right after the prayer reflecting on how it was to pray with a desire. What surprised you? Moved you? Inspired you? What disturbed you? How did you feel God’s presence in the midst of this prayer? Did anything about your desire change as you prayed with it?

• In the days following this prayer, be aware of ways God may be offering you opportunities to live into the desire. When they do, take prayerful action and don’t forget to thank God for the opportunities and eyes to see them.

It is especially easy this time of year to get caught up in our desires and become overly self-concerned. This prayer helps us let go of our desires by handing them over to God. Use this prayer anytime you have a desire that persists and feels important.

Enjoy Advent this year. Enjoy desire.

Photo Credit: vita pakhai  (Shutterstock)

Teresa Blythe is an ordained United Church of Christ (UCC) minister in Phoenix, AZ who works as a spiritual director and Director of the Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction in Tucson. For more on spiritual direction, see her blog Spiritual Direction 101 and website at www.teresablythe.net. For more prayer practices check out her book 50 Ways to Pray from Abingdon Press. Contact Teresa at teresa@teresablythe.net.