“What do you want?” (John 1:38)
I’ll admit, I want a lot of things. I want my kids to grow up healthy and strong. I want that new iPhone 16 with AI. I want to be a meaningful priest in your lives. I want to sit down with a book and a glass of wine tonight after coaching my kids’ soccer practice while I ice my knee because of pain from a high school injury that I did not want.
What do you want? — close your eyes and pause for even 30 seconds to explore this question.
This is the first question Jesus asks — the first words he speaks — in John’s Gospel to two of his soon-to-be disciples. Only Jesus can both speaks to the situation (two disciples oddly walking behind him), and in the process color in what following him looks like. “What do you want?” — because your wanting matters mysteriously as you follow Jesus.
This week—Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, Vine Groups begin our Fall gatherings (and you can still sign up here!). We are all studying a course called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality together. We will learn about Christian grief, un-health and health, practices, family of origin, self-reflection, being spiritually stuck, and more. It will invite our stories, emotions, relationships, and rhythms into following Jesus.
This is a course about want. If in following Jesus you have ever experienced a gap between what you know and what you do, it likely has something to do with your want. Yes, I want to follow Jesus, and to grow in my relationship with him, yet I have all too often assumed that meant learning more information about God. I’ve supported my knowledge of God — not a bad thing — but have I supported my wanting of God? In other words, have I been intentional about my habits, my desires, my sadnesses and joys, or my schedule?
This is serious reflective business — let’s do it together this Fall. Full disclosure here: I hope you want to sign up, and do! Because as we respond to Jesus’ first question together, I expect we will receive his very next words as well, spoken to the same eager followers:
“Come” he replied, “and you will see.” (John 1:39)