S4E4 - Lust: A Disordered Search for Intimacy

This is the episode we were nervous to record. Justin admits greed might be a blind spot, something he’s still in the middle of figuring out. So instead of teaching, we asked some revealing questions and answered them honestly.

Our Seven Deadly Sins series continues with gluttony: the desire to consume beyond what we actually need. That certainly shows up at the table, but also in our scrolling, shopping, and substance consumption. Gluttony is sneaky and easy to dismiss, and since your metabolism can hide both your sins and your virtues, it can go unnoticed for a lifetime. So this conversation is really about the heart. Are you eating to delight in God's creation, or to cope? Or a better question might be: What do you reach for when you're hurting?

We don't usually call it envy. We call it "just being honest," or "I'm not jealous, I just wish things were different." But envy is sneakier than that. It's a refusal to be content with the life God actually gave us, and it shows up as comparison, insecurity, gossip, and pushing people out. This week continues the Seven Deadly Sins series with a hard look at where envy starts, why it hurts the person feeling it most, and how to fight it with the one thing strong enough to counter it: love.

Anger might be the quintessential sin of fatherhood. It's the one that shows up at bedtime, in the car, in the moment a kid won't listen for the fifth time, and it's the one our kids are most likely to watch us model and then repeat.

This week, we're opening a new season built around the seven deadly sins: sloth, anger, envy, lust, gluttony, greed, and pride. We’re spending this season walking through each one in depth, not to shame you, but because you can't fight what you won't name. This episode starts with sloth, what we think is the defining sin of our generation. Sloth isn't what most of us picture. Thomas Aquinas called it “sorrow about spiritual good,” a sadness that sets in when the right thing is also the hard thing. That means you can be productive at work all week and still be spiritually asleep. It's a sin of omission, not commission: the gap between the life you're living and the life you were made for. And you don't close that gap on willpower alone. You can only do it with the help of the Holy Spirit. We trace where this actually shows up in a father's life: the hard conversation you keep putting off, the disengagement that looks like exhaustion but is really avoidance. It's the same instinct Adam had in the garden. God asks where he is, and Adam says, "I heard you and I was afraid, so I hid." Sloth hides. What it's chasing is comfort, when it actually needs rest. Here's the hope. The opposite of sloth isn't hustle, it's faithfulness, joy and intentionality. It’s caring enough to be hurt and present enough to be interrupted. Ephesians 5 tells us to wake up, because Christ will shine on us if we do. Your kids are watching whether you're a father who's tired or a father who cares. This season, we want to help you become the second one, by shining a light on the areas of your life still stuck in the dark. Season 4 Recurring Themes: Jesus loves you in the midst of your sin. This isn't about shame, it's about transformation. What if the biggest threat isn't what you do occasionally, but what you're becoming? You live in an action movie. It's a spiritual fight. You're called to live a life without secrets. Sin flourishes in the dark but dies in the light. You can't do fatherhood alone. You fight sin in community, and covenant friendship with others and Jesus is where sanctification happens. Your sin isn't unique. Naming it has power. Sin comes at you with reason, making itself sound reasonable. Grace means you can live differently. You're like a garden. Gardeners work at the intersection of grace and agency. Sanctification takes practice. Questions to Ask Yourself: What conversations have you been avoiding? Where have you confused being busy with being faithful? What part of your soul have you stopped tending? Where have you settled for existing instead of being? If your children copied your spiritual life exactly, would you be excited or concerned, sorrowful or encouraged? Applications: Community: Name your sloth to yourself first, then confess it to your spouse or a friend. Send this episode to that friend and ask each other what's been left undone, and how it will be different next time. Spiritual discipline: Read. Reading usually coincides with caring, and it pulls you out of apathy. Spiritual discipline: Build key rhythms into your week that improve motivation and keep you out of the habit of avoidance. Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX Scripture Mentioned: Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5-11, Genesis 3:10, Ecclesiastes 2:17-26, Revelation 3:15-16, Ephesians 5:14-16 + James 1:22-25 Books Mentioned: East of Eden by John Steinbeck + The Body Teaches the Soul by Justin Whitmel Earley Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to [email protected], mentioning your name and where you’re from.