Sunny Banana
YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@sanibonani-y2g?si=09LymOLYjP7sE3cY
I am a school chaplain and the content is intended to encourage curiosity about Faith and it's impact on day to day life
The Sunny Banana, is a play upon the Zulu greeting, Sanibonani, meaning I see you.
As tech wrenches us from real life, we are not seeing each other. The Greek word 'idea' means to see. It is as if we have lost the idea of what it means to be human; social, communal, relational. The same word, to see, in Old English is 'seon' which has connotations of understanding.
Let's start seeing each other again, listening, respecting, and understanding each other and ourselves. After all, we are people through other people.
Sunny Banana
Porn, Money and Modernity | Desire Aims At God Or It Eats You #26
Desire isn’t the villain of a spiritual life; it’s the compass that needs re‑calibrating. We’ve been sold the idea that wisdom means wanting nothing, but what if real freedom is wanting the right things with our whole heart? In this conversation we walk straight into the heart of longing, talk honestly about temptation and distraction, and point toward communion as the place where desire finally breathes.
We start by questioning the popular mantra “free from desire” and explore how modern life coaches our wants through money, porn, alcohol, and the constant churn of fun. These offers feel like freedom because they’re loud, easy, and always within reach—until they leave us numb and alone. A stark parable of wolves licking frozen blood on a blade shows how addiction deadens our senses while we keep thinking we’re tasting something good. The aim isn’t to hate desire; it’s to heal and aim it.
From there we return to the centre: human connection and communion with God. Phone a friend, meet for coffee, and let your voice be heard by someone who loves you. Then step into worship where desire is schooled—through prayer, singing, and holy communion we don’t abstract love; we taste it. In the Orthodox language of theosis, we grow into the likeness of God, not by erasing longing but by letting grace shape it. Practical prompts help you notice numb spots, swap anaesthetics for presence, and rebuild habits that make you more alive, more attentive, and more capable of love.
If you’re tired of counterfeit freedom and hungry for connection that satisfies, this story-rich, candid episode will meet you where you are and nudge you home. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with one desire you’re choosing to aim toward communion this week.
Sunny Bunani. Welcome to the Sunny Banana. God bless you. I tell you, I've been away for a little bit, and uh it's great to be back uh with my feet under the desk so I can speak to you today. I was in Guernsey for a holiday and visiting my spiritual father, which was very, very, very special and a blessed time. I want to talk to you today about desire. It's one of my um daughter's favorite songs, Free from Desire. Mind and Body Free from Desire. And you know the song. I'm sure you might know the song, and maybe it's playing in your background in the back of your mind now, Freed from Desire. And I want to challenge that notion today by using also our temptations and our addictions and distractions in our modern day life. You know, I think a lot of people think that being spiritual is exactly that, to be free from desire, to want nothing, to sit there in the corner in the lotus position, and just being and not desiring anything. Now that was the pool uh for me, actually, to talk personally to a lot of um Eastern mysticism um and eastern religions. It was a great pool for me. However, as a Christian, I want to give this message today that it's not about freeing ourselves from desire, it's more about freeing ourselves for desire. Now I have a book here with me, um, and I'm looking up at my shelf. Let's see if I can grab it. But anyway, the book is called Addiction and Grace. And the book suggests that we need to be free for desire. Another question of desire, then. So, what do we desire? In a more sort of plain, most secular way, you could say, well, we as human beings, we desire connection and communion. The more you think of it, the more the religious language comes in and more religious it becomes. And as Christians, we are desiring connection with God. We are desiring a communion with God. In the Orthodox faith, they say theosis, which is to become like God, to become very much like him in his likeness and image where we created, not to become God at all, but to become like God. So I want to tell a story that sort of illustrates our distractions and our addictions and our temptations, which I believe is distracting us from our actual desire for communion. Our actual desire for communion. It seems that we are told what we want, and what we want is money, pornography, uh alcohol, uh, and fun times, and it's all about that. And so that's the freedom, that's the freedom, and that gives us freedom. Although I think there we are are slaves to those desires, and we think we are free. And I think all these addictions, temptations, and distractions are actually exactly that distracting us from what we actually desire, and that's communion as human beings. Um, and if you want to, and I will, communion with God. So here's a story I heard about addiction, and the particular person telling it was actually talking about pornography, but this is what it's like. One day, a an Inuit hunter, Eskimo, came up with a plan because his tribe were being terrorized by a pack of wolves. And his plan was to do this. His plan was to get and gather animal blood that would attract the wolves. Also attract the wolves away from the tribe. And he would freeze it, he would freeze it around a blade, a knife, a knife, a big blade, and he would cover this blade in this blood, and it would freeze and form this protective layer around the blade of this juicy blood that would attract the wolves. And the wolves started coming and started to lick this this frozen blood, and they loved it, and they couldn't get enough of it, and they tasted it. And once they tasted it, they could not deny it. And they licked and they licked so far that they licked all the blood away, exposing the knife. Now you would think they can see the danger and stop licking. But the thing is, the blood, the frozen blood, had numbed their senses, had numbed their tongues. And they weren't even tasting the blood at some point, to a point, if you can think about this. And then they were on the blade, licking the blade, lacerating their tongues, and just cutting their tongues, and eventually each wolf died. And not to go too much into the story, but this is it. I think what I want to say is all the modern-day distractions and temptations and addictions and that we have numb us. And we don't even well, we we actually can see the dangers of them. They don't bring communion, they don't bring connection, but we carry on doing them. Eventually it's too late. However, my podcast is about seeing each other and connecting with each other. So perhaps I'll leave you with this thought to A, connect with other people, go see them, go talk to them, pick up the phone, phone your family, phone a friend, go have coffee with people, and ultimately I would say go and commune at church. Get up and go to church. And there, in the church, I pray that you are free to desire. You're free to desire, and the grace and the humility and the mercy of God enlivens you. And you can see what you desire, you can smell what you desire, you can taste what you desire through holy communion, and singing, and praying, and lighting candles, and being with the saints and angels, because that's where we belong. That's where we belong. So may God bless you all. This is the Sunny Banana. Sunni Bunani, I see you, and God bless you.