Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition and the Life of Faith

Jen Pollock Michel

Jan 2015 · Christian Audio · Narrated by Karyn O'Bryant

About this audiobook

As Christians, we're squeamish about desire. Isn't wanting sinful and selfish? Aren't we supposed to find and follow God's will rather than insisting upon our own? The story of each person is a story of want-desires unmet, hopes dashed, passions pursued and ambitions fulfilled. Our wants cannot be ignored. But when desire is informed by Scripture and re-formed by our spiritual practices, it can root us more deeply in the fundamental belief that God is good and generous and can invite us into active kingdom participation. Jen Pollock Michel guides us on a journey of understanding who we are when we want, and reintroduces us to a God who gives us the desires of our hearts. That same good God calls us into a new reality in which we seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and we discover our disordered desires burned away while our truest longings are happily fulfilled and purified. The disciples asked Jesus to "Teach us to pray." This book asks, "Teach us to want."

About the author

Jen Pollock Michel is a writer, speaker, and mother of five. She is a regular contributor for Christianity Today's popular her.meneutics blog and also writes for Today in the Word, a monthly devotional published by The Moody Bible Institute. Her writing has also appeared at Relevant, InTouch magazine, Today's Christian Woman, and Gifted for Leadership. Jen earned her B.A. in French from Wheaton College and her M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family and blogs at jenpollockmichel.com. You can follow Jen on Twitter @jenpmichel.