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.
"Jen Pollock Michel's latest book, Teach Us to Want, reflects on
the Lord's Prayer as a way of knowing our desires. . . . this title
guides women in understanding that when their desire is informed by
Scripture and reformed by spiritual practices, it can invite them
into active kingdom participation." (CBA Retailers + Resources,
August 2014)
"In Teach Us to Want, Toronto-based writer Jen Pollock Michel
challenges conventional Christian notions about heeding desire. She
helps us understand that what we want isn't our enemy, but can be
one of God's most powerful tools for shaping and directing us. We
might easily think of desire as all bad, but Michel argues that
desire, rightly understood, should be followed." (Laura Turner,
Christianity Today, July/August 2014)
"Jen Pollock Michel's Teach Us to Want is a beautiful spiritual
memoir that weaves the author's story with passages from Scripture
that address--and even gracefully redress--her restless fears and
questions. Intelligent, honest and inspiring, the book invites
readers to understand their own stories of loss and "loving
wrongly" in the light of that which is truly the antidote to our
fears and dissatisfaction, the good news." (Jennifer Grant, author
of Love You More, MOMumental, Wholehearted Living and Disquiet
Time)
"Seriously, one of the most beautiful nonfiction books I have ever
read." (Bethany Jenkins, founder, The Park Forum)
"'Lead me not into ambition, ' I have prayed, sideways, with the
weight of ambition on my shoulders. Who has not wrestled with the
tensions between what we desire and what (we think) God desires?
Michel has brilliantly lit a way through our own dark, tangled
brambles. I've been waiting for this book for a long time." (Leslie
Leyland Fields, author of Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers)
"Michel artfully weaves together Scripture and story to point us
straight to the truth of God's love, grace and provision. This is
not a Christian guide to success or a biblical condemnation of
desire. This is a book that rightly resets our human desires into
the context of God's good news." (Kathy Khang, coauthor of More
Than Serving Tea)
"Jen Pollock Michel fuses three things that make her book essential
reading: deep insight, raw honesty and radiant prose. She's a
terrific writer, an agile thinker and--if that were not enough--a
fearless witness to her own heart's darkness and light. By inviting
me deeply into the mess and beauty of her own story, she has given
me courage to step into the mess and beauty of my own--and, with
her, to meet afresh the One who awakens, names, purifies and meets
all the desires of my heart." (Mark Buchanan, author of Your Church
Is Too Safe)
"As women, we often feel the urge to hide our longings, especially
in the church. Through her own story of fear, loss and God's
goodness, Jen stirs us to recover and reshape these desires in
light of the kingdom of God." (Rebekah Lyons, author of Freefall to
Fly)
"In her debut book, Jen Pollock Michel offers a meditation on what
it means to walk the line between dismissing our desires as evil
and abandoning ourselves to them. The book's mix of narrative and
biblical reflection nudges us into deeper contemplation of our
desires, God and the ends toward which our desires are driving us."
(Relevant Magazine, September-October 2014)
"'Desire is primal: to be human is to want, ' writes Jen Pollock
Michel in the opening chapter of her praiseworthy new book Teach Us
to Want. Certainly this is not new information, but in this
compelling book that masterfully interweaves juicy personal
narrative, scholarly research, and solid biblical exegesis, Michel
builds a case for the importance of examining desire's many facets:
'Desire is the powerful subtext of our lives. It determines
decisions. This is why we need to pay attention to it.' "With grace
and humor, she bravely bares her own stories of struggle with
wanting and loss, hope and doubt. Her vulnerability elicits the
reader's trust. Here is a worthy and compassionate guide to join on
this important journey; Michel helps us distinguish between What do
I want? and What does God want for me? "Using the Lord's Prayer as
a rubric to frame our naked wanting, the reader is invited to
consider Jesus' language of prayer as a way of realigning our
hearts with God's purposes and priorities. These 'are words we
pray, not always because we believe them but because we want to
believe them.' Our desires, though warped by our sin, have been
placed in us by God, and it is his desire to recalibrate our hearts
for the glory of his kingdom. Though it would be easy to float off
in many divergent theoretical theological directions, the book
stays grounded through relatable stories and practical application.
. . . "This is the kind of book you set down not because it has
lost your interest, but because you need time to soak in its
profound intricacy." (Aleah Marsden, Books & Culture, August 2014)
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