teach
us to
want

longing, ambition

& the life of faith

jen pollock michel

foreword by katelyn beaty

www.IVPress.com/books

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
www.ivpress.com email@ivpress.com

©2014 by Jen Pollock Michel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Images: Nancy Tamayo/Getty Images

ISBN 978-0-8308-9633-2 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4312-1 (print)

To my father, 

Michael Kent Pollock (1944-1993)

“I haven’t taken time lately to sit down 

and write,” your letter begins. 

I have, Dad. Thanks to you.

Contents

Foreword

1 Afraid to Want

Fear

2 Aperture of the Heart

Courage

3 Precipice of Hope

Grace

4 Project Kingdom

Good News

5 Visions of Sugarplums

Scripture

6 The Business of Holy

Prayer

7 Bread and Butter

Petition

8 If the Shoe Fits

Confession

9 Be My Neighbor

Community

10 Ruby Slippers

Commitment

Acknowledgments

Discussion Guide

Praise for Teach Us To Want

About the Author

Crescendo

More Titles from InterVarsity Press

There are two tragedies in life.
One is to lose your heart’s desire.
The other is to gain it.

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us
in triumphal procession, and through us spreads
the fragrance of the knowledge of him
everywhere. …Who is sufficient
for these things?

2 Corinthians 2:14, 16

Foreword

Of all the topics a Christian writer could take up in a land of plenty, you might think the last thing her audience would need is a book touting desire. Today’s blaring headlines—on prime ministers’ sex scandals, Wall Street Ponzi schemes, or the more mundane effects of materialism and gluttony—suggest that what our society needs most is self-control, not license to listen to our yearnings. As soon as sin-bent humans utter “I want,” it seems, we open a door through which floods only personal and societal harm.

But what if “I want” trips off our tongues as easily as breath? What if, despite all the ways desire has been perverted ...