Teach Us To Want

The story of each person is a story of want–desires unmet, hopes dashed, passions pursued and ambitions fulfilled. And yet why we want–and how we can want well– often eludes us. Our individual stories are set against a greater story: a good God creates us and all that is seen and unseen not out of need but according to his good pleasure. That good God enters our reality, standing in the midst of all our hopes and fears, all our sacred longings and secret sins, and redeems us down to our soul for his good pleasure. 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. “Lord, teach us to pray,” we overhear his followers ask. And if we listen closely, we hear our own voices alongside theirs: Lord, teach us to want. Jen Pollock Michel guides us on a journey of understanding who we are when we want, and reintroduces us to a God who would give us the desires of our hearts.