S3 Episode #15- Jen Pollock Michel
THE ONE WITH Jen Pollock Michel
Jen Pollock Michel is the award-winning author of Teach Us to Want, Keeping Place, Surprised by Paradox, and her latest book A Habit Called Faith: 40 Days in the Bible to Find and Follow Jesus. She holds a BA in French from Wheaton College and an MA in Literature from Northwestern University.
An American living in Toronto, Jen is a wife and mother of five. She is the lead editor for Imprint magazine, published by the Grace Centre for the Arts, and host of the Englewood Review of Books podcast.
ABOUT Jen’s latest BOOK
Today's neurological research has placed habit at the center of human behavior; we are what we do repetitively. When we want to add something to our life, whether it's exercise, prayer, or just getting up earlier in the morning, we know that we must turn an activity into a habit through repetition or it just won't stick. What would happen if we applied the same kind of daily dedication to faith? Could faith become a habit, a given--automatic?
With vulnerable storytelling and insightful readings, Jen Pollock Michel invites the convinced and the curious into a 40-day Bible reading experience in A Habit Called Faith: 40 Days in the Bible to Find and Follow Jesus.
Vividly translating ancient truths for a secular age, Michel highlights how the biblical text invites us to see, know, live, love, and obey. Believers and doubters alike will learn to explore how faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed, might grow into a life-defining habit.
“Wherever you find yourself across the spectrum of faith, whether you’re more hostile or more indifferent, more curious or more convinced, I think that the commitment to forty days of reading the Bible might open some backdoor of faith without your even struggling to open it,” says Michel “It’s an ordinary habit with extraordinary results.”
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Jen says, “The Bible re-stories us.” The best way to look at the Bible is to think of it as a story. It shows us that God never gives up on us. He is constantly making overtures of friendship with his people, and we see in the Gospels that those overtures climax in the personhood of Jesus. Thinking of the Bible as a story can be really inviting because it allows us to find our place within the landscape of the story. We have our own role in the story and we take our place in the action.
Our own stories are not linear.
Our stories are meant to be remembered. We see this a lot in Scripture. Israel is always prompted to remember their story and pass it down to their children.
A Drive into Deuteronomy
Teaches us what the life of faith is about.
The Israelites have finished their 40 years of wilderness wanderings and they are about to inherit the Promised Land.
We often feel like we can relate more to the Israelites in the wilderness.
Obedience is closely tied to trust. Generally when we reject the words of God it is because we think our path will be better. This is a constant challenge of faith.
The wilderness is the very thing that you have to remember in your life of faith. We think the highlight reel should be the mountain top experiences, but Moses tells the people to remember the wilderness because that was when they found God to be faithful. The wilderness is the place where they learned that God would provide for them.
The Israelites were hungry and God fed them everyday.
Their clothes did not wear out.
God provided for every need…. But he also humbled them. The wilderness is the place where we realize our own self-reliance will only get us so far. This is the beauty and the hardship of the wilderness. It is the place where we realize our own resources are finite and we must rely on God’s provision.
The temptation is to lose sight of the lessons from the wilderness once we arrive in the Promised Land. We will always go through new seasons of “wilderness” and we are to remember the lessons of provision from the first time when we got through it a second time. It increases our faith each time.
Tips for those in the wilderness
Recognize that God is providing, but it may not be in the ways that you knew formerly. It might not meet your expectations. We often want God to provide in a very specific way, and if He doesn’t provide in that way, we often will not recognize it as provision.
Take time to retrace your steps and examine your expectations.
You may need friends who can help you see the provision in the wilderness.
When you are in the wilderness you often cannot see the fruit that it is producing.
Cultivating the habit of listening to God
Lean into listening
Create the conditions
Put off distractions
Think about why you really want to be distracted in the first place. There are many reasons why we remain busy and distracted.
You must cultivate the trust that once you get there (to a place of no distractions), it’s going to be life for you.
A Final Thought
Remember how wide God’s arms of compassion are. We have failures, flaws and limits, but God has nothing but compassion and love for us.
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