“The very thing we are afraid of, our brokenness, is the door to our Father’s heart.”- Paul Miller
“Behold, I am making all things new.”- Revelation 21:5
Ann Voskamp follows One Thousand Gifts with her second book, The Broken Way: A Daring Path Into the Abundant Life. Ann opens Chapter 1 (“What to Do with Your Broken Heart”) by building a sense of community with her readers. She keenly observes that we all know what it’s like to smile thinly and say we’re fine when we’re not. Most noteworthy, we all bear wounds from our own bloody battles.
Furthermore, it’s possible to spend our entire life feeling “pushed out, cut off, abandoned — inexplicably alone.” Therefore, Ann stresses, “not one thing in your life is more important than figuring out how to live in the face of unspoken pain.” (emphasis author’s)
However, we don’t know the way out of our brokenness. We find it hard to know the way to put our broken pieces back into place. Perhaps, Ann wonders, that’s the point.
In the midst of our struggles, the author notes, it’s difficult to find or know our way to the higher up and deeper in. Yet, our vulnerability begs us to break open our hearts and let trust in. And when we let that trust in, the abundance of God flows.
Because great grief, by design, cannot fit inside your body, your heart breaks. Like the sands of time, guaranteed grief comes, unstoppable. in conclusion, Ann poignantly observes: “One minute you’re picking up balls of crusty dirty socks strewn across the bedroom floor, and the next moment . . . picking up the pieces of your one shattered life.”
Hence, Ann next explains how to live with your one broken heart.
Today’s question: How has your brokenness been the “door to our Father’s heart”? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The interior of the soul”
