T
he Broken Way (Zondervan, 2016)
Ann Voskamp opens The Broken Way: A Daring Path Into the Abundant Life with a bold assertion. She proclaims: “Not one thing in your life is more important that figuring out how to live in the face of unspoken pain.” Yet, we don’t know how to put all our broken pieces into place. For only God’s wounds heal our wounds. All our brokenness meets in the mystery of Christ’s brokenness and givenness- becoming the miracle of abundance. As a result, when we experience abundance, we dance in communion with Christ. Furthermore, good brokenness grows out of every wound and scar we’ll ever suffer.
Courage, then, means reaching out and taking just a bit of Christ’s iron-nail grace. As a result, the only abundant way forward means giving yourself forward. In addition, your multiply joy by spending yourself. But, for your life to yield fruit, you must be yielding in soul. When you understand there’s more belovedness in Christ for you than any amount of existing brokenness in you, you receive God’s love. Then your love bears all things, like a roof bears wind and rain. Thus, you ultimately find your real self in giving.
This means, Ann exhorts, to live in the givenness of the moment. Look for pocket miracles- small miracles or small gifts. When darkness descends, fight back with doxology. It’s never the cross we carry, but our resistance to the cross, that makes our brokenness a burden. Ms. Voskamp encourages us to remember that “after a rain of tears, there is always more of you than before. Rain always brings growth.” So, with God indwelling us, all our broken efforts become impossable. Without our wounds, we have no strength. Load-bearing + love-bearing = cross-bearing. Identify as a prayer warrior, not a panicked worrier.
In conclusion, Ann reassures us that it’s acceptable to feel okay with being un-okay. We simply trust that Christ always makes a way. The fear that “I’m not enough” exposes the lie that God’s not enough. Furthermore, retreating behind barriers only causes a new type of pain. Therefore, when pain comes looking for you, control your pain by living given. Also, give the broken hearted your pain. And don’t be afraid of theirs! Finally, Ms. Voskamp draws The Broken Way to a close with these words:
“It’s the broken hearts that find a haunting loveliness of a new beat — it’s the broken hearts that live a song that echoes God’s.”
