The Broken Way

I just finished reading Ann Voskamp's incredible book "The Broken Way:  a daring path into the abundant life".  It was sort of a similar experience to reading another one of her books, 1,000 gifts - she's got this incredible mind and this incredible faith and she writes about the most important things in life in a profound way - but, her mind and my mind work SO differently that I need to write these blog posts as a translation from her lyrical, poetic, stream of consciousness style to my analytical, logical style, or else I can't retain any of it.

So what is this book about?  
We will all experience suffering in this life.  This is a collection of thoughts on how we can use this suffering to grow, to help each other, to lean on each other, and to experience an abundant, meaningful life.

My favorite take away points (in my words and then in an excerpt of her words):

1.  Be the helper.  Give kindness to others when they are hurting, or when they're not.  This is the way to change the world.

Voskamp quote:  "don't think that every gift of grace, every act of kindness, isn't a quake in a heart that moves another heart to give, that moves another heart to give, that grows into an avalance of grace.  Don't say this isn't what a brokenhearted world desperately needs, don't say it isn't how to change a broken world." (p. 72)

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2.  We think that "bucket list" experiences like traveling the world or having a unique experience or achieving a big personal goal is what makes life meaningful.  Not that there's anything wrong with any of these things, but real meaning comes from helping others rather than impressing others.

Voskamp quote:  "Is that what the great point of an abundant life is, that we have stories to share?  Bragging rights on the seeming abundant life?  But it's like iron in the veins.  Before you blink and your one life's a tendril of smoke, a memory, a vapor, gone, know this:  you are where you are for such a time as this - not to make an impression, but to make a difference.  We aren't here to one-up one another, but to help one another up." (p. 91)
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3.  When we go through experiences of suffering and make it out the other side, this makes us stronger.

Voskamp quote:  "without your wounds, where is your strength?" (p. 161)
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4.  Sometimes pain comes from loving someone and then they they hurt or frustrate or disappoint you.  This pain, and the continuing relationship, shows that the love is real.

Voskamp quote:  "A willingness to be inconvenienced is the ultimate proof of love" (p. 174)
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5.  One of the hardest things to do, but also one of the most important gifts you can give others, is to share the ways you are broken with them and ask them to help you through it.  For both the helper and the helped, this will deepen relationships in a way that nothing else can.

Voskamp quote:  "If you can be brave enough, vulnerable enough, humble enough, trust enough, and give the most broken shards of your heart to another believing broken heart...then is it your own broken shards that can best open up another heart?" (p. 251)
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The book was amazing, so I hope some of you decide to read it, or at least draw encouragement from her points that I summarize in this post.  I'm planning to buy the book and read it every few years, and I very rarely re-read anything (because there are just too many good books in the world and only one lifetime!).