Ann Voskamp

An Inconvenient Life

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“It’s never too late to live a remarkable, inconvenient life given to the interruptions of now.
Love is the willingness to be interrupted.
Love is the willingness to be broken into.
There are never interruptions in a day—only manifestations of Christ.
And the truth is? Your theology is best expressed in your availability and your interruptability—and ability to be broken into.
This is the broken way.
This is all love.
Loving people without expecting anything in return always turns out to have the greatest returns.
Let’s do this today? Continuously make the ever-present Christ present. The hands of every clock never stop signing this: the best use of your hands is always *love*. The best way to say you love is always *time*. The best time to love is always *now*” (Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way).

My prayer that we will see interruptions not as diversions from our work, but as our actual work and labor of love that God has placed in front of us in the moment.

We’re always choosing whom we will serve, whether it be the never-ending to-do list that keeps getting interrupted or those interruptions that are God breaking into our sphere of influence and wrecking our world.

I confess that I’m not a fan of people barging in when I’m in the middle of trying to accomplish something, even if it’s reading a book or binge-watching Netflix. It gets on my nerves sometimes.

Yet that may be the chance I get to serve Christ in disguise. That may be the chance I get to pay forward a blessing that will come back to me a thousand times multiplied.

I want to be broken into in such a way that both I and the people who I come in contact with are never the same again.

 

Even Mondays Can be Good Again

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“… so if we’re being honest here, we’re tempted to look at everything we’re facing, throw up our arms up & say, ‘I don’t see how?’
And You open Your arms wide & say: ‘Come see Me.’

We sit down & say, ‘This all feels too heavy to carry.’
And You sit closer & say, ‘My shoulders can carry any weight you feel.’

We look around & say, ‘But how in the world will we get through what’s ahead?’
And You look gently at us & say,
‘Just take all your world & lay it on My heart —
*and I’ll work the best through everything.*’

And You hold us close enough so we feel it:
Sometimes we don’t have to know the way through…
We just have to lean on the One who says He’s The Way” (Ann Voskamp). #HonestPrayers #RealPeople

I posted this two years ago and it still rings as true now as it did then. When the week hasn’t even started and you already feel beat up and worn out and run down, this word is for you.

God’s got this. You don’t have to be strong enough, smart enough, sly enough, or strategic enough. You just have to be surrendered enough. You just have to trust the God who’s already been there and made a way through.

Nothing that happens to you this week will catch God off guard or take Him by surprise. Even if that unlikely worst case scenario happens, you’re still safe in the arms of the One who still works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Go in the grace and mercy of God and make Monday a good one.

 

Empty Bucket Lists

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“The best lives don’t have Bucket Lists as much as they have Empty Bucket lists.

Because the thing is when I kick the bucket, I don’t want there to be anything left in my bucket. When I kick the bucket, I want the bucket right empty.

I don’t want my life to be how I took experiences — but that I gave exceedingly.

That I gave every last drop, that I poured it all out, that I held nothing back. Because the way to really live is not to try to fill your life up — but to spill your life out” (Ann Voskamp).

Very rarely anymore do I read words that completely blow up my world as these did.

I was all about my bucket list. I may not have written it all down, but I had it all up in my noggin and just waiting for the right opportunities.

I keep thinking about the acronym for GIFT– Give it Forward Today. That’s the best way to a fulfilled life. Pour yourself out for the sake of others and ultimately for the sake of Christ.

I’m all about experiencing life and trying new things. I’m all for not sitting on your couch in front of Netflix, waiting to die but confronting your fears and living each day to the fullest. But it’s not about hoarding life as much as it is giving it away every single day.

I do think though that life isn’t about filling up your bucket but about emptying it out so that at the end, there’s nothing left. I hope that at the end when I take my last breath, I will have been all used up for God with nothing left to spare.

PS I still recommend the book The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp if you haven’t already read it. I put the link to buy it off amazon.com on my last blog post.

 

 

I Just Want Enough Time

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“I speak to God: I don’t really want more time; I just want enough time. Time to breathe deep and time to see real and time to laugh long, time to give You glory and rest deep and sing joy and just enough time in a day not to feel hounded, pressed, driven, or wild to get it all done — yesterday.

In a world with cows to buy and fields to see and work to do, in the beep and blink of the twenty-first century, with its ‘live in the moment’ buzz phrase that none of the whirl-weary seem to know how to do, who actually knows how to take time and live with soul and body and God all in sync? To have the time to grab the jacket off the hook and time to go out to all air and sky and green and time to wonder at all of them in all the light, this time refracting in prism. I just want to do my one life well” (Ann Voskamp).

I’m gonna leave that right there. No need to add anything or elaborate further because this says it all perfectly.

I might add that Ann Voskamp has a new book called The Broken Way that I’m really loving. Here’s the link if you want to go buy something awesome:

Good night, friends. Be sure and cherish all the moments you’re given for as long as you’re given them.

 

#HonestPrayers

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“Lord, Thank You
I am not the mistakes I have made.
I am not the plans I have failed.
I am not the wrongs I have done.
I am not forgotten.
I am not abandoned.
I am not alone.
Because You say to the lost: Come.
You say to the Unlikely: Beloved
You say to the Battle Weary: Rest.
In a hard and beautiful world,
Your grace is the only pillowed relief for my tired soul
to rest in the Your making all things new” #HonestPrayers (Ann Voskamp).

Mondays are still rude. They still have a way of sneaking up on you and sucker punching you in the face just when you’re enjoying your Sunday mode of relaxation.

Mondays seem to be the day when Murphy’s Law applies the most. Anything and everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Or so it seems.

Lord, thank You that I am not the sum of my performance on Monday. Thank You that I am not as good or as bad as I feel at 5 am.

Thank You that even the worst of days still only lasts only 24 hours and that each new morning is a new start with new mercies and never-ending faithfulness. God is still faithful.

Even on Mondays that are middle of the road, not terrible and not great, Your presence and Your peace are always available upon request. All we have to do is ask anew for each new day.

Tomorrow’s Tuesday, so we’ve already managed to live through 1/5 of the week. I count that as a good start. In reality, any morning where you see the sun and feel the breeze and get to be alive is a good day.

As my old boss used to say, any day without a toe tag is a good day. I still agree!

 

The Ultimate Longing 

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“For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven. There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You. I admit how broken I am in body and spirit, but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever” (Psalm 73:25-26 VOICE).

Ultimately, that’s it. No matter how you are at the moment or how well you think you’re doing, the real victory is living out of God’s strength instead of your own.

Every desire of mine, whether I acknowledge it or not, finds its ultimate fulfillment in God.

I see more now that all those unfulfilled desires and unrequited dreams really all were longings for what only God could grant.

Even when I got exactly what I thought I wanted at the time, it always turned out to be less than satisfactory because a thing can never deliver the true joy and happiness that God can.

That’s my prayer for you– that you understand more deeply that when a longing is denied or a dream gets dashed to pieces, that the deepest yearnings at the heart of those desires are all rooted in the person of Jesus.

May you find that God is more satisfying and gratifying than anything and everything this whole world has to offer. You find true contentment when you finally grasp that God Himself with nothing else added is enough.

That’s what Lent is truly about– abstaining from good things to find joy in the best things and making room in your heart and soul for God to speak and breathe and inhabit.

I’ve managed to make it through one whole day without any social media and I live to tell the tale (even if there was a little bit of withdrawal). If I can do it, I know you can.

 

 

No More Panicked Worriers

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“Hey Soul? No matter what?
God’s leaning over, taking your hand, & handing you just 3 words for today: DO. NOT. WORRY.
‘Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now —
Don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen…
God will help you deal with WHATEVER hard things come up when the time comes.’
Matthew 6:34, MSG.
God’s so got you & This Thing covered —
This Thing is so not going to take you down.
Just for today, just end this week real strong:
Be a prayer warrior–not a panicked worrier (Ann Voskamp).”

I confess that I am too much of a panicked worrier and not a prayer warrior. I think a whole lot of us are.

I read recently that worry says that everything that you want and that is important to you has to happen right now or it won’t happen at all.

God’s timetables are rarely in sync with ours, but as I’m still learning, his timing is always much, much better than mine.

Worry is a lie with just enough of the truth thrown in to make it more convincing.

God is 100% truthful in everything and His promises are always guaranteed.

Worry shows you an outcome without God in it.

God shows you an outcome without worry in it.

Even in the face of all this, why is worry such an automatic response? What makes it almost like the default setting that I revert back to when my world gets shaken even the tiniest little bit?

I think it’s because I’m still a work in progress. You and I are in the process of becoming who God has already declared us to be in Christ, and God is the one doing the molding and shaping.

So don’t fret if worry creeps in. Just repent and refocus and remember that God is faithful even in the midst of our most anxious moments. God’s promises will always outlast whatever it is we’re worried about.

The end.

 

 

Impossible = I’m Possible

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It’s after midnight and I’m weary and ready for bed. I don’t have it in me tonight to do 100% completely original material, so I hijacked . . . I mean borrowed a guest writer to fill in for me.

This spoke to me the first time I read it way back in 2015. I still cling to the truths herein:

“Hey Soul? Feeling like it’s looking a bit impossible? BUT GOD!
Like there’s not a chance of change? BUT GOD!
Like there’s no hope for a different ending? BUT GOD!
‘But God, who is rich in mercy…’ Eph.2:4
Two Words, Change Everything: BUT GOD!
Change every internal conversation with those two words ‘BUT GOD’ —
and you change your life.
What looks impossible changes —
because when we pray to a GOD WHO IS ABLE —
He changes us & our impossibles into the impossABLES” (Ann Voskamp).

 

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I have friends that are dealing with health issues. I have friends who are walking through that dark valley of the shadow of death in grieving over a loved one. So many are struggling through finances, stress, anxiety, and depression.

Sometimes, life can seem overwhelming. It’s hard to look five years down the road when it’s all you can do to breathe in and breathe out and make it through the next five minutes.

The good news is that you can say with confidence, no matter what, “Whatever my problems and no matter how big and insurmountable they seem, my God is bigger. My God is able.”

Struggles are temporary. Even the worst of days only last 24 hours. God is eternal. His promises are true through all seasons and through every passing emotion.

Sitting in the doctor’s office facing the worst possible scenario is scary, but God’s perfect love still casts out all fear. The God who brought you this far in your journey will be faithful to get you through even the darkest and most terrifying circumstances.

Even in those moments, there is nothing that God can’t redeem and turn into something good and glorious. Not even death, for to live is Christ and to die is gain. It’s a win-win.

The Apostle Paul walked through every kind of trial and suffering both from within and without, yet was able to pen some of the most hopeful words ever written not because of a great big faith in God but because of faith in a great big God:

“I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:38-39, The Message).