Ann Voskamp Quotes

We 'have' all received on grace after another, but we only recognize the glory of God in this moment 'when we wake to the one grace after another'. ~ Ann Voskamp

Giving thanks is that: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God when Satan and all the world would sneer at us to recant. ~ Ann Voskamp

You've got to use the life you've been given to give others life ~ Ann Voskamp

God can enter into me, even me, and use these hands, these feet, to be His love, a love that goes on and on and on forever, endless cycle of grace. ~ Ann Voskamp

All those years thinking I was saved and had said my yes to God, but was really living the no. ~ Ann Voskamp

If trust must be earned, hasn't God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips. ~ Ann Voskamp

The wonder of all this - God looks at you at your lowest and loves you all the way up to the sky. ~ Ann Voskamp

I have to seek God beauty. Because isn't my internal circuitry wired to seek out something worthy of worship? . True Beauty worship, worship of Creator Beauty Himself. God is present in all moments, but I do not deify the wind in the pines, the snow falling on the hemlocks, the moon over harvested wheat. Pantheism, seeing the natural world as divine, is a very different thing than seeing divine God present in all things . Nature is not God but God revealing the weight of Himself, all His glory, through the looking glass of nature. ~ Ann Voskamp

In the original language, "he gave thanks" reads "eucharisteo." ... The root word for eucharisteo is charis, meaning "grace." Jesus took bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks. ~ Ann Voskamp

When your ethnicity is heaven, then all adversity offers the gift of intimacy, driving you into the home of His heart. ~ Ann Voskamp

On the night He was betrayed Jesus broke bread and lifted it up and gave THANKS. If Jesus can give thanks in that, can we not give thanks in all? ~ Ann Voskamp

The real romantics imagine greying and sagging and wrinkling as the deepening of something sacred. ~ Ann Voskamp

I don't want a Christmas you can buy. I don't want a Christmas you can make. What I want is a Christmas you can hold. A Christmas that holds me, remakes me, revives me. I want a Christmas that whispers, Jesus. ~ Ann Voskamp

And I see what I am. I'm amputated. I have hacked my life up into grace moments and curse moments. The chopping that has cut myself off from the embracing love of a God who "does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow" (Lamentations 3:33), but labors to birth grief into greater grace. Isn't this the crux of the gospel? The good news that all those living in the land of shadow of death have been birthed into new life, that the transfiguration of a suffering ~ Ann Voskamp

Losses do that. One life-loss can infect the whole of a life. Like a rash that wears through our days, our sight becomes peppered with black voids. Now everywhere we look, we only see all that isn't: holes, lack, deficiency. ~ Ann Voskamp

I think the fall in Eden was ultimately a failure to give thanks. ~ Ann Voskamp

Every mountain that every Christian ever faces, the Lord levels with sufficient grace. ~ Ann Voskamp

At the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing. ~ Ann Voskamp

By default, most of us have taken the dare to simply survive. Exist. Get through. For the most part, we live numb to life - we've grown weary and apathetic and jaded ... and wounded. ~ Ann Voskamp

God appoints people who do disappoint - to point to a God who never disappoints. ~ Ann Voskamp

Eucharisteo is giving thanks for grace. But in the breaking and giving of bread, in the washing of feet, Jesus makes it clear that eucharisteo is, yes, more: it is giving grace away. ~ Ann Voskamp

Daily discipline is the door to full freedom, and the discipline to count to one thousand gave way to the freedom of wonder and I can't imagine not staying awake to God in the moment, the joy in the now. ~ Ann Voskamp

If it were up to me ... " and then the words pound, desperate and hard, "I'd write this story differently." ...
"Just that maybe ... maybe you don't want to change the story, because you don't know what a different ending holds."
The words I choked out that dying, ending day, echo. Pierce. There's a reason I am not writing the story and God is. He knows how it all works out, where it all leads, what it all means.
I don't. ~ Ann Voskamp

I came into this world the way every person on the planet does - with clenched fists. ~ Ann Voskamp

You can have this as the best Christmas ever as much as you gaze into your Father's face and receive His gift. ~ Ann Voskamp

Get this, kids - how a man proposes isn't what makes him romantic. It's how a man purposes to lay down his life that makes him romantic. ~ Ann Voskamp

Eucharisteo - thanksgiving - always precedes the miracle. ~ Ann Voskamp

I need the wisdom, reasoning, and apologetics of C. S. Lewis, though some of his theological beliefs are different from mine. I need the preaching and charisma of Charles Spurgeon, though his view of baptism is different from mine. I need the resurrection vision of N. T. Wright and the theology of Jonathan Edwards, though their views on church government are different from mine. I need the passion and prophetic courage of Martin Luther King Jr., the cultural intelligence of Soong-Chan Rah, and the Confessions of St. Augustine, though their ethnicities are different from mine. I need the justice impulse and communal passion of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, though his nationality is different from mine. I need the spiritual thirst and love drive of Brennan Manning and the prophetic wit of G. K. Chesterton, though both are Roman Catholics and I am a Protestant. I need the hymns and personal holiness of John and Charles Wesley, though some of their doctrinal distinctives are different from mine. I need the glorious weakness of Joni Eareckson Tada, the spirituality of Marva Dawn, the trusting perseverance of Elisabeth Elliot, the long-suffering spirit of Amy Carmichael, the transparency of Rebekah Lyons, the thankfulness of Ann Voskamp, the Kingdom vision of Amy Sherman, and the integrity of Patti Sauls, though their gender is different from mine. As St. Augustine reputedly said, "In nonessentials, liberty." To this we might add, "In nonessentials, open-minded receptivity." We Christians m ~ Scott Sauls

I'm Peter on the mountaintop, stirring to see The Glory in all its God-radiance, stammering out that it's good to be here; let's build shelters and never depart. But there's always the descent from the mount. The meeting of the crowd, the complaining, the cursing. Page 124 ~ Ann Voskamp

This pen: this is nothing less than the driving of nails. Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habit of eucharisteo. I'm hammering in nails to pound out nails, ugly nails that Satan has pierced through the world, my heart. It starts to unfold, light in the dark, a door opening up, how all these years it's been utterly pointless to try to wrench out the spikes of discontent. Because that habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper. The sleek pin of gratitude. I ~ Ann Voskamp

Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other. ~ Ann Voskamp

The fear is suffocating, terrorizing, and I want the remedy, and it is trust. Trust is everything. ~ Ann Voskamp

Satan prowls but he's a lion on a leash ~ Ann Voskamp

To lack faith perhaps isn't as much an intellectual disbelief in the existence of God as fear and distrust that there is a good God. ~ Ann Voskamp

Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity: the sin of ingratitude. ~ Ann Voskamp

To receive God's gifts, to live exalted and joy filled, isn't a function of straining higher, harder, doing more, carrying long the burdens of the super-Pharisees or ultra-saints. Receiving God's gifts is a gentle, simple movement of stooping lower. ~ Ann Voskamp

Life isn't an emergency. Christ is in charge of every moment of the day; nothing catches Him off guard. ~ Ann Voskamp

Wonder too ... if the rent in the canvas of our life backdrop, the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness, might actually become places to see. ~ Ann Voskamp

Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living. ~ Ann Voskamp

Romance isn't measured by how viral your proposal goes. The Internet age may try to sell you something different, but don't ever forget that viral is closely associated with sickness - so don't ever make being viral your goal. ~ Ann Voskamp

God is always good and I am always loved. Everything is eucharisteo. Because eucharisteo is how Jesus, at the Last Supper, showed us to transfigure all things - take the pain that is given, give thanks for it, and transform it into a joy that fulfills all emptiness. I have glimpsed it: This, the hard eucharisteo. The hard discipline to lean into the ugly and whisper thanks to transfigure it into beauty. The hard discipline to give thanks for all things at all times because He is all good. ~ Ann Voskamp

But, someone, please give me - who is born again but still so much in need of being born anew - give me the details of how to live in the waiting cocoon before the forever begins? ~ Ann Voskamp

I glance back in the mirror to the concrete bridge, the one I've boldly driven straight across without second thought, and I see truth reflecting back at me: Every time fear freezes and worry writhes, every time I surrender to stress, aren't I advertising the unreliability of God? That I really don't believe? But if I'm grateful to the Bridge Builder for the crossing of a million strong bridges, thankful for a million faithful moments, my life speaks my beliefs and I trust Him again. ~ Ann Voskamp

World has already begun. That suffering nourishes grace, and pain and joy are arteries of the same heart - and mourning and dancing are but movements in His unfinished symphony of beauty. Can I believe the gospel, that God is patiently transfiguring all the notes of my life into the song of His Son? What in the world, in all this world, is grace? I can say it certain now: All is grace. I see through the woods of the world: God is always good and I am always loved. God is ~ Ann Voskamp

Because One died for me that I might breathe this breath ... It's all a gift. ~ Ann Voskamp

Living radical isn't about where you live - it's about how you love. ~ Ann Voskamp

Only the Word is the answer to rightly reading the world, because The Word has nail-scarred hands that cup our face close, wipe away the tears running down, has eyes to look deep into our brimming ache, and whisper, I know. I know. ~ Ann Voskamp

While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving. ~ Ann Voskamp

What matters most is not if our love makes other people change, but that in loving, we change. What matters is that in the sacrificing to love someone, we become more like Someone. Regardless of anything or anyone else changing, the success of loving is in how we change because we kept on loving. ~ Ann Voskamp

Faith thanks God in the middle of the story. ~ Ann Voskamp

Trust is the bridge from yesterday to tomorrow, built with planks of thanks. ~ Ann Voskamp

You were made for the place where your real # passion meets # compassion because there lies your real purpose. ~ Ann Voskamp

While other creeds endeavor to get us out of the world and into heaven, in Christianity, heaven comes down and Christ comes into this world to get us. To suffer with us. We find favor - only because Christ feels pain. ~ Ann Voskamp

Counting one thousand gifts, I discovered I could count on God. ~ Ann Voskamp

It's habits that can imprison you and it's habits that can free you. But when thanks to God becomes a habit - so joy in God becomes your life. ~ Ann Voskamp

In a storm of struggles, I have tried to control the elements, clasp the fist tight so as to protect self and happiness. But stress can be an addiction, and worry can be our lunge for control, and we forget the answer to this moment is always yes because of Christ. ~ Ann Voskamp

The busyness of your life leaves little room for the source of your life. ~ Ann Voskamp

Wherever you are, be all there. I have lived the runner, panting ahead in worry, pounding back in regrets, terrified to live in the present, because here-time asks me to do the hardest of all: just open wide and receive. ~ Ann Voskamp

Eucharisteo means 'to give thanks,' and give is a verb, something that we do. God calls me to do thanks. to give the thanks away. That thanks-giving might literally become thanks-living. That our lives become the very blessings we have received. I am blessed. I can bless. Imagine! I could let Him make me the gift! I could be the joy! ~ Ann Voskamp

The frame of a soul was never made for fame. The frame of a soul was made to serve. ~ Ann Voskamp

All these years, these angers, these hardenings, this desire to control, I had thought I had to snap the hand closed to shield joy's fragile flame from the blasts. In a storm of struggles, I had tried to control the elements, clasp the fist tight so as to protect self and happiness. But palms curled into protective fists fill with darkness. I feel that sharply, even in this ... and this realization in all its full emptiness: My own wild desire to protect my joy at all costs is the exact force that kills my joy. ~ Ann Voskamp

Grace - that is what the full life is full of, what the God-glory is full of. ~ Ann Voskamp

The only way to fight a feeling is with a feeling. ~ Ann Voskamp

The secret to joy is to keep seeking God where we doubt He is. ~ Ann Voskamp

Forget the face of God, and forget your own name is Beloved. ~ Ann Voskamp

I'll take it. I'll take his words like a daring covenant, not knowing yet what's to come: there is no growth without change, no change without surrender, no surrender without wound - no abundance without breaking. Wounds are what break open the soul to plant the seeds of a deeper growth. ~ Ann Voskamp

Sometimes God answers our questions with questions. ~ Ann Voskamp

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. ~ Ann Voskamp

He's inviting me to heal, but also to see my most meaningful calling: to be His healing to the hurting. My own brokenness, driving me into Christ's, is exactly where I can touch the brokenhearted. Our ~ Ann Voskamp

He is perfect love and His perfect love kicks fear to the curb. ~ Ann Voskamp

No one told me that it would all happen at the same hallowed time: Mothering is at once the hardest and the holiest and the happiest. ~ Ann Voskamp

Until we call attention to the moments of our lives, we miss our lives. ~ Ann Voskamp

In our rushing, bulls in china shops, we break our own lives. ~ Ann Voskamp

And it's the 'Word of God' that turns the rocks in the mouth to loaves on the tongue. That fills our emptiness with the true and real good, 'that makes the eyes see', the body full of light. ~ Ann Voskamp

Start with a simple request, making it the refrain of your day: 'God, open the eyes of my heart.' This journey must be Spirit-led, every day. ~ Ann Voskamp

Joy is always a function of gratitude - and gratitude is always a function of perspective. ~ Ann Voskamp

He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs (Zephaniah 3:17). He sings love! In the air, over ~ Ann Voskamp

Life is dessert - too brief to hurry. ~ Ann Voskamp

He who carved the edges of the cosmos curved Himself into a fetal ball in the dark, tethered Himself to the uterine wall of a virgin, and lets His cells divide, light splitting all white. He gave up the heavens that were not even large enough to contain Him and lets Himself be held in a hand. The mystery so large becomes the Baby so small, and infinite God becomes infant. ~ Ann Voskamp

It is true, I never stop wanting to learn the hard eucharisteo for deathbeds and dark skies and the prodigal sons. But I accept this is the way to begin, and all hard things come in due time and with practice. Yet now wisps of cheese tell me gentle that this is the first secret step into euchaisteo's miracle. Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant - a seed - this plants the giant miracle. The miracle of eucharisteo, like the Last Supper, is in the eating of crumbs, the swallowing down one mouthful. Do not disdain the small. The whole of life - even the hard - is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole. (Page 57) ~ Ann Voskamp

How to 'live' in a state of awe when life is mundane and ordinary? ~ Ann Voskamp

I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe, more loved and welcomed than I ever dared hope. ELYSE M. FITZPATRICK ~ Ann Voskamp

You will be most remembered-by what brought you most joy. ~ Ann Voskamp

Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing ... Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away. ~ Ann Voskamp

Irenaeus, very disciple of the apostle John, wrote: "The glory of God is the human being fully alive and the life of the human consists in beholding God" (emphasis added). ~ Ann Voskamp

The prayers we weave into the matching of socks, the stirring of oatmeal, the reading of stories, they survive fire. ~ Ann Voskamp

The whole of the life
even the hard
is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole. These are new language lessons, and I live them out. There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up. ~ Ann Voskamp

Time, what God first deemed holy above all else (Genesis 2:3). Thank God for the time, and very God enters that time, presence hallowing it ... I awake to I AM here. When I'm present, I meet I AM, the very presence of a present God. (page 70) ~ Ann Voskamp

Holy joy lies in the habit of murmuring thanks to God for the smallest of graces. ~ Ann Voskamp

Counting one thousand gifts means counting the hard things - otherwise I've miscounted. ~ Ann Voskamp

That is what a shadow is, and empty space, a hole in the light. Evil is this - a hole in the goodness of God. ~ Ann Voskamp

And His Word can come through the trees like wind. "I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me . . . I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me - you did it to me."3 ~ Ann Voskamp

You are whatever you love. You are, at your very essence, not what you think, but what you love...We are all compelled not by what we believe is right, but by what we love the most. You are not driven by duties, you are not driven by doctrines; you are driven by what you ultimately desire - and maybe you don't actually really love whatever you think you love. ~ Ann Voskamp

In naming that which is right before me, that which I'd otherwise miss, the invisible becomes visible. ~ Ann Voskamp

The greatest gift we can give our great God is to let His love make us glad. ~ Ann Voskamp

Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus. ~ Ann Voskamp

Isn't falling in love always the fullest life? ~ Ann Voskamp

Love comes softly, it cannot be forced ... cannot bear the weight of our expectations. Love always comes in the surrender - in the falling. ~ Ann Voskamp

Gratitude is not only a response to God in good times - it's ultimately the very will of God in hard times. Gratitude isn't only a celebration when good things happen. It's a declaration that God is good no matter what happens. ~ Ann Voskamp

How do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral? ~ Ann Voskamp