15 Quotes from Ann Voskamp’s The Broken Way

Ann Voskamp’s The Broken Way challenges readers to dig deep within themselves. We’re prompted to ask the gritty questions.

“Is there a purpose in the brokenness that I’m experiencing?”

“What can I learn from my pain?”

“What is really important? To God? To me?”

15 Quotes from The Broken Way

“Wounds can be openings to the beauty in us. And our weaknesses can be a container for God’s glory. (p. 24)
“Out of the fullness of the grace that He [Jesus] has received, He thanks, and breaks, [the bread] and gives away–and He makes a way for the life-giving communion. A broken way.” (p. 32)
“What if … what if I made a habit of every day pressing my wounds into the wounds of Christ–could my brokenness be made into a healing abundance for the brokenness of the world? A kind of communion?” (p. 34)
“The miracle happens in the breaking–a breaking into the enoughness of communion.” (p. 40)
A Jewish Rabbi taught that “… when a man had decided whom he’d chosen to marry, his father would pour a cup of wine and pass it down to his son. The son would then turn to the young woman he loved, and with all the solemnity of an oath before Almighty YHWH Himself, the young man would hold out the cup of wine to the woman and ask for her hand in marriage. He would ask with these words: ‘This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which I offer to you.’ … The Last Supper was a marriage covenant.” (p. 42)
“Peace isn’t a place to arrive at, but a Person to abide in. ‘I myself am your peace,’ says Jesus.” (p. 47)
“Everything that matters in living comes down to giving.” (p. 67)
“Jesus sings grace in the wind, He pours mercy out like rain, He grows abundance up through the broken cracks of things like wheat, and a bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out. And He comes as a sign to us, a sign of the cross, a sign God’s reaching for us, believing in us, in love, in redemption, making all things new, in making us enough because He is.” (pp. 85-86)
“What if abundant living isn’t about what you can expect from life, but what life can expect from you?” (p. 88)
“What if the deeply satisfying life was found in the givenness of sacrifice–to something of significance–through the spirit?” (p. 91)
“A day is a pocket of possibility and it’s always there, waiting for your willing hand.” (p. 123)
“The past is a memory sealed right into you, tomorrow is a mystery unknown to you, and today is God’s momentary gift to you–which is why it’s called the present.” (p. 141)
“You begin to break your brokenness when you break down with your brokenness–when you hand it over to the One broken for you.” (p. 158)
“This is what love means: we live within each other, we inhabit each other, our love for each other becoming stego, a sheltering roof.” (p. 205)
“A Christ-shaped life is not a comfortably shaped life, but a cross-shaped life.” (p. 268)

My prayer

Our Savior, You, indeed, lived a broken way. You pressed into the hurting lives of the people You ministered to, and You showered them with love. You took their sins, my sins, and the sins of the world upon You and became sin. You were the broken way on the cross. You were buried broken. But Praise God, You rose from Your brokenness. You rose victorious! You conquered death and all its brokenness for us all. Show us, Jesus, the New Way, and empower us to walk it with You.

Father, thank You for Ann Voskamp. You have given her a beautiful way with words and with You. Bless her and keep her in Your love and joy. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Please share your thoughts about the cross-shaped life and the Broken Way in the Comments Section.