Ann Voskamp - The broken way: a daring path into the abundant life

What you need to know about Ann Voskamp: after the stunning success of One Thousand Gifts, she has chosen to decline the mantle of spiritual guru and instead to become even more intimately vulnerable. In this book, she helps us slow down, stop time, and allow gritty faith to penetrate, expose, and bring the hint of healing to the mess of daily life. For all imperfect peoplein other words, for all of usshe offers a compassionate and wise way forward to help navigate our broken world.

PHILIP YANCEY, editor-at-large, Christianity Today

In The Broken Way, a deeply personal revelation, Ann Voskamp leads us on a journey toward embracing and celebrating the brokenness in each of us. The passionate words that pour from her soul will make you weep and shout hallelujah at the same time.

KAY WARREN, Saddleback Church,
Lake Forest, California

There are only a handful of authors in the whole world who I try to find and read every last word theyve ever written. Ann Voskamp is one of those. The Broken Way is no exception, as Ann does what she does bestarticulating the incredible grace of Jesus in a profound way that makes all of us go YES! but had no words for before. This must-read book will give life to any weary soul.

JEFFERSON BETHKE, New York Times bestselling
author of Jesus > Religion and Its Not What You Think

Ann Voskamp is convincing that there is nothing broken that cannot be restored by making the living Christ present. She provides a stunningly fresh treatment of a subject so often littered with clichs. My favorite phrase is, Fight back the dark with doxology... doxology can detox the day.

EUGENE H. PETERSON, emeritus professor of
spiritual theology, Regent College, Vancouver, BC

I read The Broken Way with tears streaming down my face, my spirit crying out, YES, YES, YES, YES! Few authors have impacted my own life like Ann Voskamp. If we can live out the truth contained within The Broken Way, I believe we will reach and impact our generation like never before. So powerful. So prophetic. So profound. Please read this book.

CHRISTINE CAINE, founder of A21 and Propel Women

The Broken Way is the most honest and beautiful healing balm for an aching heart. The authenticity and grace from which Ann Voskamp writes are refreshing and life-giving. This book is a true gift from God!

LYSA TERKEURST, New York Times bestselling
author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

Ann Voskamps skill with words, her tenderness with heartsit is incomparable. Life can leave us looking for an exit, a window. Ann has a hand on the curtain. She has a way of releasing light, just enough to chase shadows and give hope.

MAX LUCADO, pastor and bestselling author

Most of us want to run away from our brokenness. Ann Voskamp runs right into it, sharing the shattered pieces of her own life to help us acknowledge the shards we may be sifting through. Ann helps us see Gods good purpose in all of it, and how He guides us, not around the pain, but through it. Beautifully written, The Broken Way offers a generous measure of hope, filled with Anns tender honesty and Gods powerful truth.

LIZ CURTIS HIGGS, bestselling author
of Bad Girls of the Bible

In the way only she can, Ann Voskamp invites us to discover that the whole life begins in our brokenness. Ann knows what it means to be broken. She knows what it means to have scars. This isnt her theory; its her heartbeat. Lean in to this book, and listen for it.

LAUREN CHANDLER, singer/songwriter
and author of Steadfast Love

Ann Voskamp penetrates the soul with words that arrest us, convict us, and compel us to the arms of our Father. Ann Voskamps come along once in a generation. We best pay attention.

GABE LYONS, author of Good Faith

A LSO BY A NN V OSKAMP

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live
Fully Right Where You Are

One Thousand Gifts: A DVD Study: Five Sessions

One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflections
on Finding Everyday GraceSelections from One Thousand Gifts:
Finding Joy in What Really MattersThe Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the
Full Love Story of Christmas

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family
Celebration of Christmas

ZONDERVAN

The Broken Way

Copyright 2016 by Ann Morton Voskamp Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN 978-0-310-31858-3 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-34927-3 (signature edition) ISBN 978-0-310-34656-2 (international trade paper edition) ISBN 978-0-310-31862-0 (audio)

ePub Edition October 2016: ISBN 978-0-310-31859-0

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Other Bible translations quoted in this book are listed on page 276, which hereby becomes a part of this copyright page.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

The names and details of many of the individuals depicted here have been changed to protect anonymity.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with William K. Jensen Literary Agency, 119 Bampton Court, Eugene, Oregon 97404.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover photo: Mary Anne Morgan

Interior imagery: PhotoDisc / Siede PreisInterior design: Kait Lamphere

First Printing August 2016

To Mine... who never gave up on the broken
and to every single one who carries
their own unspoken broken
these pages had to be for you
the tracing of scars.

Contents

What to Do with Your
One Broken Heart

The very thing we are afraid of, our brokenness, is the door to our Fathers heart.

PAUL MILLER

The day I cut up the inner softness of my arm with a shard of glass, the whole thick weight of hells pressing against my chest.

A mourning dove coos from the top of the lilac tree right outside the back door. West of the barn, my dad had yanked the steering wheel of that old International tractor, geared the engine down, and turned at the end of the field.

And I had stood, out on the back porch, all of sixteen, and let go of those glass jars. Dozens of them. I stood with broken glass shattered around my feet. No one could tell me how to get the dark, the fear, the ache, the hell out of me. No one could tell me how to find the place where you always felt safe and secure and held. Kneeling, Id picked up one of the shards, dragged its sharp edge across my skin, relieved by the red line slowly seeping up, like you could drain yourself out of pain. Id try to cut my way through the hurt down to the core of things. Who doesnt know what its like to smile thinly and say youre fine when youre not, when youre almost faint with pain? There isnt one of us not bearing the wounds from our own bloody battles.