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nloushoes's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Rating: 🥰/ 5
Format: đź“–
Chapter length: medium, but lots of convenient breaking points
Vibe: I’ve never really understood when people say the writing in a book is beautiful until this book. Ann finds the words I never knew I needed and I might have cried (several times!)
finderofjoy's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
You either like her writing style or you don’t- I love it. It speaks to my soul.
Another honest, deep & challenging book with the call to grow closer to the Waymaker. To understand your story & to reflect on your own journey.
Another honest, deep & challenging book with the call to grow closer to the Waymaker. To understand your story & to reflect on your own journey.
okiecozyreader's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
4.0
This is the story of several things:
Ann’s engagement, wedding, and difficulties in marriage
Her birth of 6 children
Her adoption of a child from China
Surgeries this adopted child has had for her heart
And medical difficulties she herself has experienced
- all similar to a memoir.
Yet, throughout the book, in Ann Voskamp style, is how she fashioned an idea called SACRED to help her navigate through the ups and downs to focus on God and not idols, addictions or self. She notices how at times in her life, this is what has gotten her through.
I read this book with Faith Gateway’s Online Bible Study. This is the book in the series, but there is also a workbook with videos. The workbook/videos tell a little of her own story, but mostly focus on the SACRED acronym and that message. The book contains a lot of that information as well, but a completely different format, with much more of her personal story.
For me, sometimes it’s wordy and repetitive, but I think she does make many interesting points, and as always, I’m glad I read it.
SACRED:
“Stillness: Be still . . . live into a tender surrender because the Lord fights His way to you, fights for you in ways you don’t even know you need.
Attentiveness: Attend to who you say God is, to where you are in relation to Him, and what you really want.
Cruciformity: Surrender, arms wide-open, let yourself be formed cruciform, reaching out to God and people.
Revelation: How is the Word revealing Himself to you in this moment?
Examine: What are you afraid of?
Doxology: What can you give thanks for right here and now?” Chapter 8 Into the Storm
“God has always been a WayMaker, making more than merely a way through. The WayMaker is making a way to you.” Chapter 1
There are lots of parts about suffering and addiction.
“Because all trauma is about detachment—detachment and loss of connection from our people, our bodies, our souls, our Maker*—what saves and heals us is attachment—attachment to our people, our bodies, our souls, our God.” Chapter 2
“I am known and begin to know how to say it out loud: “The worst-case scenario is that all the very worst things happen, and I am still loved.” Ch 4
“The longer the heart waits, the larger the heart expands to hold the largeness of a different way of life.”
“We need the person of God more than we need the plan for our lives. “
“We don’t need answers from God like we need attachment with God.”
“Until there’s a release and a turning from your way, there is no going God’s way.”…”Our way is self-formed, God’s way is cruciform; our way is wide and self-comforting, His way is narrow and self-denying; and our way rarely crosses His, as His way always means a carrying of a cross.”
Ch 6
I also loved the way the book ties in with Exodus throughout. Here is one example:
“. . one of the keys to understanding the meaning of the cross of Christ.” If the exodus is not only the primary model of God’s idea of redemption but is one of the keys to the very meaning of the cross, why wouldn’t the exodus become the primary model of my life, the key to my exodus found in forming everything cruciform?” Ch 7
“That’s ultimately the prophetic moment, the answer to our every prayer, our every dream: Even when we can’t see it, the WayMaker is working and making the way, not to a place but to a Person, the only One who brings us shalom.”
Shalom, and its related word shalem, refers not only to the whole, uncut stones of an altar (Deuteronomy 27:6; Joshua 8:31)—but also to the wellness of a whole, undivided heart (2 Kings 20:3).
Chapter 8
“And the Hebrew words for serve and worship used throughout Exodus 7 are the linguistically related words abad and avodah, which mean “keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service.”
Worship Me. Be bound to Me.” The WayMaker doesn’t make a way for us to go our own way.”
Chapter 11
“If you don’t speak your fears and questions aloud, they only grow louder in your soul.”
“All of life turns on the turn. Life isn’t about how far you’ve come, or how far you have to go; it isn’t about detours, roadblocks, wrong ways, wildernesses, deep valleys, steep mountains, or the overwhelm that has you between a rock and a hard place. Life is about distance, in relation to God, and living constantly in the direction of God.”
“And maybe the bruised and battered and better explanation is: At the heart of all kind of addictions is a broken attachment that left a broken heart.9 The food addict, the screen addict, the game addict, the pill addict, the bottle addict, the porn addict, the gambling addict, the person addict, the shopping addict, the comfort addict—all the addicts carry a hurt in the wrong direction, looking for a way out of pain.”
Chapter 12
She also describes how self care doesn’t help us like God care:
“When I don’t expect God to take care of me, I exile myself to the wilderness.” Ch 13
“Hesed holds. No created thing can sever us from the love of God who knows that our deepest fear is abandonment and our deepest need is attachment and resolves both by being the deepest love who never leaves our side ever.” Ch 14
“How could we ever be conformed to the image of our Suffering Savior if we never suffered?
God doesn’t keep us from suffering; He keeps us through it.” Ch 16
Ann’s engagement, wedding, and difficulties in marriage
Her birth of 6 children
Her adoption of a child from China
Surgeries this adopted child has had for her heart
And medical difficulties she herself has experienced
- all similar to a memoir.
Yet, throughout the book, in Ann Voskamp style, is how she fashioned an idea called SACRED to help her navigate through the ups and downs to focus on God and not idols, addictions or self. She notices how at times in her life, this is what has gotten her through.
I read this book with Faith Gateway’s Online Bible Study. This is the book in the series, but there is also a workbook with videos. The workbook/videos tell a little of her own story, but mostly focus on the SACRED acronym and that message. The book contains a lot of that information as well, but a completely different format, with much more of her personal story.
For me, sometimes it’s wordy and repetitive, but I think she does make many interesting points, and as always, I’m glad I read it.
SACRED:
“Stillness: Be still . . . live into a tender surrender because the Lord fights His way to you, fights for you in ways you don’t even know you need.
Attentiveness: Attend to who you say God is, to where you are in relation to Him, and what you really want.
Cruciformity: Surrender, arms wide-open, let yourself be formed cruciform, reaching out to God and people.
Revelation: How is the Word revealing Himself to you in this moment?
Examine: What are you afraid of?
Doxology: What can you give thanks for right here and now?” Chapter 8 Into the Storm
“God has always been a WayMaker, making more than merely a way through. The WayMaker is making a way to you.” Chapter 1
There are lots of parts about suffering and addiction.
“Because all trauma is about detachment—detachment and loss of connection from our people, our bodies, our souls, our Maker*—what saves and heals us is attachment—attachment to our people, our bodies, our souls, our God.” Chapter 2
“I am known and begin to know how to say it out loud: “The worst-case scenario is that all the very worst things happen, and I am still loved.” Ch 4
“The longer the heart waits, the larger the heart expands to hold the largeness of a different way of life.”
“We need the person of God more than we need the plan for our lives. “
“We don’t need answers from God like we need attachment with God.”
“Until there’s a release and a turning from your way, there is no going God’s way.”…”Our way is self-formed, God’s way is cruciform; our way is wide and self-comforting, His way is narrow and self-denying; and our way rarely crosses His, as His way always means a carrying of a cross.”
Ch 6
I also loved the way the book ties in with Exodus throughout. Here is one example:
“. . one of the keys to understanding the meaning of the cross of Christ.” If the exodus is not only the primary model of God’s idea of redemption but is one of the keys to the very meaning of the cross, why wouldn’t the exodus become the primary model of my life, the key to my exodus found in forming everything cruciform?” Ch 7
“That’s ultimately the prophetic moment, the answer to our every prayer, our every dream: Even when we can’t see it, the WayMaker is working and making the way, not to a place but to a Person, the only One who brings us shalom.”
Shalom, and its related word shalem, refers not only to the whole, uncut stones of an altar (Deuteronomy 27:6; Joshua 8:31)—but also to the wellness of a whole, undivided heart (2 Kings 20:3).
Chapter 8
“And the Hebrew words for serve and worship used throughout Exodus 7 are the linguistically related words abad and avodah, which mean “keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service.”
Worship Me. Be bound to Me.” The WayMaker doesn’t make a way for us to go our own way.”
Chapter 11
“If you don’t speak your fears and questions aloud, they only grow louder in your soul.”
“All of life turns on the turn. Life isn’t about how far you’ve come, or how far you have to go; it isn’t about detours, roadblocks, wrong ways, wildernesses, deep valleys, steep mountains, or the overwhelm that has you between a rock and a hard place. Life is about distance, in relation to God, and living constantly in the direction of God.”
“And maybe the bruised and battered and better explanation is: At the heart of all kind of addictions is a broken attachment that left a broken heart.9 The food addict, the screen addict, the game addict, the pill addict, the bottle addict, the porn addict, the gambling addict, the person addict, the shopping addict, the comfort addict—all the addicts carry a hurt in the wrong direction, looking for a way out of pain.”
Chapter 12
She also describes how self care doesn’t help us like God care:
“When I don’t expect God to take care of me, I exile myself to the wilderness.” Ch 13
“Hesed holds. No created thing can sever us from the love of God who knows that our deepest fear is abandonment and our deepest need is attachment and resolves both by being the deepest love who never leaves our side ever.” Ch 14
“How could we ever be conformed to the image of our Suffering Savior if we never suffered?
God doesn’t keep us from suffering; He keeps us through it.” Ch 16
storybookcorner's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0