Voskamp Quotes & Sayings

Without expectations, what can topple the surprising wonder of the moment? — Ann Voskamp

If the Church is a body, and the body is a business, isn't that the same thing as prostitution? — Ann Voskamp

I hunger for filling in a world that is starved. — Ann Voskamp

So God throws open the door of this world - and enters as a baby. As the most vulnerable imaginable. Because He wants unimaginable intimacy with you. What religion ever had a god that wanted such intimacy with us that He came with such vulnerability to us? What God ever came so tender we could touch Him? So fragile that we could break Him? So vulnerable that His bare, beating heart could be hurt? Only the One who loves you to death. — Ann Voskamp

The art of deep seeing makes gratitude possible. — Ann Voskamp

Worry is belief gone wrong. Because you don't believe that God will get it right. — Ann Voskamp

Eucharisteo makes the knees the vantage point of a life. — 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

I am a hunter of beauty and I move slow and I keep the eyes wide, every fiber of every muscle sensing all wonder and this is the thrill of the hunt and I could be an expert on the life full, the beauty meat that lurks in every moment.
I hunger to taste life.
God. — Ann Voskamp

Grace is alive, living waters. If I dam up the grace, hold the blessings tight, joy within dies ... waters that have no life. — Ann Voskamp

Loving broken people when it is inconvenient is the way to have fuller inclusion in the life of Christ. Teach — Ann Voskamp

The real romantics are the boring ones - they let another heart bore a hole deep into theirs. — Ann Voskamp

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

Manna today or I starve. — Ann Voskamp

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

Can God be counted on? Count blessings and find out how many of His bridges have already held. — Ann Voskamp

The cure against the bite of thanklessness. The remedy is in the retina. How we behold determines if we hold joy. Behold glory and be held by God. — 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

Motherhood is a hallowed place because children aren't commonplace. Co-laboring over the sculpting of souls is a sacred vocation, a humbling privilege. Never forget. — Ann Voskamp

Expectations kill relationships - especially with God. — Ann Voskamp

It is in the dark that God is passing by. The bridge and our lives shake not because God has abandoned, but the exact opposite: God is passing by. God is in the tremors. Dark is the holiest ground, the glory passing by. In the blackest, God is closest, at work, forging His perfect and right will. Though it is black and we can't see and our world seems to be free-falling and we feel utterly alone, Christ is most present to us ... — Ann Voskamp

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

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

Going ahead in the midst of the stressful circumstances and giving thanks in that moment - you can't simultaneously feel stress and gratitude at the same time. So as a parent, to go ahead and start to give thanks to God resets the whole family. — Ann Voskamp

Without God's Word as a lens, the world warps. — Ann Voskamp

The wrinkled man in the wheelchair with the legs wrapped, the girl with her face punctured deep with the teeth marks of a dog, the mess of the world, and I see - this, all this, is what the French call d'un beau affreux, what the Germans call hubsch-hasslich - the ugly-beautiful. That which is perceived as ugly transfigures into beautiful. What the postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin expressed as 'Le laid peut etre beau' - The ugly can be beautiful. The dark can give birth to life; suffering can deliver grace. — Ann Voskamp

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. — 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 did not abandon you in the ultimate storm of your soul. He will not abandon you in the immediate storm of your now. — Ann Voskamp

Life is so urgent and necessitates living slow. It's only the amateurs-and that I've been, and it's been ugly-who thinks slow and urgent are contradictory. — Ann Voskamp

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

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

Faith is in the gaze of a soul. — Ann Voskamp

It's the battle plan of the enemy of the soul - to keep us blind to this current moment, the one we can't control, to keep us blind to Him, the One who controls everything. — Ann Voskamp

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

The answer to anxiety is always to exalt Christ. — Ann Voskamp

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

Slay the idol of the seen, break the idols of performance, and believe the state of my house doesn't reflect the state of my soul...it's the priorities unseen - the prayers, the relationships, the love while doing the work - that hold the meaning, the merit. — Ann Voskamp

Instead of filling with expectations, the joy-filled expect nothing
and are filled. — Ann Voskamp

God gives God. That is the gift God always ultimately gives. Because nothing is greater and we have no greater need, God gives God. God gives God, and we only need to slow long enough to unwrap the greatest Gift with our time: time in His Word, time in His presence, time at His feet. — Ann Voskamp

Our fall is always first a failure to give thanks. — 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

Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning - now; wherever, meaning - here. — Ann Voskamp

Why have we swallowed the lie that we can only help if we're perfect? The cosmic truth sealed in the wounds of the broken God is that the greatest brokers of abundance know an unspoken broken. Wrapping — Ann Voskamp

Contemplative simplicity isn't a matter of circumstances; it's a matter of focus. — Ann Voskamp

We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our Yes! to His grace. — Ann Voskamp

Humbly let go. Let go of trying to do, let go of trying to control, let go of my own way, let go of my own fears. Let God blow His wind, His trials, oxygen for joy's fire. Leave the hand open and be. Be at peace. Bend the knee and be small and let God give what God chooses to give because He only gives love and whisper a surprised thanks. This is the fuel for joy's flame. Fullness of joy is discovered only in the emptying of will. And I can empty. I can empty because counting His graces has awakened me to how He cherishes me, holds me, passionately values me. I can empty because I am full of His love. I can trust. — Ann Voskamp

A pantheist's god is a passive god, but omnipresent God is Beauty who demands worship, passion, and the sacrifice of a life, for He owns it. — 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

War destroys more than cities - it destroys generations of dreams and hopes and education and possibility. — Ann Voskamp

When service is unto people, the bones can grow weary, the frustration deep. Because, agrees Dorothy Sayers, "whenever man is made the center of things, he becomes the storm-center of trouble. The moment you think of serving people, you begin to have a notion that other people owe you something for your pains ... You will begin to bargain for reward, to angle for applause ... When the eyes of the heart focus on God, and the hands on always washing the feet of Jesus alone - the bones, they sing joy and the work returns to it's purest state: eucharisteo. The work becomes worship, a liturgy of thankfulness. "The work we do is only our love for Jesus in action" writes Mother Theresa. "If we pray the work ... if we do it to Jesus, if we do it for Jesus, if we do it with Jesus ... that's what makes us content." Deep joy is always in the touching of Christ - in whatever skin He comes to us in. Page 194 — Ann Voskamp

He withhold that which I believe will fully nourish me? Why do I live in this sense of rejection, of less than, of pain? Does He not want me to be happy? — Ann Voskamp

Looking is the love. Looking is evidence of the believing. — 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

God only allows pain if He's allowing something new to be born. — Ann Voskamp

This counting blessings was the unlocking of the mystery of joy, joy, "the gigantic secret of the Christian," joy hiding in gratitude ... God had used the dare to give me this; led me all he way to give me this, live fully, fully live. Page 83 — Ann Voskamp

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

Thanksgiving is inherent to a true salvation experience; thanksgiving is necessary to live the well, whole, 'fullest' life. — Ann Voskamp

God wants us to lament. Complaint doesn't see the goodness of the character of God. Lament is authentic about the feelings but knows the goodness and benevolence of God. — Ann Voskamp

If I don't have words, it's a sign I'm not reading enough. — 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

The answer to deep anxiety is the deep adoration of God. — Ann Voskamp

I am bell and He is sure wind, and He moves and I am rung ... — Ann Voskamp

The message of Christmas is not that we can make peace. Or that we can make love, make light, make gifts, or make this world save itself. The message of Christmas is that this world's a mess and we can never save ourselves from ourselves and we need a Messiah. — Ann Voskamp

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

I know the theological answers, but do my blood and my pulse? — Ann Voskamp

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

Learning slowly to not be so reactionary while inserting verbal gratitude into stressful situations is almost like being healed of mental blindness. — Ann Voskamp

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

Joy is always a function of gratitude - and gratitude is always a function of perspective. — 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 moment when you are most repelled by a child's behavior, that is your warning light to draw the very closest to that child. — Ann Voskamp

The only place we have to come before we die is the place of seeing God. — Ann Voskamp

A simplified Christmas isn't about circumstances as much as it is about focus. — Ann Voskamp

Are farmers and they keep trying to breathe, keep the body moving to keep the soul from atrophying. Mama cries when she strings — Ann Voskamp

Thanks is what multiplies the joy and makes any life large, and I hunger for it. — Ann Voskamp

Generosity does give birth to intimacy - but there's a far deeper intimacy when we're generous in sharing our brokenness. — Ann Voskamp

I receive grace. And through me, grace could flow on. Like a cycle of water in continuous movement, grace is meant to fall, a rain ... again, again, again. I could share the grace, multiply the joy, extend the table of the feast, enlarge the paradise of His presence. I am blessed. I can bless. — Ann Voskamp

We're not giving what we're called to give, unless that giving affects how we live - affects what we put on our plate and where we make our home and hang our hat and what kind of threads we've got to have on our back. Surplus Giving is the leftover you can afford to give; Sacrificial Giving is the love gift that changes how you live - because the love of Christ has changed you. God doesn't want your leftovers. God wants your love overtures, your first-overs, because He is your first love. — Ann Voskamp

Love is ridiculous and reconfigures everything. — Ann Voskamp

Christian hands never clasp and He doesn't give gifts for gain because a gift can never stop being a gift
it is always meant to be given. — 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

Your naked body deserves the honor of being shared only with someone who is covenanted to never stop loving your naked soul. — Ann Voskamp

Pantheism, seeing the natural world as divine, is a very different thing than seeing divine God present in all things — Ann Voskamp

Is that why joy hurts
God stretching us open to receive more of Himself? — Ann Voskamp

Feel thanks and it is impossible to feel angry. We can only feel one emotion at time. We get to choose which do you was to feel? — Ann Voskamp

And God tries to gently drive the words of Caussade from the knowing of my head to the bleeding of the heart: You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are. You would realize that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies - though that never occurs to you. Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet [God's] beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is.1 A — Ann Voskamp

What she means? Sure, whatever. It's not like I thought that this is the carving, the flying, the healing of my wounds. Sometimes you don't know when you're — Ann Voskamp

Thanks makes now a sanctuary. — 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

The joy of the Lord is your strength and the person of Christ is your unassailable joy - and the battle for joy is nothing less than fighting the good fight of faith. — Ann Voskamp

Lord God, You are the Hound of heaven who hunts the lost down and captures us with grace. Today, make me the hound of now who hunts for glory and captures joy with just that one word: Thanks. — Ann Voskamp

God lays down all of His fullness into all the emptiness. I am in Him. He is in me. I embrace God in the moment. I give Him thanks and I bless God and we meet and couldn't I make love to God, making every moment love for Him? To know Him the way Adam knew Eve. Spirit skin to spirit skin. — Ann Voskamp

What was intended to harm, God intended it all for good. And no matter what intends to harm you, God's arms have you. You can never be undone. — Ann Voskamp

Be radical about grace and relentless about truth and resolute about holiness ... — 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

God is always good and we are always loved ... even when what He gives may appear ugly. — Ann Voskamp

When bridges seem to give way, we fall into Christ's safe arms, true bridge, and not into hopelessness. It is safe to trust! We can be too weak to go on because His strength is made perfect in utter brokenness and nail-pierced hands help up. It is safe to trust! We can give thanks in everything because there's a good God leading, working all things into good. It is safe to trust! The million bridges behind us may seem flattened to the earthly eye, but all bridges ultimately hold, fastened by nails. It is safe to trust. — 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