Friday, October 21, 2011

One Thousand Gifts


One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp.  My sister loaned me this book during my time here in Hawaii while my daughter began to settle into her new living situation.  For the first time in a long time, I didn't have an anvil of responsibility dragging behind me, and I was able to rest my mind and concentrate on the printed page.  My sister had shared one of Ann's blog posts with me, and I was so deeply moved by her style and insights, I asked to borrow the book the next instant.


Sitting on the beach in Kailua, bathed in the sound of waves on sand, I began to read.  Her words shifted my reality.  Shifted it back into the comforting stream of the truth of God.  Once you've ever sipped from God's truth, the taste is unmistakable.  You can settle for less after that, but you know it.  If you've settled for less for a long time, you can find your taste buds have been dulled into sleep.  But the minute you catch a whiff of Truth again, the senses startle awake, and you ask yourself what on earth happened?  How did you manage to drift so far?

I can't do the book justice in just a few sentences - I encourage you to read it for yourself.  But briefly, Ann recounts her journey to make sense of living as a Christian in a world defiled by pain and horror and fear and the million heartaches that beset us between birth and death.  The key to a full life of joy, Ann finds, is thanksgiving, or eucharisteo.   She begins to keep a journal of "gifts."  Much more than a sappy list of Hallmark affirmations, her list matures into a sonnet of gratitude for all the ways God gives Himself, as gifts--the good, the bad, and the ugly.  This deceptively small book is heavy with God's truth, the kind that makes you gasp for air, and offers reams of practical help in moving from despair to joy.



I returned my sister's well-worn copy of the book, and ordered several copies for myself.  Well, for myself and anyone who'd like to read the book with me, and plumb the depths together.  If this sounds good to you, please let me know.  If more of us want to study this together, we can get more books.


Figuring Life Out - One Thousand Gifts (720) from Jacob Forrest on Vimeo.


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This is my first real post on this new blog.  "From the Fold" describes a couple of the important facets of my life: my cherished identity as one of Christ's beloved lambs, and as a spinner of wool, where spinning "from the fold" is a way to turn fluff into yarn.  In this blog, I hope to share more of my spiritual life than I do on the farm blog.  Everyone is welcome here, and over there as well.

4 comments:

  1. I love it! Great job, Cindy! I'm so glad you are "coming home" to the fold once again and falling back into the arms of your Savior.

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  2. It's not that I "left" so much, but that I got very distracted, and weighed down with the erroneous idea that I had to labor in my own strength. That'll take it out of you in a hurry... Forces me to relax into the truth that His grace is sufficient.

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  3. Love (1000000)! Sometimes in our sufficiency we forget to let go and rest in the arms of His sufficiency. It's a journey, isn't it? Love you, girlie!! xoxo

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  4. "Towdah" and "yadah".... To be offering up praises and thanksgiving to His Name and His Mighty Works with your opened hands. Your written words and your songs that come forth are such gifts. Thank you, Cindy !

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