Musings on Marriage

Tag: Ann Voskamp

waymaker

Dear Daughters,

Once again, Ann Voskamp has written a book with such honesty, wisdom and vulnerability that I am in awe. In Waymaker, she begins by describing something similar to GPS (Global Positioning System) that all of us use every day of our lives. 

Especially since we moved to Michigan 18 months ago, I have used my Maps app everywhere I went. I needed GPS to get me there, otherwise I would be lost in the haze of all the freeways (called expressways in MI) on ramps, off ramps and winding roads built to navigate around the beautiful Grand River which seems to turn up everywhere I go.

Anyway, Ann has penned what she calls the EPS (Expectational Positioning System).  This is a term she uses when we become disappointed by our place in life.  Maybe we were expecting our life to look different than it does – we expected our marriage, our physical body, our family and even how we would be loved to be different – and we are disappointed. We expected much better, that our children would always agree with our ideas and opinions, that our husbands would understand and love us even when we were rude and crabby…   But as we have all learned, expectations can kill relationships.

When we have expectations for friendships, marriage or business partners, we will inevitably be disappointed.  We are all flawed, selfish, subject to our own weaknesses and hurts, therefore our relationships will suffer when we expect what others cannot give.  We have no idea what our acquaintances, friends or even spouses are struggling with – unnamed but nevertheless real hurts – so how can we not become disappointed? 

In her simplicity, Ann says,

It’s when we expect life to be easy that it becomes hard.

We were never promised life would be easy and carefree.  No one is happy all the time, free of worry or pain; we all have something in our bodies and minds that is suffering – not functioning just right.  But it’s what we do with the suffering when it comes – and sometimes stays longer than we would like. 

Suffering doesn’t mean you are cursed, suffering means you are human.

Ann shares several vulnerable stories from her own life and how her expectations have been shattered numerous times, the disappointment often leading to depression and anxiety.  One of her counselors gave her this nugget of information:

Research has discovered some of the keys of happiness:

We are happiest when we are standing before some natural wonder such as the Grand Canyon.  We are the happiest when we are in a deeply creative zone, what they call the flow.

You’re in the zone of happiness – only when you leave the zone of self.

It’s wildly counterintuitive, and even counter cultural, but true.  It’s only when we believe we are truly loved by Jesus (a supernatural wonder) and fix our eyes on Him that we are able to give ourselves to another in trust.  When we know that our Creator

Celebrates and sings because of you,

And He will refresh your life with His love,

Zephaniah 3:17

when we are confident in His love and care, then we don’t need to expect so much from the people around us.  When we know our value and worth – that we are the beloved of Jesus – we can rest and be secure in whatever comes our way.  Even when people harm us with words – intentionally or not – we can move on and not be crushed because we know our fundamental worth has not been diminished.

 

Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.

I’ve called your name.  You are mine.

When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you

When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.

Isaiah 43:1-2

When we are consumed by thoughts of ourselves – wondering if we are pretty enough, smart enough, or desired enough by others, then we have lost the capacity to give ourselves freely to anyone.  Ann encourages us to look to the Waymaker – our Creator – and rest in His love.

When she is fretting and anxious, her husband Darryl, whispers to her and asks,

What is the worst thing that can happen, Ann?

After decades of walking with Jesus by her side through all the waves of a lifetime, she now knows beyond the shadow of a doubt,

…you can be about bankrupted, shamed, walked out on, labeled, ghosted, slandered, diagnosed, abandoned, cut-off, humiliated, guilty, fired, vilified, charged, destroyed,

ruined, devastated, grieved, wrecked and left for dead in a million ways,

 and this is the ocean floor, this is at its base:

when you are fully known and fully loved, nothing can still scare you.

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.

If we choose to live with the EPS – expecting life will be hard – we will have the freedom to love without fear, resting safe and secure in Our Father’s love.

Love, Mom

One Thousand Gifts

Dear Daughters,

The most life-changing book I’ve ever read is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  She writes about how God has extravagantly showered you and I with gifts – every day of our lives.  Never before had I read someone who was so vulnerable, sharing her insecurities, doubts, anxieties, depression, disappointment with God and her fierce struggle to find joy in everyday living.  As I read, I felt a kinship with her and was ready to learn whatever it was that had transformed her to become honest, bold and joyful. 

 Ann’s friend had challenged her to make a list of a thousand things she loves – 1,000 gifts.  She started that very day to chronicle the simple gifts of life – jam on toast, the cry of a blue jay, wool sweaters with turtleneck collars – and became surprised by the joy that naming these gifts created in her.  Joy that had eluded her for years now appeared through the simple act of thanksgiving. 

Because joy had been eluding me as well, I bought a journal and started writing down gifts, not gifts that I want, but gifts God has already given me.  Looking for gifts and writing them down in detail felt like I was on a quest for beauty – something I had never done before.  I too was surprised by joy springing up in my heart.  I became more aware of the beauty in our home, in the surrounding countryside, the people in my life. I started thanking God for the little things: my ten fingers, the energy to fold laundry, tulips in bloom, melted butter on my broccoli.  I found I couldn’t name just three a day – it became five, ten, sometimes more – simply because it brought such delight that I hadn’t realized had been missing in my ife.  It was easy to find and write down so many good gifts ….for many months.

Then came what Ann calls the hard Eucharisteo (the Greek word for thanks).  It’s easy to give thanks when things are going well, when my plans are moving forward and life is pleasant.  But when illness comes to visit, when relationships unfurl, when everywhere we turn we see envy, greed and bitterness, the most expected behavior in the world is to slip down into the hole of self-pity and start believing the lies that snake into our minds.

God is good when life is good,

but He must be mad at me because now life is bad.

He loves other people more than me

I’m never good enough

Why try?  Everything I do fails…

I’m just a has-been

God has abandoned me…

A woman of wisdom, Ann writes:

There can be a lying snake curled between your neural membranes

and his lies can run poison in your veins.

I’ve experienced that poison in my veins, and it produces heaviness, despair and hopelessness.  When I focused on those lies that crept in my mind and not on the truth of God’s goodness, life didn’t seem worth living. 

So in the midst of my anguish – when yet another move with the all too familiar sight of mountains of boxes around me, a body not functioning like I had hoped and the failing of key relationships – I went back and read One Thousand Gifts again in order to remember. I found that I struggle with soul amnesia, as Ann names it.  Forgetting the fact that God is good, in the times of sunny skies as well as those days of clouds and darkness.  Even though the sun is not shining for me to see, it’s still there behind the clouds. 

When I finished reading the book a third time, I read it again – I had to for survival.  And I kept writing in my gratitude journal.  Many days I would write through the midst of tears and grief, because I had to be reminded that God is good even though life is hard.  I was on a pursuit of things to be thankful for, even during the time of life I would have never scripted for myself.

Joy is always a function of gratitude –

and gratitude is always a function of perspective.

When I finally asked God for perspective, with eyes to believe that He does work all things together for good, then joy returned.  It was a sometimes slow and arduous process, but gratitude always reaps joy.

If we are going to change our lives, we’re going to have to change the way we see.  This recording our gratitudes, this looking for blessings everywhere, this counting of gifts – this is what changes what we are looking for.  This is what changes our perspective.  Thanksgiving is the lens God means for us to see joy all year round.         

Ann Voskamp

Giving thanks toward the end of November is good, but God never meant for us to imprison thanksgiving for only a season.  As is it written in Psalm 100,

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

Give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever,

His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Without the daily habit of giving thanks, I would be a puddle on the floor.

Love, Mom

1,000 Gifts

Dear Daughters,

One Sunday in January 2011 my friend, Jolene, came up to me after church and asked if I had heard of the book 1,000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  She simply mentioned that I might enjoy it.  Being ever curious about new books I went home and looked it up on Amazon, read the free pages and wept.  I ordered it, started reading and was totally consumed.  The premise of the book is that God has given us gifts, no, showered us with gifts every day of our lives – but do we see them as gifts and say “Thank you”?  Never before had I read someone like Ann who was so vulnerable, sharing with me her insecurities, doubts, anxieties, disappointment with God and her fierce struggle to find joy in everyday living.  Immediately I felt a kinship with her and was ready to learn whatever it was that had made her become so honest, bold, and joyful.1,000 Gifts

As the story goes a friend of Ann’s, knowing her struggle with life, dared her to write a list of a thousand things she loves.  Ann started that very day to chronicle the simple gifts of life – jam on toast, the cry of a blue jay, wool sweaters with turtleneck collars.  She became surprised by joy that the naming these gifts had created in her.  Joy that had eluded her for years had appeared through the simple act of thanksgiving.

So I bought a journal and started writing down gifts, not gifts that I want, but gifts God has already given me.  Looking for gifts and writing them down in detail felt like I was on a quest for beauty – something I had never done before.  I felt new joy coming over me.  I became more aware of the beauty in our home, in the surrounding countryside.  I started thanking God for the little things: my ten fingers, the energy to fold Dad’s socks, the tulips that were blooming, melted butter on my broccoli.  I found that I couldn’t name just three a day – it became 5, 10, sometimes more – simply because it brought delight that I hadn’t realized I had been missing.  It was easy to write down so many good gifts ….for many months.Pumpkins

Then came what Ann calls “the hard Eucharisteo” (the Greek word for thanks).  My health started declining and I was forced to quit my job teaching music at school.  I didn’t want to give thanks for that because I was angry that my body wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do.  I cried, prayed for healing, and fell into the pit of despair.  Finally, in the midst of my anger and disappointment, simply out of obedience to God, I haltingly started to give thanks for stuff I didn’t like.  As Ann points out, but what I was not yet ready to accept, is that God is able to use the hard things in life for our good and growth.

I read 1,000 Gifts again to reinforce what I had been learning, to remember, because I found that I have “soul amnesia” as Ann call it.  How easy it is to slip down into the hole of self-pity when illness strikes.  When I finished reading the book a third time, I read it again – I had to for survival.  Oftentimes I would thank God for what was happening to me though I was merely saying the words in faith.  I did not feel the least bit thankful.  Through many sleepless, tear drenched nights I knew in my intellect that I could trust Him, but my heart was screaming that perhaps He couldn’t be trusted.  I hated it that I didn’t understand what was happening to my body.  I didn’t like the chronic fatigue that defined my life.Thanks

In the midst of all this, Dad was there.  I know God was there too, but I think he used Dad to comfort me in my sorrow, listen to my wonderings and anger against God, and hold me when I was sobbing.  Because of his love and care for me I learned to love him more than I ever have.  Just a few years ago I would have been angry that Dad didn’t have words for me.  I wanted answers.  But he was wise enough to simply listen and share my grief.  I learned to be thankful for his presence, our simply being together.  Slowly, oh so slowly, I am gaining strength and I am able to give thanks even in this time of life that I would have never scripted for myself.

Through it all I have to believe that God is good even though life is not going how I would like.  He comforts me with these words.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever.

Love, Mom

 

 

 

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