Read With Me \\ One Thousand Gifts (Week Three Part One)

Well, I'm not exactly on time with this, and I missed last week altogether. So here is part one of Week Three. I'll hopefully get part two of Week Three, over Chapter 6, posted tomorrow. Once again, I'd love your thoughts on any of these subjects.

Chapter 5: What In the World, In All This World, Is Grace?

This chapter is deep. The main discussion is God's grace and how it relates to our pain and suffering. Ann share's many interesting thoughts. She believes that all is orchestrated and planned by God. All is on purpose.

I don't really feel qualified to share my own thoughts on this. I'm still trying to work this stuff out in my own head. There's the whole debate between God's allowing and causing and I lean more towards the allowing side. Like I said, Ann brings up interesting points, but I'm not at all willing to say that what she says is the absolute truth.

However, I do like Ann's brutal honesty here. In the face of suffering, her response is wholly human. This chapter is a glimpse into a hurting person's mind. She's trying to work through her pain, and sometimes, I think, we are more willing to accept ideas that sound good when we are in the midst of great pain. I guess I'm just boiling this down to one thing: her opinions are her opinions. Take a look at God's Word apart from One Thousand Gifts and ask God for wisdom on the subject.

On the mention of the Bible, there are a couple of passages in this chapter that I loved enough to highlight:

. . . The Word has nail-scarred hands that cup our face close, wipe away the tears running down, has eyes to look deep into our brimming ache, and whisper, "I know. I know." The passion on the page is a Person . . .  (pg. 87)

Without God's Word as a lens, the world warps. (pg. 91)

In this chapter Ann also talks about her list. She's reached beyond one thousand gifts at this point. I started my own list a couple of weeks ago and I'm only twenty-or-so along, but I am trying to make more of an effort to look at the small things, to live fully.

Until tomorrow,

Read With Me \\ One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

In the middle of feeling weary from studying and wishing away this next week of my life, I thought about this book that is still sitting around (actually it is on my Kindle) unread. It's title is One Thousand Gifts, and I can't think it is coincidence that I thought of it now. 

I'm extremely curious about this book after reading reviews, good and bad, of it. I read a breath-taking article in WORLD Magazine by Voskamp a few months ago, and since then I knew I needed to read this book. I'm still not certain what I will find, but I'm definitely curious.

Watch this trailer and tell me you aren't interested:

I'm always wary about a book that has become so popular. Apparently One Thousand Gifts spent 33 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller's List. I did some perusing on Ann Voskamp's website and came across a letter she wrote to her audience. She promises a lot of things in that letter. She says that if you commit to writing your 1000 gifts down in a gratitude journal you'll be happier, sleep better, and feel better physically. I had to pause there. Seriously?? This is writing down words, people.

I'm open-minded, however, and I'm interested to see how Voskamp's thoughts line up with what I know to be true from God's Word. I'm also unabashedly curious about Voskamp's writing style and if that will become more of a bother than a poetic masterpiece in the end. (At the end of that letter someone claims One Thousand Gifts is modern times' Song of Solomon. Hm.)

So I decided to do something a little different this time around than just reading the book and giving you my thoughts of it when I'm finished. I'm going to blog my thoughts as I read. This is kind of like a read-along I guess. If you haven't read the book and would like to join me, that would be great. My plan is to write a post every Monday covering two chapters at a time. There are 11 chapters and an afterword, so I figure on this spreading out over six weeks. Here's the schedule:

May 14, 2012 – Chapters One and Two

May 21, 2012 – Chapters Three and Four

May 28, 2012 – Chapters Five and Six

June 4, 2012 – Chapters Seven and Eight

June 11, 2012 – Chapters Nine and Ten

June 18, 2012 – Chapter Eleven and Afterword

I may or may not consider questions from the downloadable reading guide Voskamp has provided. Sometimes I find reading guides purely annoying simply because they make me think so hard. But I'll be looking at it chapter by chapter just to see if there is anything interesting to add. This should be fun!

"The way to give thanks in all things: give thanks in this one small thing. The moments add up."

~ Ann Voskamp ~

Until next Monday,