The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp, a book review

I love Ann Voskamp's books. Her book 1000 gifts is one of my all time favorites so you can imagine my excitement when she released her newest book, The Broken Way. Ann has a unique perspective on things and always manages to find a deeper spiritual insight where most of us merely miss them.

The Broken Way grabbed my attention as soon as I read the title. You see, I've been going through my own season of brokenness. For the past two and a half years, I've been fighting breast cancer. My body has been broken but also my spirit. Breast cancer does that to you. For a Christ follower, it causes you to reexamine your faith and learn to reevaluate your life. Brokenness becomes a gift if you receive in the way it was intended. I know that's a hard statement for some to swallow but believe me, I am evidence of the fact. The brokenness I have experienced in my journey with cancer has been eye opening and I am thankful God chose this trial specifically for me. I'm thankful He chose to break me of my self sufficiency. In the words of Elisabeth Elliot, "To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss." The loss of my breasts caused me to experience a loss of identity. My brokenness was extremely difficult but necessary. I needed to see my life as Christ saw it. I needed the brokenness to facilitate healing in my life.

In Ann's book, The Broken Way, she explains one of the main tactics of Satan is to attack and distort our identity. She says, "You can feel the hiss slithering up your neck like this deafening replay in your head: Did God really say you were worth anything? Look at you - your're damaged goods. you're too broken to be chosen." And if we believe that lie, Ann says believing that is the same as believing a lie that God isn't enough.

I loved the way Ann uses analogies through her book to help her readers get a clear visual of what she's talking about. Since she lives on a farm, she uses the example of grains of wheat for a lot of her life lessons. She talks about the necessity of the wheat needing to be broken so it can sprout new life and compares it to her own life.

Ann is very open and real in her book. She shares her struggles after the sudden unexpected death of her sister and how she struggled to deal with that. She shares about her deep depression and how she began cutting herself to try to understand the pain she was feeling. She uses her own times of brokenness to help the reader see that brokenness is a necessary part of growth.

This book is deep. It will cause you to do a lot of thinking if you read it. It's a really good book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's one I'll keep in my collection forever.

I would recommend this book and I give it a 5 star rating. Ann's faith shines through every paragraph of this book. She's so in tune with God and her writing style will immediately draw you in. If you're looking for a life changing book, this one is it!

You can purchase the book here.