One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp

My mind keeps going back to this book weeks after I read it. It is hauntingly inspiring.

One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp 

Ann Voskamp will enthrall you with the sheer beauty of her writing and the simplicity, yet depth of her message.

Live an emptier, fuller life.

One Thousand Gifts feels like you’re reading poetry but it challenges you like a self-help book. It is neither of those.  More of an honest modern-day psalm, this is where Ann learns to hold tight to joy and be grateful to God for every moment, and shares her insights along the way. She also writes a superb blog here.

Like Ann, I’ve also started a log of the precious moments in my life, great or small. I won’t be doing a lot of talking, though. I’ll let Ann Voskamp do the talking for herself.

Some snippets on living a simple life,  embracing and rejoicing life as it comes:

~ Life is so urgent it necessitates living slow.

~ Thanksgiving creates abundance.

~ I only live the full life when I live fully in the moment.

~ Hurry always empties a soul.

~ Without expectations, who can topple the surprising wonder of the moment?

And here are some superb insights in bite-size form, on our walk with Christ, day in and day out.

~ That is what a shadow is, and empty space, a whole in the light. Evil is this – a hole in the goodness of God.

~ We’re called to do more than believe in God, we’re called to live in God.

~ God gives us time. And who has time for God?

~ All fear is but the notion that God’s love ends.

~ The weight of God’s glory, not illusory or ephemeral, but daily and everywhere, punctures earth’s lid and heaven falls through the holes.

~ Worry is the facade of taking action when prayer really is.

~ Every moment I live, I live bowed to something. And if I don’t see God, I’ll bow down before something else.

One Thousand Gifts is a book you will savour, rather than speed-read. Books like this one are something I’m grateful for – so it goes on my one-thousand gifts list!

One more quote to end with:

I am blessed. I can bless. What is time for if not to bless?

Have you read the book? Are you reading it now? Any other quotes you’d like to share with us?

Photo from: INCOURAGE