From the forward, written by Ann Voskamp, to the last page this book was a treasure. God used it to encourage me, challenge me, strengthen me and remind me. I think I enjoyed this book an extra special amount because it helped me be connected to the continent of Africa and it helped me sort through some of the disappointment and heartache of leaving the Africa Mercy and it helped me (is helping me) find joy right where I am.
Here are my favorite quotes (so that I have them all in one place and can find them easily in the future...). Maybe one or two or a few of them will strike a chord in your heart or mind. All quotes are from Katie Davis Majors unless otherwise noted.
From the Forward:
We could write it on a million kitchen chalkboards: you are doing something great with your life - when you are doing all the small things with His great love. You are changing the world - when you are changing one person's world. You aren't missing your best life - when you aren't missing opportunities to love like Christ. - Ann Voskamp
Living radical isn't about where you live; it's about how you love. - Ann Voskamp
Chapter 1
This kitchen, this is where I serve.
We have a God who makes up for all we lack, a God who promises beauty for ashes and streams in the desert and grace for today.
These days are sacred. God is good to use here and now.
You might see Jesus here, in our kitchen, here in our lives. And maybe you would see Jesus in our mess and in our brokenness and you would be encouraged that there is grace and purpose in your mess and brokenness as well.
Chapter 2
...relearn how to know Him even in hardship.
...learning a complete and utter dependence on God...learn the beautifully tender side of Him that would love me, in spite of me, relentlessly.
Gratitude was healing me. Giving thanks to the One who both gives and takes away, and remains my Savior in either circumstance, refocused my heart and made me strong.
I wish I could pick up some joy here in the market with my onions.
Chapter 3
His deep desire is for us - that we would know HIs love in these unexpected broken places.
I learned to look past my own pain and dive into the pain of others.
Chapter 4
"It's too much, Lord." Child I am so much, more more.
you do not have enough. I will be enough.
My knowledge is limited. God's is not.
He makes us who we are meant to be in Him. ...we get to be right up next to our strong Father and tangibly known the truth that He does not let go. He will not let go....
...showed us the scars on His hands and whispered that it was ok if we had our scars too, because the scars were always meant to draw us into His glory.
Chapter 5
When we are looking for Him, we will always see Him.
...my inadequacy exposed...
I was never meant to meet all their needs...I cannot be what they need Him to be: Savior.
"prisoners of hope."
...to be a prisoner of hope is to be the freest of all because we look at our circumstances and expect Jesus to enter in and redeem, renew, restore.
True freedom is found only in being completely captivated by a coming King.
We beg to live captured by His promises.
My inability to fill my children's heart holes puts me in a place of need. And my need for Jesus is beautiful to Him; it is what He wants. This lack that the world would call "bitter" is sweet to my Savior as it draws me into dependence on and relationship with Him.
My weakness is so evident...thank God for how He is working in us all.
The end of ourselves is such a sweet place to be...I am not sufficient. My parenting cannot be sufficient. Only He is sufficient and only He can fill up these holes, for all of us.
It was only when I acknowledged my weakness and called out in my deep need for Him that I really had any answers.
Chapter 6
...because he is concerned for my grief, he stays near (katie was speaking of a friend...but i think of God).
Compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there. - henri nouwen
Maybe we aren't called to alleviate suffering as much as we are called to entire into the suffering of others and walk with them through it.
Life was certainly intended to be lived as ongoing ministry, not separate from ministry.
...practice the art of being interrupted.
Something about shouldering the burdens of another brings a lightness to our own affliction.
He teaches me to view pain as a holy invitation to know Him more so that I can share Him more.
These things let others know that we are with them and for them and that God is with them and for them too.
Chapter 7
Even when the temptation to despair was overwhelming, i would choose hope.
Maybe the greatest joy isn't just in beholding the flowers but in the process.
Chapter 8
Slowly He began to show me that He gave me the grace to believe she would live so that in her final days she would feel hope and high spirits all around her, so that she would feel that she was fought for and that she was worth the fight.
In response to my questions, God continued to assure me in the dark, quiet evenings that my hope was not in vain and that my watching and waiting was growing my capacity for Him.
When we cannot find joy in our circumstances, we can find joy in God, who is unchanged and unchanging.
Chapter 9
...this was his best for them right now.
He loves you so much that He wants to give you something new, but it doesn't mean you have to forget the old. He wants to grow something beautiful out of your pain.
And my strong Father holds me while I flail. He sees my mess of joy and pain and peace and doubt and sadness all jumbled together and cradles it all in His strong Father arms.
I had begged God to open my eyes to the beauty all around me.
...nodding with a deep understanding of God, who is so good in our pain.
Chapter 10
Some days this felt so right; other days it felt unproductive.
...to dwell knowledgeably and hospitably in and toward the place God gives you is to glorify Him. ...to do what God gives you to do is to strengthen the common good and to glorify Him. - Zack Eswine
Slowly I was beginning to understand that it wasn't my productivity that God desired; it was my heart. It wasn't my ministry God loved; it was me. God was glorified, is glorified, when we give Him our hearts, give Him ourselves, and faithfully do the thing right in front of us, no matter how small or trivial.
God had been teaching me the extraordinary strength it takes to just be ordinary. To dwell knowledgeably and hospitably in and toward this place He has given me with my people is, in fact, an extraordinary call.
He is glorified in the small too.
Our God is not too big for the small and is glorified in our ordinary moments as we invite Him in. When I invite Him into my tiny and ordinary, even mundane moments become extraordinary. Small acts of love become whispers of His glory in the midst of our everydayness.
...when all those things pass away, He will remain.
...our hidden reach for God counts so much more than our public one.
What really counts will be the quiet devotion practiced in our own homes.
Chapter 11
This is the sin of the israelites, of all humankind really, this slowness to remember all that He has done as we stare intently at what He hasn't done yet, what He might not do.
Hope is our great expectancy that we will know Him in all our circumstances, even the seemingly hopeless ones.
Your reaching for Him is not in vain.
Chapter 12
God had allowed a holy loneliness that compelled me to run to Him and confide in Him more than ever before.
I learned anew that He loved me truly not because of who I was or what I did but because of Christ and who He was.
...revel in the gifts God continued to give...
...they were simply compassionate. They knew how to love and knew that love was right.
Chapter 13
We didn't have to love; we got to love...
...faithfulness was in the ordinary, in the everyday things that do not feel glorious but, in fact, lead us to His feet.
Chapters 14 - 19
I was so much more than okay, so in awe of God's provision...
Our God is good, and He gives good and perfect gifts and good and perfect words to us. His delight is in me, in us. May our delight be evermore in Him.
Can you picture it? You, banged up and bruised, nothing to offer, and Jesus, smiling at the objet of His magnificent love - receiving you, welcoming you home.
I too know victory only in Jesus and desperately need His grace to pull me out of my patterns of sin.
This isn't how I would write it. But I have known and seen again and again that God writes the better story.
But when I push aside those lies, I can say with full confidence to you and to anyone who cares to listen, "I did not walk alone." We do not walk alone. God, in His unimaginable grace, walks beside us, whether or not we choose to recognize Him, teaching for us, offering us bread that sustains - His very body, broken for us.
I have known His goodness to be true even when I can't see it yet, even if i never see it on this side of eternity. I have known HIs goodness as the Lord who provides Himself.
