"The Broken Way" by Ann VosKamp

Advent

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

Tis the season of Advent, a time when we remember His arrival in Bethlehem…in a manger, in swaddling clothes …and so it goes…and so we wait. It’s a time to honker down in the cold of winter and slow the pace to a flicker. A flicker of hope that once again, baby Jesus will arrive upon the scene and all is calm…all is bright…round yon virgin mother and child.

However, this year, arriving on the scene around the beginning of Advent was a new book. The book entitled “The Broken Way” is written by a young mama named Ann VosKamp. During this pensive time of year, devotional readings specifically geared towards the topic of Advent are out and about, but for some reason, this dandy caught my eye.

A pile of people are reading the pile of pages and gathering a pile of good from the words within. If you have not made a Christmas list, may I suggest this beauty of a book, “a daring path into the abundant life” says the smaller print under the title. She’s a New York bestselling author but more than that, she’s a mama with deep theology able to add balm to the wounds of the wounded…while we wait.

And I quote to whom she dedicated this book, “To Mine…who never gave up on the broken—and to every single one who carries their own unspoken broken—these pages had to be for you—the tracing of scars.”

Why such sadness in the midst of this glorious time of year? Why talk about something other than the warmth of a babe in the hay? Her authentic words carry with them the promise of why our precious Lord came in the first place. He came into a broken world, to eventually be broken so that all the broken may finally remember to “re-member” themselves to Him.

Ann’s words usher in truth: “Don’t waste a minute of your life on anything less than what lasts for all eternity. Think of eternity, and live backward from that. Does chronic soul amnesia make me keep forgetting that if He believes in me, I am enough, because He is enough? Habits of self-condemnation can only change when they’re taken to the cross of Jesus, not to the court of judgment. Go to the cross first and hear no condemnation; then go to the mirror and see deep transformation. There is always more grace in Christ than there is guilt in us. It’s grace that allows you to make U-turns.”

Intertwining her personal stories upon the pages, she walks right into your heart. By making herself vulnerable and showing us her wounds, she allows us to open our own. It is in the breaking open the brokenness and pouring it out on behalf of others that helps both heal. Union through communion happens as we become one.

I am so thankful He came as a babe to be poured out and broken. “In shattered places, with broken people, we are most near the broken heart of Christ” (Ann VosKamp).  Amen.