One Thousand Gifts

A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

By: Ann Voskamp

Narrated by: Ann Voskamp

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

More than 1.5 million copies sold! What if you discovered that the life you already have is the life you’ve always wanted? What if joy is possible right where you are? New York Times best-selling author Ann Voskamp invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative journey of chronicling God's gifts.

How can you find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and even the death of loved ones? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long, and sometimes even dark? How is God even here?

“It is in the dark that God is passing by...our lives shake not because God has abandoned but the exact opposite. God is passing by. God is in the tremors. Dark is the holiest ground, the glory passing by. In the blackest, God is closest, at work, forging his perfect and right will. Though it is black and we can’t see and our world seems to be free-falling and we feel utterly alone, Christ is most present to us...”

In One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp invites you to discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings deep and lasting joy. It's only in the expression of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted...a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. Come to feel and know the impossible right down in your bones: you are wildly loved by God.

As Ann invites you into her own beautiful, heart-aching moments of amazing grace, she gently teaches you how to:

• Biblically lament loss and turn pain into poetry
• Intentionally embrace a lifestyle of radical gratitude
• Slow down and catch God in the moment

Not an audiobook merely to listen to, One Thousand Gifts is an invitation to engage with truths that will serve up the depths of God’s joy and transform your life forever. Leave pride, fear, and control behind, and abandon yourself to the God who overflows your cup.

©2011 Ann Voskamp (P)2011 Zondervan

75% of a masterpiece

Almost a great book. The central message is fantastic: unlock a joyful and fulfilling life through living thankfully and seeing each aspect of life from God's eyes.
The presentation is well thought out, and poetic and flowery. By presenting the truth in a great variety of contexts, Ann presses home the main point solidly. I think the repetition is needed because Voskamp uses them to skillfully bring out new aspects, methods, and benefits to the life of thankfulness.
The problem is that it's tough to follow. Likely only Ann could read it with the proper expression because others wouldn’t be about to follow the thoughts Ann does a great job reading it, but it's still choppy. My wife and I gave up on the hard copy, and would not have made it through without this audiobook version.
It's like an unfinished piece of furniture. Think of a beautifully carved exotic wooden chair that isn't sanded or sealed, so it's not smooth and occasionally gives you splinters. The language is often so poetic that the reader is left struggling with the grammar, trying to make sense of the thought, and thereby disrupting the flow. It's sprinkled with glittery details added for interest, but that ultimately distract. Consequently, it takes perseverance to press past the words and get to the wonderfully insightful message.
I would urge the author to take this rough, but sorely needed masterpiece, and revise it. “Put the cookies on the lower shelf so that children can reach, and all will be fed.” Perhaps go over it two times - once to clarify the illustrations so that a child could understand it. And a second time to smooth out the choppiness and improve the readability. The poetic beauty can be retained, without making it so difficult to read that the message loses is draw.
That said, if a listener or reader can stick with it to the end and get past the choppiness they will be blessed by this wonderful book!

Lenten Book Study

I read and listened to this book as a Lenten Book study with a church group lead by our Pastor. I started my own list of 1000 Thank you's, as most in the group did. There were parts of this book that were wonderful - about her spiritual journey - but she seemed so distant from her children. At times I wondered - while you are writing about your spiritual journey, who is watching your 6 kids?? It was great listening to the author read her work as I read along & made notes in my book. In this unsettled Country, it was good to be reminded that we have so much to be thankful for. Very up-lifting!

Absolutely wonderful book. Covering God's truths

If you could sum up One Thousand Gifts in three words, what would they be?

Biblical, Beautiful, Brilliant

What was one of the most memorable moments of One Thousand Gifts?

Learning the word, meaning, and practice of Eucharistao

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I cry and laugh and smile and hope

Beautifully told

Ann Voskamp has such a gift for tying her honest, vulnerable experiences with beauty, Scripture, and thought provoking ideas. Well worth the read.

Life changing!

Amazing and eye opening! Starting a list is the best thing you'll ever do for yourself. In today's difficult world, this makes so much sense to bring us peace and closer to our Lord.

Amazing

I would give this book many more than 5 stars if I could. Life. Changing.

In Grace, with gratitude.

Gratitude breathes life

God does create beauty from ashes. Ann poetically describes intentionally with word pictures throughout book.

Great context

The writing was very illustrative and at times hard for me to follow, but the overall message was great!

Excellent narration but a lot of repetition

This book was not really a story, but more of a collection of feelings. There were some chapters that I enjoyed very much and were easily understood. And other chapters that I got a little lost trying to figure out exactly what the author was saying. There was a lot of repetition with the authors idea of always, always giving thanks, which is of course, the purpose of the book. But sometimes I think she got a little carried away and I would say to myself, "enough already, move on". I enjoyed the interjection of all of the Bible passages and how she used them to make her point, and she made a lot of good points, that I will retain when I need to remember to "give thanks in all things". And her narration was excellent. In fact, if it weren't for the feeling and emotion in the narration, I doubt if I would have finished the book. I think I had the message of the book in the first several chapters and could have left it any time after that and not missed the point.

Best book in a long time...

Besides the Bible I've never read a book that has so impacted and changed my life like this one. I've read it twice and listened to the audio umpteen times...I can't recommend it highly enough.