Week 1: Introduction — The Road We Didn't Choose

1.Ann opens with the image of standing before what feels like an impassable sea. What is the 'impassable sea' in your own life right now — the place where you see no obvious way forward?

2.Voskamp distinguishes between a God who points to a way and a God who IS the Way. Why does that distinction matter practically, especially when you are in crisis?

3.She frames the book around the ancient Exodus story as a living map for modern life. What assumptions or resistances do you bring to the idea that an ancient desert journey could be a 'map' for your circumstances today?

4.Ann writes in a signature poetic, fragmented style that mirrors the disoriented feeling of being lost. Did her writing style draw you in or create distance? What does the form of her writing communicate about the content?

5.She is candid from the very beginning that this book was born out of personal suffering — a marriage in crisis, a child in pain, her own inner wilderness. How does her vulnerability in the opening pages affect your trust in what she is about to share?

6.The introduction previews the SACRED pathway (Stop, Attend, Commune, Receive, Enter, De-clutter). Which one of those six practices do you instinctively resist the most, and why do you think that is?

7.Isaiah 43:19 declares, 'See, I am doing a new thing!' How does the tension between 'I cannot see it yet' and 'God declares it done' shape what faith actually requires of us?

8.How does the Exodus story—God making a literal way through literal water—ground Voskamp's hope in something historical rather than just emotional? Why does it matter that the WayMaker has a track record?