Eucharisteo

1. to be grateful, feel thankful 
2. give thanks 

If you've received an e-mail from me in the last few months you will notice that I sign most of my e-mails with this word just before signing my name. I've recently learned what this word means after reading Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts. Voskamp explains the vital connection between living a life fully unto the Lord and living a life of thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving - giving thanks in everything - is what prepares the way for salvation's whole restoration. Our salvation in Christ is real, yet the completeness of that salvation is not fully realized in a life until the life realizes the need to give thanks (Voskamp, p. 40)

 {{sigh}} In her book, over and over she reminds readers that the secret to living joy in every situation is living a life in constant thanksgiving to God. Ann Voskamp seems to have learned just what the Apostle Paul learned:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need (Phil. 4:11-12)

She has learned this through this Greek term eucharisteo. Throughout her book she presents this idea of literally thanking God for everything. She even begins to make a list - a goal - to name one thousand gifts that she has received from God. From the most mundane to the most grandeur of blessings, she records it. She describes the writing down of each gift as the act of receiving it from the Lord and offering thanks back to Him, just as Jesus did on the night that He was betrayed (1 Cor. 11:23-24: Same word eucharisteo used here). I mean, this woman wrote down every little thing that she saw and turned it into a gift from the Lord. Here are some examples:

37. Windmills droning in day's last breeze

38. Wool sweaters with turtleneck collars

39. Faint aroma of cattle and straw

Her rationale in doing this is that "Eucharisteo - thanksgiving - always precedes the miracle" (p.35). This miracle that she writes of is the miracle of joy. She wanted (as do I) to find joy in even the most minute things because God is in ALL things that He has created and bestowed upon us. She explains that naming 1000 gifts are the "Nails driving out [her] habits of discontent and driving [her] habit of eucharisteo."

Thanks is what multiplies the joy and makes any life large, and I hunger for it. -Ann Voskamp

Me too! Me too!! I want joy and I want to live fully! I want to shout with the psalmist all the days of my life: For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy (Ps. 92:4).

So, as I began reading Voskamp's book, I also began counting 1000 gifts. I am still working on the discipline of opening my eyes to all the good (and hard) gifts that God gives to me each waking moment of my day, but I am beginning to see that when I thank God, there is little (if any) room to complain, boast, sulk, and compare. 

Thank You, God for...

482. Providential encounter with pastors from Riverbend

483. Samuel's long nap

484. Date night to Zoe's Kitchen

485. Sounds of a happy new clapper

486. Starbucks delivery from special neighbors (Beth and Wes)

I'm sure this is not the last time I will visit this subject of eucharisteo as I hope it begins to color every nook and cranny of my life. May God be glorified in my naming His gifts as I turn them back to praise - to eucharisteo.