Eucharisteo

This may seem like a random post to some but for me this is my way of working my way through my new book.

what an amazing book this has been so far. A book that forces you to take a deeper look at yourself and instead of scaring you away pulls you in further and further. I simply am having problems putting this book down.

Chapter one focuses on how an emptier life is a fuller life. This seems a little contradictory but as I sit and think through all that I am reading, it makes perfect sense. Emptying your life of the hustle and bustle of everyday and taking the chance to live fully in the moment and enjoy the gift that has been given makes it a fuller life. (yes I realize that was a loaded run on sentence, its ok) Ann states in the book that while we are so caught up in the material world we are to busy to see what it is really meant to be: as the means to communion with God. Umm, how do you follow that up? Instead of just going with the flow we need to live more in the intimate moment with God and be thankful for what he has given us. So many of us forget that. Which leads me to chapter 2.

A direct paragraph from the book:

" It's the life in between, the days of walking lifeless, the years calloused and simply going through the hollow motions, the self-protecting by self-distracting, the body never waking, that's lost all capacity to fully feel - this is the life in between that makes us the wild walking dead."

When we are just going through the motions we have no life through Him. We are simply living by enjoying the surface of everything, we protect ourselves by distracting ourselves from the bigger picture. The bigger picture that Someone, God, loves us and provides all these material things for us, however by denying ourselves the sight of that we are not able to fully feel the grace of things that we have been given.

So what exactly is the meaning of Eucharisteo? Overall its meaning is Thanksgiving, but broken down into its Greek roots we get that charis means grace and further breaking that down we know chara means joy. Ann puts these roots into a sort of algebraic equation such that

Charis - Grace, If we take everything that is given to us by Him

Eucharisteo - Thanksgiving, and we give thanks for it all, the good and bad

Chara - Joy, we in return find the joy of living fully through Him

Ann begins a list in the book, a challenge for her to work out the "equation" of listing 1000 gifts that she is thankful for. Simple things nothing poetic about them just simple pleasures of life that we typically take for granted but living with eucharisteo we are forced to live in the moment and enjoy these simple little gifts that have such a large impact on our daily lives.

The chapter is closed out by saying

" We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. Because how else do we accept His free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. Thanksgiving is the manifestation of our Yes! to His grace. "

" I would never experience the fullness of my salvation until I expressed the fullness of my thanks every day, and eucharisteo is elemental to living the saved life. "

Oh I would love to continue writing more and digger deeper into the book but contractions seem to be distracting me a bit... I guess its never to early to start a list of my own.

1. ability to feel pain - Contractions leading to one of the greatest gifts - a baby girl.