So tonight I want to share with you what Lori shared with me from the book and what I've covered in my classes over the past three weeks. I pray the thoughts will inspire you to get a copy of the book yourself, read it along with us, and start numbering your own list of 1000 gifts.
Week 1: Chapters 1 & 2 – “an emptier, fuller life” and “a word to live and die by”
Reflection: Ann Voskamp wonders, “How do we give up
resentment for gratitude, gnawing anger for spilling joy, self-focus for
God-communion? How do we fully live –
live full of grace and joy?”
She discovers a word to live and
die by: Eucharisteo.
Eucharisteo
is the actual Greek word found in Luke 22:19 for the words “gave thanks” when
Jesus took the bread and gave thanks before offering the bread of His own body
to his disciples. Eucharisteo
means Thanks-giving. Two other
root words, charis and chara mean grace or gift and joy
respectively.
Ann concludes that deep joy is found only at the table of
thanksgiving. The height of our joy is
dependent on the depth of our thanks.
When we receive the gift (which is a sign of God’s grace), and give
thanks for the gift, we experience joy.
This joy is a miracle and it
transforms us.
We enter into the full life if our faith… gives…
thanks. Giving thanks in everything is what prepares the way for
God to show us His fullest salvation.
Week 2: Chapter 3 - "first flight"
Reflection: Giving
thanks doesn’t come to us as naturally as complaining and worrying. Just as Paul had to learn how to be content, we must learn Eucharisteo if we are to find our true joy.
Ann accepts the challenge of a friend to
begin identifying and naming 1000 gifts God offers every day. By
accepting this challenge and recording the gifts, she is made mindful of all
the things she has to be grateful for.
Thanksgiving becomes easier. The
listing of the gifts reforms her—driving out bad habits of discontent and
driving in the good habit of Eucharisteo.
Naming the gifts offers
recognition for each one and blesses God.
As she writes down 1000 things she loves, she realizes she is naming all the ways God… loves…
her.
W3: Chapter 4 – “a sanctuary of time”
Reflection: When we begin to give thanks—for everything—we
find an amazing miracle happens: Time.
Slows. Down. By being all present, by
being in the moment, by weighing each moment with full attention, we slow the torrent of time.
We can redeem time from neglect and inattentiveness when we swell with
thanks, and remember that life is not an emergency; life is a gift. Seeing Life as Gift requires a slow and
steady reverence.
This can be a scary thing
because when time slows, and we are fully in the present, the Here-and-Now asks
us to do the hardest thing of all: Open Wide
and Receive. Receive what God has placed
before us—in This. Very. Moment: The
good, the bad, the ugly, the hard, the irritating, the sweet, the whatever. It.
Is.
When we can actually do this, when we actually slow down, we have more
time on our hands, not less. And if we continue to see the gifts in these
slower times, and if we continue to
give thanks for each one by name, we have the opportunity to see the Great I Am
in the Very Present Moment.
I Am—God.
Our thanks makes “now” a sanctuary as we awaken to “I AM” in. the.
Present.
Giving Thanks “makes,” “creates,” time: a miracle.
Eucharisteo always precedes the miracle. Jesus gave thanks for the few loaves and fish
and the miracle of feeding the multitudes happened. Jesus gave thanks for the bread when he and
the two men on the road to Emmaus sat down to eat, and the miracle of seeing
Jesus happened.
Eucharisteo takes the not enough—the not enough food, the not enough understanding—and
makes it enough.
