Eucharisteo Living

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” ~2 Cor. 9:15 

If there is someone I would love to get the chance to meet and spend a day with, it would be Ann Voskamp. I’m pretty sure within the first hour of my time with her on her little farm in Canada, I would be encouraged and refreshed by her oozing simple love for the Lord. The joy of the Lord is contagious when He is glorified above all else. 

 

Two years ago, I took Ann’s Joy Dare to count 1,000 gifts in a year. Eucharisteo- Greek word meaning grace, thanksgiving and joy. So much meaning wrapped into one word. Eucharisteo living- Grace. Thanksgiving. Joy.- I haven’t stopped counting since that first day in January. It has been absolutely life changing. “When thanks to God becomes a habit – so joy in God becomes your life.” –Ann

The idea is simple really. Thanking God for his small and big grace gifts to us throughout the day in turn produces joy. All is grace. Everything is a gift. Joy in Christ is the result.

One thousand gifts or more in one year. It can be done. As I look back on the last two years it is possible to see God’s grace in #15: a sincere apology #34 carrot cake pancakes #140: long goodbye hugs #157: car is fixed #164: snow and sunshine #178: hooded sweatshirts when it’s raining #302: truth #802: parents who pray for me #1401: coffee and laughs #1416: You speaking in stillness #1609- eager 3 and 4 year olds #1636: Sunday naps #1658: catch up chats #1735: socks #1778: days that feel out of my control- You are my security and anchor #2026: blankets #2277: lounging lazy afternoons #2296: dinner table set and candles lit #2938: Flower Factory #3109: get well texts #3280: officially becoming a homeowner #3366: buttering homemade bread #3403: music while stuck in a traffic jam #3411: coffee and tears #3435: sand volleyball #3630: groceries #3702: hedge apples and wildflowers #3758: small world connections

Thankful for my sister's gifts: My 1st two thankful journals

Flipping through my used journals and reading through snapshots of grace moments has only caused more joy to well up inside. My faith is lifted when I process through gift after gift of God’s goodness. His love. His grace. His pursuit of my heart. These moments add up and prove that God is faithful still. Reflecting on these moments have stirred up fresh love and trust that my God is good in every season.

What a crazy FULL life adventure.

"My cup overflows" ~Ps. 23:5

  

Thanksgiving. May we desire to give thanks to God in everything. When we do, we can’t help but be moved by His love. Perspectives are shifted. The aches in life don’t disappear. They don’t get covered up. No, instead all the little gifts that preoccupy our time and thoughts amount to something grand. These gifts of grace produce joy. And joy is not temporal. Joy is not circumstantial. Joy is a state of being and living. We are filled with joy in God’s presence. To me this looks like walking hand in hand with the Lord. If I see and count everything the Lord has given me today as grace, how can I not want more of Him tomorrow? How can I not thank Him for every little way He shows me love. I can choose to see the Lord in everything and ultimately recognize that He is in control. And I am secure. Secure only in Him.

“Something always comes to fill the empty places. And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me. This, this, makes me full, and I ‘magnify him with thanksgiving’ (Ps. 69:30), and God enters the world. It’s our lives that are little and we have falsely inflated self, and in thanks we decrease and the world returns right. I say thanks and I swell with Him, and I swell the world and He stirs me, joy all afoot.” –Ann Voskamp

So as we’re soaking up the remainder of Christmas and all the extra cozy family time and giving the last of the gifts, let’s pray to be awed once again by the wonder of God Himself, the greatest gift. He left His perfect home to come down, all the way down to our broken humanity. Love came down. Perfect love came for all. No one is excluded. The gift of redemption. The gift we cannot live without.

 


And as we think about the New Year to come, what if we did something for the first time. A new kind of list. Not another to-do list. Or a wish to-improve-us list. No, a thankful list. A grace-moments list.

January 1st, 2015 #1 ______fill in the blank. 

Right in the moment. Right where we are. Counting for a whole year! Three or more gifts a day, scribbled down in a journal is what we can give back to our God who has given so much. And in the moments where we feel like we've failed again, God's grace is abounding still. Grace. Thanksgiving. Joy. Eucharisteo living. I praise Him for all that He has in store for me this year. And when 2015 comes to an end, I want to be found in Him. To be found ever praising and thanking God for His grace is my prayer. 

“The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find”- Matt Redman

“One Thousand Gifts- A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are”-Ann Voskamp’s book. aholyexperience.com Check out her blog to learn more about the Joy Dare count or just simply to be refreshed and encouraged. Grab a notebook and pen and start counting. You won’t be left unchanged. Thank you, Lord!

When you want 2015 to be more than an adventure, you take a gold pen and write "Joy"

 Peace and blessings to you in this New Year to come! God is moving and stirring hearts. We get to give him our “yes” over and over. And over again.