Eucharisteo - Thanksgiving
This book really starts off with a punch in the stomach doesn’t it? Why do bad things happen to good people? We talk about serving a merciful, gracious God, a God who only wants the best for me and you. Then when we have to walk through suffering we begin to loose perspective of who God is and what his true purposes are for us. Lord knows I have walked through events in my life that I will never understand until I get to heaven. My family (mom, dad, sisters) has been through storms that have been so treacherous we didn’t know if our sanity would stay in tact. But our God has proven faithful. Have we gotten to the point of thankfulness for the storms? I don’t know? Are we thankful for the lives that we have and the blessings we have? Yes. Do we have to get to the point of thankfulness for the storms? I’m not sure. Would I change a thing? For my self no I would not. I’m not sure if that equals thankfulness. I do believe that God knows what’s best. I do believe that there is never a hurt wasted. I do believe that He will turn ashes into beauty. I know that there has been good fruit from the pain in my life. I know that I don’t see the completed painting of my life with its scars that changed my path. I believe the ripple affect has been vast. I do know that God is the artist of my life and I have faith in my creator.
Living a life of thankfulness true thankfulness! I love this idea of writing down specific things moment by moment that you are thankful for as a discipline. I can sense the awakening in your soul that will happen. Like when you need glasses and you put them on and for the first time everything is crisp and clear it is literally a different world. You are living life in a different and better way. It literally changes how you see everything!
Living a life of complete contentment... awww doesn't that sound fabulous
Unwrapping Love:
I'm starting a list... I want to encourage you to start your list too!!
What a great book so far...
b
5 comments:
B, I haven't gotten this book yet. At the last minute, I stopped by to pick one up for a friend for her B-day (& one for me too!) and I couldn't (for the life of me!) remember the name of the book! Any way, I thought maybe it would be on an endcap or display but it wasn't ... bummer! The poor lady at the Bible book store tried to help but to no avail :( I was describing the cover ("it has someone holding a bird's nest with eggs in it") ... "Do you remember the author?" she asked ... Uh no, that would make too much sense (& this was (an attempt at)a random act of kindness! :)I'm certain she thought I was the biggest weirdo ever! Any way (long story short -- too late I know!) I didn't get one (or two!)& your synopsis of the first three chapters inspires me to go get one (with the title placed firmly in my mind!). Thank you! Have a wonderful Monday my friend!
I think you will like these videos: http://vimeo.com/user3854700/videos
They are interviews with the author, chapter by chapter, from the Bloom book club. They are really good.
Renee
You ask "Do we have to get to the point of thankfulness for the storms?" and after reading this, I think that is the goal. Can we get there? I think some of us will and some of us won't - depending on our view of God -vs- our view of self. As Ann wrote on page 18, "It is a choice. Living with losses, I may choose to still say yes. Choose to say yes to what He freely gives. Could I live like that - the choice to open the hands to freely receive whatever God gives? If I don't, I am still making a choice."
In these 3 chapters, I loved the stuff about ingratitude being the first sin. I had never thought about it that way but it is so true. And it really is the root of so many of my "sins". I think I have read chapter 1 at least a dozen times. There is so much to grab onto in that chapter - that sin closed our eyes (not opened) and God is about the business of returning us to that full glory, that our material world was not meant to fill our emptiness, but rather as the means to communion with God, the stuff about how we don't know the end of the story with the story of Hezekiah, and the manna (the line that haunts me is when she says, "if it were my daughter, my son? Would I really choose the manna?", and the idea that "the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness, might actually become places to see. To see through to God."(pg 22)
And in Chapter 2 (which I've read about 4 times) - that Eucharisteo ALWAYS precedes the miracle. I love all the scripture she uses in this book. Every time I think that maybe I don't agree with her, there's the scripture that got her to her point.
And then in Chapter 3 (I've only read this one 3 times)-the challenge. I love the quote on page 44 by Pierre de Caussade "When one is thirsty one quenches one's thirst by drinking, not by reading books which treat of this condition." That living eucharisteo has to be learned, and that writing it down is like unwrapping His love. It is "nothing less than the driving of nails. Nails driving out my habits of discontent and driving in my habit of eucharisteo." pg 49 There is so much more that spoke to me, but I'll end with these quotes from the book, "this is the first secret step into eucharisteo's miracle. Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant... Do not disdain the small. The whole of the life - even the hard - is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitisimals, I miss the whole.... There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up." "But in this counting gifts, to one thousand, more, I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life.... life-changing gratitude does not fasten to a life unless nailed through with one very specific nail at a time."
I'm excited to take the dare to name all the ways that God loves me.
Thanks to all of you for joining me!!! I have been off line for a couple of days so I wasn't able to repond to your comments! But I'm back now...shew
Rene thank you so much for the link I can't wait to take a look!
This book is a life changer for me for sure!
b
Yes, thank you Renee for the links! I watched up to Chapter 4 yesterday while I was cooking dinner & enjoyed the discussion so much. I cried (alot) & laughed (a few times) but mostly I left feeling encouraged. Oddly enough, the feel of the whole thing was almost like being there...an intimacy which, I think, comes easily to us ladies when we're discussing our Savior & His love for us. We become kindred spirits! Oh how I've rambled (sorry!) but yes ... thank you!
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