3 Gifts Hard Eucharisteo - 30DaysThankful - 16

*To help define Eucharisteo, if you haven't read Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Gifts"; I've included below a portion of an interview of Ann explaining Eucharisteo as the crux of Christianity.

 

Giving thanks when it's hard...

 

#1 - I don't always feel thankful. I'm counting that as gift. To recognize that I don't always have it all together, but God does.

 

#2 - Being just one of the crowd. Unnoticed. Not as special as my 'self' wishes. I'm thankful God doesn't let me have my way. Even when it's hard.

 

#3 - Waiting. Waiting is something we as humans do a lot of. And it's hard. I mean, really hard. No matter what it may be today, I will be thankful in the waiting.

 

-waiting with you-

Kerry

 

*Quote from Ann Voskamp*It's all Greek to me, but this is the word that can change everything: eucharisteo—it comes right out of the Gospel of Luke: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them…” (Luke 22:19 NIV). In the original language, “he gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.”

The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.” Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks. Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.” Charis. Grace. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Chara. Joy.
Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the euCHARisteo; the table of thanksgiving. The holy grail of joy, God set it in the very center of Christianity. The Eucharist is the central symbol of Christianity. Glynn, doesn’t the continual repetition of beginning our week at the table of the Eucharist clearly place the whole of our lives into the context of thanksgiving?
 
One of Christ’s very last directives He offers to His disciples is to take the bread, the wine, and to remember. Do this in remembrance of Me. Remember and give thanks.

This is the crux of Christianity: to remember and give thanks, eucharisteo.

Why? Why is remembering and giving thanks the core of the Christ-faith? Because remembering with thanks is what causes us to trust; to really believe. Re-membering, giving thanks, is what makes us a member again of the body of Christ. Re-membering, giving thanks is what puts us back together again in this hurried, broken, fragmented world.