Why do we pursue so much before pursuing HIM?  Perhaps for the very same reasons Eve did in that garden.  We are searching for something. Something more.  What if what we are searching for is really right in front of us?  What if I lived my life truly expecting to see God?  What would I see? 

I have been challenged, and I am in the process of being changed.  What?  How?  One little Greek word:  “Eucharisteo.”  (Charis: grace.  Chara: joy.  Eucharisteo: Thanksgiving.) 

Over and over and over and over…the heartbeat of scripture is filled with the words to “remember” and to “give thanks.”  I have read this many times.  But do I know what it means to truly live this?  In all circumstances?  In pain?  In confusion?  In comfort?  In discomfort?  In the hum-drum?  In the beautiful?  In the question marks?

Ann Voskamp writes, “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.”

CS Lewis cries out when he writes: “What more, you may ask do we want?  Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of.  But the poets and mythologies know all about it.  We do not want merely to see beauty though, though, God knows even that is bounty enough.  We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bath in it, to become part of it.”

Paul wrote that he learned how to be content in all circumstances.  (Philippians 4:11-12)  He LEARNED.  He learned how to live a life filled with eucharisteo.  Joy in living fully.  I too am on this journey. 

Thanks to my dear friend (you know who you are) who sent me Ann Voskamp’s book and challenged me to unclench my hand to live with gratitude.  I have so much more to learn…