Eucharisteo…what is that? I love words…or as I heard someone say a “lover of words”. Eucharisteo is a pretty powerful word I'm learning and beginning to understand and experience.
I’ve learned from reading One Thousand Gifts that eucharisteo means “he gives thanks” because in Luke 22:19, Luke is telling of Jesus breaking bread and giving thanks for it at his last supper. “Thanksgiving”, eucharisteo.
In the Greek language, eucharisteo’s root word is charis, meaning “grace”. But not only is there a root to that word, but also a derivative in that word…chara meaning “joy”.
“Eucharistio. Thanksgiving. Charis. Grace. Chara. Joy…
Thanksgiving, grace, joy. Eucharisteo.”
And then there’s hard eucharisteo. Ann Voskamp describes it as the hard discipline to lean into the ugly…the hard times… and still be able to give thanks, find joy, find grace.
So that is a challenge…a huge challenge for me… to always look for the eucharisteo in everything. Not just what I like, not just what makes me happy, not ignoring or avoiding the ugly things in life. But to still see God’s love and purpose, to still have grace, joy and thanksgiving in the hard times, in the struggles we deal with day in and day out. I want grace, joy and thanksgiving to take over the condemnation or blaming of others, disapproval, selfishness. SELF. It’s not supposed to be about me. It’s supposed to be about Jesus inside of me. That’s the way Jesus saw things while walking on this earth..He saw the people inside, in their hearts…in their situations…and he saw them with eucharisteo…as he continues to today. He went through temptations, sorrow and physical, emotional and spiritual pain…yet still had eucharisteo.
Oh what a dare… to try to have eucharisteo…all the time. I can only imagine being able to do that unless I’m leaning on Jesus. But two of my hard eucharisteos are…
#108 …trusting God in ALL situations.
#109 …dying to SELF so I can live through Christ.
But I believe a good way to reach and grasp for those hard eucharisteos is to practice gratutude. And as I tell our children often, you can never become better at something unless you practice. So, I’ll continue this practice…and perservere…all to thank God for His gift of Life.
“Counting one thousand gifts means counting the hard things as gifts — otherwise I’ve miscounted.” -AV
What about you?
My friend just introduced me to this beautiful word... enjoyed reading your spin on it!
ReplyDeleteI'm taking the joy dare this year, but do not have the book so wasn't sure what eucharisteo meant... I am a lover of words too" so I absolutely loved this in depth look at it. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteThanks...your entry really helped me. I also did not know what the word meant so of course I was unsure what to be looking for!
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