Saturday, December 10, 2011

One Thousand Gifts

Some of my thoughts as I work through Ann Voskamp's wonderful book. I think more posts will come from this soon. For now though, a few things I want to chew on for a while.
  • Will I have lived fully - or just empty?
  • How do we live fully so we are fully ready to die? Isn't it here? The wonder? Why do I spend so much of my time living hours struggling to see it? Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with blinding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur? The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here. Who has time or eyes to notice?
  • With an expiration of less than 12 hours, what does Jesus count as all most important? "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them..." (Luke 22:19)
  • As long as thanks is possible, joy is possible.
  • "The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live... He has penetrated the whole mystery of life: giving thanks for everything." --Albert Schweitzer
  • 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? And too... its the most common of foods, bread. The drink of the vine has been part of our meal taking across centuries and cultures. Jesus didn't institute the Eucharist around some unusual, rare, once-a-year event, but around this continual act of eating a slice of bread, drinking a cup of fruit from the vine.
  • Sozo means salvation. It means true wellness, complete wholeness. To live sozo is to live the full life. 
  • Thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever He gives. 
  • Eucharisteo, the Greek word with the hard meaning and the harder meaning to live - this is the only way from empty to full. 
  • "Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." --Sarah Ban Breathnach
  • "When one is thirsty one quenches one's thirst by drinking, not be reading books which treat of this condition." --Jean Pierre de Caussade
  • "I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little." --Philippians 4:11-12
  • "When I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me."

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