eucharisteo

Time is of the essence. It is a vapor that fills the air in a matter of seconds, and is gone the next. Time is a treasure that no one can seem to capture. Many pursue it, but lose sight of its key -- its purpose. We live in a sanctuary of time... and yet allow days - hours - minutes - seconds - to pass without any intention of savoring. There are many who search for ways to stop it. Others seek to fast forward -- to kill it -- in whatever way possible.

What is this key to treasuring time? How do we exercise the practice of living in the moment?
Eucharisteo: thanksgiving.
Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts, received a challenge to write down one thousands things that she was thankful for...
          1. Morning shadows across the wood floors
          37. Windmills droning in day's last breeze
          119. Still warm cookies
          245. Bare toes in early light
... Ann writes that she "speaks [writes] God's graces into visibility." The more she looks for grace and writes down what she is thankful for, the more she sees God's hand in each moment.

Recognizing that each gift is part of His steadfast love and grace, is what causes us to treasure life -- to treasure time. Our life and focus is challenged to be seekers of beauty... seekers of grace. To find joy in the mundane! "Joy is the realist reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy."

I've taken this challenge to live fully - to be "happy in all these little things that God gives. Ridiculously happy..." I now have a book that is carried with me at all times, where I document God's graces in my life. This list of gifts that is being created allows me to think upon His goodness - and this pleases Him most! In my state of reflection, my soul is filled with a grateful heart, a heart of joy. There is nothing more profitable. ...and I am so undeserving of all of it.

Eucharisteo -- "And [Jesus] took the bread, gave thanks (eucharisteo), and broke it, and gave it to them." ...gave thanks. It has become my life song. "A dare to live fully." We are called to thank God in every moment - as Christ did, even to the point of death. Giving thanks in every moment allows us to dwell in joy, to eliminate a spirit of ingratitude and selfishness... to pursue a life of abandon... the life of Christ.

One more thought to chew on...
"Calm. Haste makes waste. Life is not an emergency. Life is brief and it is fleeting, but it is not an emergency. I pick up a coat and thank God for the arms that can do it. Emergencies are sudden, unexpected events - but is anything under the sun unexpected to God?... Stay calm, enter the moment, give thanks... And I can always gives because an all-powerful God has all these things - all things - always under control. I breathe deep and He preaches to me, soothing the time-frenzied soul with the grace river in whisper."

eucharisteo

SDG