Eucharisteo

Eucharisteo - a Greek verb meaning to be grateful, to feel thankful, to give thanks.

I am on a journey this year to practice eucharisteo in everything. In the latter part of 2010 I realized my desperate need to grow in gratefulness - not just in the good (that's the easier part) but in the difficult, frustrating, disappointing and hurtful things. To be sure I am not alone in struggling to be thankful for these seemingly undesireable things.

Yet I wonder, are they "undesireable"? At first glance yes but upon further investigation the undesireables are actually necessary and even good.

Have you ever considered what it would be like to be blind like the men in Matthew 9:27-31? To have the faith to be healed and then to see for the very first time? Can you imagine how overwhelming that experience must have been?

Or how about Saul (in Acts 9) who was on the road to Damascus fully able to see being struck blind for a time? As he obeyed the word of the Lord he received his sight again.

In both of these cases, the blindness was physical and faith was the key to the cure. I can only imagine how these men were forever changed by the power of receiving their sight. Greater than that, they met with Christ. Their healing was greater than physical, it reached into the depths of their souls.

Blindness is not limited to the physical realm, it is a very real malady in the spiritual realm. Blindness ranges from limited vision to completely eliminating vision. It impairs perspective and our ability to interact with the world around us properly.

On the "undesireable" side we are blind and in need of a Savior, a Healer - yet because of that "undesireable" state we are brought to the "good"- the recognition that we need a Savior, a Healer. Without blindness we risk missing the beauty, the gift of seeing. This brings us to the good side, being given sight and healing to our broken, bleeding hearts and souls. So you see that it is really just 2 sides to the same coin, the "undesireable" and the "good" working together to give us more perfect sight.

What undesireable am I facing today?

How can I "see" the good in it, the healing, the grace, the purpose in it?

For what good is God working all of those difficult, frustrating, disappointing and hurtful things in my life? (Romans 8:27-29)

Am I willing to completely trust Him that He is good and the He will be faithful to complete the work which He has begun in me? (Philippians 1:5-7)

Will I yield to His perfect plan for my life and all that the plan might require? Even (or especially) the "undesireables" ?

I agree wholeheartedly with the apostle Paul when he says:
"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:12-14