My friend recommended the book 1,000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp to me when we met for coffee. I'd been smacked sideways by hard news and was still reeling from all the clergy sexual abuse junk we've been confronted with for the past 2.5 years. I've learned since reading most of Voskamp's book that she certainly has her critics. It seems that the John Piper and John MacArthur fans are offended by her particular used of metaphor and her references to Nouwen and other Catholic writers, whom the critics deem mystics. They've accused Voskamp of being a mystic and a pantheist, to boot. Good grief. What I've seen between the pages of her poetic book is this: The woman clearly loves Jesus. A friend challenged her to think of things for which to be thankful, as Voskamp recognized her propensity toward ingratitude. So, her book was born - and in it she focuses heavily on what she calls "eucharisteo," or gratitude. She knows that both the good and the not-so-good are things for which the believer is to be grateful: "in EVERYTHING give thanks." And in looking for things for which to be grateful, Ann Voskamp was changed.
Clearly, I am, at this stage of my life, struggling to be grateful. I complain a lot. A LOT. Inwardly, outwardly complaining 24/7. In reading 1,000 Gifts I felt shame, but I also felt normal, understood, and inspired. So take that, Voskamp bashers. And now I'm taking up the same gratitude challenge - not the Oprah-like "be grateful for what life has give you" thing but a deep, inward look at my attitude towards God. Is He really good, all the time, as the song goes? If I begin to focus on this, what might happen? Will the Holy Spirit change me, too? I pray yes. I pray that my in-look will alter my out-look in a positive way. My in-look has been very flawed, I think. Skewed. Small. Yet I have His Spirit, which is the antithesis of skewed and small. CSA cannot, canNOT, CANNOT take that from me, and for that, I am eucharisteo.
