Living Life to the Fullest (3-Point Series) - #1 Eucharisteo

Summer.

For us kids, it’s equivalent to sleep, food, and electronics. To parents, the word acquires a whole new meaning for their teenagers. “Summer” is supposed to represent cramming for the PPSAT months ahead, spending traumatic hours at the steering wheel, and scrutinizing books like “How to Study Like a Smart Student”. At least for my parents. Maybe it’s an Asian thing? Anyway.

For me, summer compared to the average school year is almost like total, absolute freedom versus a concentration camp. Slightly exaggerated, okay, but the free time allowance is basically all of 3 months or otherwise 92 days, 2,208 hours, 132,480 minutes, or 7,948,800 seconds. And what do you do? What do you do when someone hands you almost all 8 million seconds?

Like beforehand, I drafted this entire list. This summer, I want to do this. And this. And this. And when summer actually plops its luggage down before my front door, I sprawl on the couch and play Candy Crush Saga. Hey, it’s finger exercise and hand-eye coordination at the same time. Don’t judge.

But in all seriousness, what is this? How do I actually dare myself to live and come breathe again and truly savor life? How do I actually begin to see each second’s potential?

So I came up with three ways of living this summer and this life we have on earth to the fullest. Using each second for the utmost. The first point. Deep breath. Here we go.

1. Eucharisteo. Greek. To be thankful. To feel thankful. To give thanks.

Not only for the gigantic, undeserved blessings like Jesus, church, family, food, health. But for the miniscule details that so often become overlooked. Finding a bird’s feather lining in the yard. The slip of hot tea down a sore throat. Complements. Achy muscles. The sunlight’s energy visibly bouncing off the leaves. Dry grass crunching under my yard shoes. It’s the little things that matter. The 1000 things.

After all, practicing eucharisteo for the little things enables us to give thanks for the big things.

Recently I picked up the book 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Pretty incredible. Not the easiest read, but it’s beautiful. Ann writes about how eucharisteo can cause appreciation in each moment, allowing us to see even the tiniest blessings. And it truly opened my eyes to the hidden God-given gifts floating through time and space, encompassing each blessing-wreathed moment in time.

After actively searching for His blessings in disguise, our eyes can become trained to seek His goodness.

I just started my 1000 list. Slowly commemorating the God-gifts from each day, until I have a thousand all lined up down the page. Every day I take two minutes to jot down a couple gifts. And they’re simple things really. Tylenol. Laughter. Sunshine. Feeling the pages flip through your fingers. Simple, simple pleasures. But all of a sudden, they just pop out at you in random corners through the everyday dullness, and each moment truly becomes alive.

When you finally perceive His goodness and His beauty and His gifts in each brief second, then are you truly alive.

Too often we stumble through this life as perpetual corpses, dead to God’s gifts and His goodness and His beauty.

Thanksgiving allows us to truly live, to see God in each second. In this summer. In this year. In this life.

So I encourage you to start a list. Start counting the little things. It will make a difference.