One Thousand Gifts

Eucharisteo: Giving Thanks is Ann Voskamp’s take on the ‘Spirituality of Everyday Life’. Ann, a farmer’s wife and mother of six from Western Ontario, is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, published by Zondervan.

In it, she beckons you to leave the parched ground of pride, fear, and white knuckle control. Instead, she suggests you abandon yourself to a generous God of many gifts, a good God.

Ann invites you into her own moments of grace, while she gently teaches you how to lament loss, and turn pain into poetry. She wants you to intentionally embrace a lifestyle of radical gratitude, to slow down and catch God in the moment, to practice his presence.

Here’s a sample of her profound and deeply moving reflections on counting our blessings: “Humbly let go. Let go of trying to do, let go of trying to control, let go of my own way, let go of my own fears. Let God blow His wind, His trials, oxygen for joy’s fire. Leave the hand open and be. Be at peace. Bend the knee and be small and let God give what God chooses to give because He only gives love and whisper a surprised thanks. This is the fuel for joy’s flame. Fullness of joy is discovered only in the emptying of will. And I can empty. I can empty because counting His graces has awakened me to how He cherishes me, holds me, passionately values me. I can empty because I am full of His love. I can trust.”

This book recommendation is brought to you from Dr. Gordon Carkner. Gord, the Director of Graduate & Faculty Campus Ministries, along with his wife Ute love connecting with future global leaders within the graduate student university community. Through hospitality, biblical investigation, prayer and discussions of faith and academic studies, these students are drawn into kingdom concerns and introduced to God's powerful agape love.