The Shack

The Shack  by William P. Young is a book that we have been reading.  It is a compelling story that grabs you from the very beginning.  Although it is fiction, the entire novel is filled with theology on God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.  The main character Mackenzie is willing to ask questions of God that one often only dares whisper.  The answers he receives are not only timely for our lives but also relevant to almost any situation one would find themselves.  By the end of the story I found that it had really been a journey to the depths and heart of God.  It’s amazing how easily and quickly we put God in a box.  The Shack was a refreshing reminder that he is bigger than anything we can try to fathom.  One of the themes throughout the book is our human desire for independence and where that ultimately takes us.  A favorite quote is “…Return from your independence, Mackenzie.  Give up being his judge and know Papa for who he is.  Then you will be able to embrace his love in the midst of our pain, instead of pushing him away with your self-centered perception of how you think the universe should be.  Papa has crawled inside of your world to be with you…”  If you find yourself desiring to know God for who he really is instead of for who you’ve made him be, this is the read for you!

 

Thoughts on God

Here’s some things to think about from one of our favorite authors George MacDonald. We’d love your thoughts….

“But all is man’s only because it is God’s. The true possession of anything is to see and feel in it what God made it for, and the uplifting of the soul by that knowledge is the joy of true having. The Lord had no land of his own: his pupils must not care for things he did not care for. He had no place to lay his head–had not even a grave of his own. Once he sent a fish to fetch him money, but only to pay a tax. He even had to borrow the few loaves and little fishes from a boy with which to feed his five thousand.”

“We are here but pilgrims and strangers. God did not make the world to be dwelt in but to be journeyed through. We must not love it as he did not mean we should. If we do, he may have great trouble and we must hurt before we are set free from that misplaced love.”

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it.”

George MacDonald

One of our favorite authors is George MacDonald. He is missional in his thinking and writings. I was just reading his “The Highlander’s Last Song” and came across this prayer that not only touched me, but challenged me as well. I’d love your thoughts…

“O God, let my mother see that you are indeed truehearted; that you do not give us life by bits and pieces but abundantly; that you do not make men in order to assert your dominion over them, but that they may partake of your life. O God, have pity on me when I cannot understand, and teach me as you would a little earthly son you would carry in your arms. When pride rises in me and I feel as if I ought to walk about without your hand, then think of me and I shall know that I cannot live or think without your self-willing life. Help me to know that I am because you are, that I have no wisdom or insight of my own, that all life exists because you have breathed your being into it. Without your eternity in us, we are so small that we think ourselves great, and are thus miserably contemptible. You alone are true! Make me and my brother strong to be the very men you would have us, as your brothers, Christ, the children of your Father. You are our perfect brother-perfect in love, in courage, in tenderness. Amen, Lord! I am yours!”

So may it be for us as well!