The Shack

First off, this is a fictional story.  It has allegorical tones to it.  It is a combination of great imagination, intertwined with rich Biblical knowledge and VERY profound wisdom.

Some people are having knee jerk reactions to it. Concerning such people, I don’t believe that most of them have really read it.  The character that is manifest as God the Father, is a woman.  That’s all some people need to hear.  Their walls go up and they prematurely cast their accusations based solely on a judgment that lacks knowledge.

At the end of the book, the character that is manifest as God the Father, is a man.  Same character, but manifest differently in different parts of the book.  Is God a man?  Is God a woman?  Is God neither?  We do know, that we are created (both man and woman) in the image of God.  To stumble over this one point, is to miss the huge blessing that is present in this book.

The author, William P. Young, has a solid grip of what it means to think rightly about God.  Most of us are stumbling in life, because we don’t know how to think about God rightly.  We ascribe all kinds of motivations and expectations upon Him that just simply aren’t there.  We falsely integrate our understanding of law and justice into the relationship we are called to Have with Him.  By means of a very engaging story, Young has opened my eyes afresh, to see and understand what it means to live as one who is loved, and how being loved should give me victory over so many of the things that deceptively bring bondage into my life.

Here are some segments that stood out to me.

“Or, if you want to go just a wee bit deeper, we could talk about the nature of freedom itself.  Does freedom mean that you are allowed to do shatever you want to do?  Or we could talk about all the imiting influences in your life that actively work against your freedom.  Your family genetic heritage, your specific DNA, your metabolic uniqueness, the quantum stuff taht is going on at a subatomic level where only I am the always present observer.  Or the intrustion of your soul’s sickness that inhibits and binds you, or the social influences around you, or the habits that have created synaptic bonds and pathways in your brain.  And then there’s advertising, propaganda, and paradigms.  Inside that confluence of multifaceted inhibitors, what is freedom really?”  pg. 95

Most birds were created to fly.  Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around.  You, on the other hand, were created to be loved.  So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. pg. 97

But your choices are also not stronger than My purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome.  pg. 125

You imagine.  Such a powerful ability, the imagination!  That power alone makes you so like Us.  But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster.  If I may prove my case, do you think humans were designed to live in the present or the past or the future? pg. 141  (the idea being, we dwell in the past and present w/our uneducated imagination, and miss out on what God, who is dwelling with us now, wants to do for us.)

“I don’t create institutions-never have, never will.”  (Mack’s response: “What about the institution of marriage?)  “Marriage is not an institution.  It’s a relationship.  Like I said, I don’t create institutions; that’s an occupation for those who want to play God.  So no, I’m not too big on religion, and not very fond of politics or economics either.  And why should I be?  They are hte man-created trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those I care about.  What mental turmoil and anxiety does any human face that is not related to one of those three? pg. 179

“Mackenzie, religion is about having the right answers, and some of their answers are right.  But I am about the process that takes you to the living answer and once you get to Him, He will change you from the inside.  There are a lot of smart people who are able to say a lot of right things from their brain because they have been told what the right answers are, but they don’t know me at all.  So really, how can their answers be right even if they are right, if you understand my drift?  So even though they might be right, they are still wrong.  Pg. 198

But can you clean your face with the same mirror that shows you how dirty you are?  There is no mercy or grace in rules, not even for one mistake.  That’s why Jesus fulfilled all of it for you- so that it no longer has jurisdiction over you.  And the Law that once contained impossible demands-Thou Shall Not…-actually becomes a promise we fulfill in you.  Pg. 202

Those who are afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in them.  Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control.  (Mack’s answer – “Is that why we like the law so much – to give us some control?)  It’s much worse than that.  It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them.  You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge.  Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty.  And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty.  Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.  Pg. 203

Because of Jesus, there is now no law demanding that I bring your sins back to mind.  They are gone when it comes to you and Me, and they run no interference in our relationship.  Pg. 224