The Shack

   So I realized recently that I am kind of a nerd.  I already knew I was weird but when my mama posted the blog about books I noticed that I am always reading something.  I never thought about how much I really love to read before.  So I decided that I would make a list of all the books I wanted to read this year. I didn't count the twilight books that I already read in a week(I made the list after so I didn't think that was fair).  So the first one on my list was called "The Shack".  It's a great book and seeing that most of us, I believe, have a relationship with our Lord Jesus. I thought you all might like to read it and know what it's about.  I think it was a fantastic book that really paints a picture on how I view God and it's not very long at all.  I'm use to ready like 700 page books so this is a breeze with only 246 pages.  What is it about? Here you go.  Mackenzie Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, had been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in a abandoned shack deep within the wilderness. Four years later, in the mist of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to the shack for a weekend. Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question "Where is God in a world filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You will want everyone you know to read this book

So here is a little bit from Chapter 8- This about half way through the book.

 "And now," Sarayu(holy spirit) interjected,"we have come full circle, back to one of my initial statements: you humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that relationship could exist apart from hierarchy. So you think that God must relate inside a hierarchy like you do. But we do not." 

"But how could we ever change that? People will just use us."

"They most likely will but we aren't asking you to do it with others, Mack.  We are asking you to do it with us.  That's the only place it can start. We won't use you."

"Mack" Papa(God) said with an intensity that caused him to listen very cafefully, "we want to share with you the love and joy and light and freedom that we already know within ourself. We created you, the human, to be in a face-to-face relationship with us, to join our circle of love. As difficult as it will be for you to understand, everything that has taken place is occurring exactly according to this purpose, without violating choice or will." 

"How can you say that with all the pain in this world, all the wars and disasters that destroy thousands?" Mack's voice quieted to a whisper. "And what is the value in a little girl be murdered by some twisted deviant?" There is was again, the question that lay burning in his soul. " You may not cause those things, but you certainly don't stop them."

"Mackenzie" Papa answered tenderly, seemingly not offended in the least by his accusation, "there are millions of reason to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to eradicate it them, but most of those reasons can only be understood within each person's story. I am not evil. You are the ones who embrace fear and pain and power and rights stronger than my purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and most loving outcome."

"One last comment," Mackenzie added, turning back. "I just can't imagine any final outcome that would justify all this."

"Mackenzie," Papa rose out of her chair and walked around the table to give him a big squeeze. "We're not justifying it. We are redeeming it."