i am an avid reader...i have been known to read a book in a day...but on the average...i read one to two books a week...there are many books that have affected me in one way or another...but never never have i been so affected as with the last book that i have read...next to the bible...
i just finished reading "the shack" by wm. paul young...it was recommended to me by a friend...but i forgot about it...and then one day while at target...i saw it sitting there...and decided to grab it...
"the shack" is a fictional story about a man faced with tragedy and his opinions of where God is in a world so filled with pain that is unexplainable...
this is the first book ever...that the minute i finished the last page...all i wanted to do was start reading the book again...it impacted me in ways i will never be able to fully explain. the story gave such an incredible visual picture in portraying the God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
i lost count at how many times i heard myself say "wow" (out loud) after reading a sentence...i laughed, cried, and truly saw how at times it is so easy to put the Lord in this nice little package we have created in our minds...and how we limit in our minds and hearts who God truly is...and His amazing love and mercy to a world that is so undeserving.
in a world full of pain and sorrow...leaving us so many times with situations that leave us asking why - i am realizing how much we are shielded - things that we want so badly to understand...but do not realize that we really could not handle understanding the true meaning behind everything that happens...i believe that life would be a lot simpler if we just accepted what is, instead of trying to fit it into our preconceived notions of what should be.
one of the hardest things to grasp is the harshness in this world...and knowing that God does not cause them...but He certainly can stop them...and grasping with that knowledge...realizing that there are reasons beyond our human eyes...to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to stop it...but it is something that we may never understand with our human eyes. God is not evil...we are the ones that make choices in life...but our choices are not stronger than His purposes...and that ultimately God will use every choice we make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome. the means, the ends, and all the processes of our individual lives...it is all covered by His goodness...and even though we do not understand what He is doing...we need only to trust Him.
all that the Father wants from us is relationship. for us to trust Him completely with every area of our life...even when we look at it...and see nothing...nothing that makes sense...nothing that is the way we had envisioned it...just to trust Him...
and one step further...to then work on relationships in our lives...to be loving with the same love He shares with us...to realize that it is not our job to change anyone, to convince anyone...to simply love without an agenda...
this book highlighted living a life of expectancy rather than expectation (there is a vast difference between the two), true forgiveness, and relationship...having relationship with the Lord as well as those in our life with no expectation...
"the shack" is a beautiful story of how God comes to find us wherever we are in the midst of our sorrows and disappointments. He finds us where we are when we have been betrayed by our own expectations of life...He doesn't push...He patiently waits for us to turn to Him and then He takes us and lovingly protects us.
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