The Shack

I awoke today feeling blah-ish. The school week was okay, with highs and lows, and I had discipleship this week, which was fun too. So as I sat here this morning attempting to blog, I just felt down. A whole Saturday with nothing to do, noone to hang out with...I was down. I could sit here and ramble about the things in my head that I'm trying to make sense of in my life these days, (which I started to do this morning and walked away from the computer instead) but I don't see how that would be interesting for you as a reader. You don't read this to be brought down, you read it to be lifted up. Or at least, that's why I think you read this...otherwise, why are you reading this? So, I found myself with my nose in a book. I know, I know, you're shocked to hear this.

I was actually at church a couple weeks ago and one of the gals leading our Women's Retreat mentioned a book to me. She asked me if I had read it, and told me that it would be the focus of our Women's Retreat next month. I told her I would read it, and she warned me it was a bit controversial. I didn't actually hear what was controversial about it at the time, as we had to go lead worship that morning, but I have to admit, my curiousity had been aroused.

So, this week one of my teacher friends loaned me "The Shack" by William P. Young. She had told me that it was actually her Mother's copy, but her Mom started it and said she couldn't read it. Teacherfriend went on to say she wanted to read it, but not for a while because she had other stuff to read. She handed me the book with her name in it, and left my room.

I just finished it. And, I will say, it has impacted me greatly. I wound up underlining and making notes throughout the book. (I'm buying Teacherlady a new copy tomorrow, of course.) I understand what the controversy is about, and why some people can't make it through the book. I think it's like anything else, say a book or movie, some people are impacted by some things that others are not. I imagine that's a God thing, but I don't want to get into that just yet. I have had a belief for a long time that you can be impacted positively by things, even if you have to look for it.

This book really grabbed me. It spoke to my heart about LOVE (A GREAT DEAL about love), forgiveness, anger, tears, and making sense out of our broken world. I will be praying about things that have impacted me in the days to come. And while I believe that the story is real, I can see where some may not believe it. And, that's okay. At least in my mind it's okay.

People get tripped up a lot in whether or not a story is really real, or if it was just made up. That doesn't matter to me. I just know that I feel closer to God tonight than I've felt in months. God can use anything, I really believe that, and this book is what he used to speak to me.

I've been spiritually dry for quite a while now. I didn't know how to get past it. Should I pray more? Read my bible more? Hang out with my "spiritual" friends more? I knew that none of those were THE ANSWER. I knew they would help, but it wouldn't be a quick fix.

And then I was reminded today that sometimes you just have to wait on God. Since God knows what we need and when we need it, it's just important to live in the now and not worry about the past for the future. (yes, I got that from the book)

Anyway, now I'm going into the book and I want to encourage YOU to read it. Do I think EVERYONE will just LOVE this book? I doubt it. It's like anything else, what I was impacted by, you may not be. And that's okay. The book is full of DEEP Spiritual stuff, that I LOVE. I love to go deep and try to get the deeper meanings out of this little journey called life. It also has some plain, obvious, really practical applications that will help us in this journey.

So, I encourage you to read it and make your own assessment of the book. Just do me a favor, okay? If you hate it, don't tell me. It has impacted me positively, and that's all that really matters to me at the moment. If you let it, it will lift you up and bring you to a deeper sense of who you are and are created to be. And that my friend, in my opinion, is worth reading the book.