As I have pondered what I learned and what I experienced through reading The Shack over the past couple of weeks, I have thought about the great love that our God has for each and every one of us. It is profound, isn't it, that we may have been in the places Mack was: abused by those who are there to protect us, taking care of our own needs, enveloped in the Great Sadness that accompanies the losses of our lives, and judging not only others around us but God himself. Each of us have been in these places to one extent or another, and if you're like me, you have not handled the situations very differently than our friend Mack did in this story.
It is amazing, then, that our Creator has not given up on us in the face of our stupidity. One famous theologian describes our rebellion against the Almighty as a man standing outside yelling at and cursing the sun. While the emotions that we show may be real, they are not necessarily true. When you really think about it, it is kind of silly to think that God is waiting with bated breath to hear your opinion on the way things should be run in his world. As if he needs my opinion to keep the world spinning. That is exactly what Mack was doing in the story and exactly what I do on a day to day basis in the story of my life.
The idea of God, then, revealing himself to Mack is really a beautiful and more true than the allegory of this story may indicate. Doesn't God continually meet us in our places of pain and anger to show himself? Does God not speak through his world and his word on an ongoing basis to tell us to stop making our own judgments and trust his?
What Mack received in this story is a revealing encounter from his Triune Creator. He spoke into Mack's pain and bitterness and gave him wisdom. Is this not how God works? The God of the bible is the One who intervenes into the everyday life of his creation and gives us glimpses of his face so that we can be changed to followers of his ways and partakers of his life. In Psalm 119:135, the psalmist prays "Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees".
It is God's work of revelation that changes us into partakers in his life and followers in his ways. He may not appear to us in the same way he shows up in Mack's story but he is constantly revealing himself to each and everyone of us.
The question is are you looking for God to show himself to you or do you pretty much have this thing figured out on your own?
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Great insight, Casey! I found The Shack to be a refreshing breath of fresh air and think that if The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia were to burst on the scene today, they would be met with similar scoffing and rebuke.
ReplyDeleteWe don't like to talk about pain or the messiness of life and Paul Young deals honestly with all of that in this wonderful little book!
I finished last night, whew, it will take some time for the last third of the book to sink in. So many times I envied Mack getting to have that relationship with our God and Savior only to realize I DO I just don't take advantage of it the way Mack was forced to. I know I'll read it again, but this time i'll make sure It's my copy and I will do lots of highlighting. His conversations on Forgiveness were so revealing, as yuu know, their are some people in my life that I don't want to forgive, nor have they ask for it, in fact they don't think about my "grudge" at all. So now I will be praying and pondering and preparing to really forgive rather than "Not think about it" Good book, amazing concepts,lots to get to work on. Love you
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