Archive for the ‘The Shack’ Category
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 by Paul
A Cabana
Portuguese version of The Shack passes 2 million copies in Brazil in less than two years. Never happened before in Brazillian publishing history. So fun to watch! Wonderful to not be in control!
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 by Paul
The Beauty of Ambiguity (Mystery)
I am back in the warmth of the cabin, watching through the window as early spring rains drench the surrounding landscape, low hanging clouds darkening the day. A late snow is coming, but not quite yet. Even though the fire crackles and snaps as it eats through its main course, I still snuggle deeper into the heaviness of the quilt that Papa left for me. She is soon back with a cup of tea, something that smells of wood and mint and a hint of jasmine. I grin. She knows me best, and whatever it is that she is handing me, I trust.
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 by admin
Fiction, Truth, Reality and all that stuff…
It has been a long day; a lot of walking and talking. Not enough eating if you ask me. These crowds seem to be getting bigger every day especially as the rumors about Jesus have stirred up things. He pays no mind, as if a reputation is nothing of any real value; nothing that required any attention to maintain. So as near I can tell, he has none, but still everyone shows up; as many people as motives.
Me, I tend to stay in the background. Not very fond of the attention we’re getting, so I hang around the fringes; suits me just fine. I’m not one to put myself out there, like some of the others. To be honest, I’m not very brave and not above being disappointed. But here is the strange thing. I don’t know what it is about me, maybe because of my baby face (I’ve never been able to grow a full beard), whatever it is I seem to attract the strange ones. You know the ones, that hang around the fringes of everything that is going on, people who don’t really have the want or nerve to approach Jesus directly. So they seek me out.
Thursday, August 30th, 2007 by admin
More Stories
Venturing out to the edge … of the precipice Staring into the Grand Canyon of Papa’s love, Letting the wind blow in your face the freshness of a breeze whose scents you’ve only barely tasted before You take the risk …it’s time… You take the step …it’s time… You plunge…and suddenly… You are flying…
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 by Paul
Is the story of THE SHACK true…is Mack a ‘real’ person?
This is a continuation, sort of, from The Shack Update – Background #2
Okay, now you have to try and understand how weird this is. I am sitting in Eagle Creek, in a rented house, writing a story for my kids. I am not writing a story that I intend or expect will be published. Actually the thought never even entered my mind. I was going to write this thing as a gift, then go down to Office Depot or Kinkos or somewhere and photoshop a cool cover, put it in a spiral bound book sort of thing, and that would be that.
So, I didn’t have to follow any normal rules about writing something. Actually, I didn’t even really know or care about what the normal rules might be…never thought about it. I wanted my kids to enjoy a story and through the story to understand there own father better and the God that their father is so in love with. I even had this brilliant idea to have Willie (me) ghost-write the story for Mack, and so on my very first Title Page, it said, The Shack, written by Mackenzie Allen Phillips, with William P Young. I thought it was clever and that the kids would get a laugh out of it.
This means that Mack, of course, is not a ‘real’ person. My children would recognize that Mack is mostly me, that Nan is a lot like Kim, my wife, that Missy and Kate and the other characters often resemble our family members and friends. So it was no big deal…until the first version of the loose leaf book sort of ‘got out’ (because people kept passing it to their friends), and I find out that somebody in California and somebody in Canada think seriously about buying plane tickets to come to Oregon to meet and talk to Mack. Now that would have been a little embarrassing, don’t you think? So we removed Mack as the author, but I kept the ghost-writer idea as a story element…which is still causing some problems but not near what could have happened the other way.
Is the story ‘real’? The story is fiction. I made it up. Now, having said that, I will add that the emotional pain with all its intensity and the process that tears into Mack’s heart and soul are very real. I have my ’shack’, the place I had to go through to find healing. I have my Great Sadness…that is all real. And the conversations are very real and true. While Mack experiences some particulars that I have not (the death of my niece the day after her fifth birthday was a horrible accident, but not a murder), there are depths of pain and shame and hopelessness that I have experienced, that Mack did not. And I know people who have suffered exactly what Mack suffers in the story.
So is the story true? The pain, the loss, the grief, the process, the conversations, the questions, the anger, the longing, the secrets, the lies, the forgiveness…all real, all true. The story in particular… fiction… but…. Then there is God who emerges so very real and true, unexpected and yet not unexpected, but surprising and…
So… is all this real? Is all this true? I suppose each of us has to decide for ourselves, don’t we?
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 by Paul
The Shack – update – Background #2
Continued from Background #1 (May Archive)
So…I am riding the Max for 40 minutes each way from Gresham, OR to downtown Portland where I was working. This is during Feb – April 2005, and I start taking yellow legal pads and joting down ‘conversations’. Remember, I am thinking about writing this for my kids, so I am searching for a good vehicle to communicate through. I figure a good story would be great…but I didn’t have one. So I started with what I did have…conversations. So, off and on, for about three months I wrote down conversations; conversations that I was having with God mostly, but which often included friends or family.
You gotta understand something…I had not plan here. In fact, when I first even thought about this project, all I could think about was doing a sort of dictionary of rambling opinions…you know, ‘A’ for Astronomy, and Art, and Aristotle, and Anarchy, and Adultery, and Absolutes, and Anti-nomianism…anything that I had an opinion about…don’t laugh. Actually, it is quite funny…looking back. But I was pretty serious about trying to do something systematic and organized…make my kids proud. 
But as soon as I got into these ‘conversations’ all that systematic stuff fell away. I became enamored with these unrelated and intriguing conversations. At one point I was going to call this little book for my kids, ‘Conversations with God’, but then I found out somebody had already written that book and even turned it into a movie. For me these conversations were alive and I found myself waking up in the middle of the night and writing down scraps of dialogue. More often than not, when I looked at those bits and pieces in the morning I couldn’t make heads or tails of what I had written down and it usually made no sense at all…but I remembered vaguely that it had been soooo cool!
So, in May, 2005 I had a few yellow pads pretty much filled up and a whole bunch of scraps of paper; edges of newspapers, parts of napkins (serviettes for you cultured folk), backs of grocery store receipts etc. I was a little concerned that a good wind could blow it all away and so I decided that I needed to input my notes into the computer.
The first Saturday I started working on inputting was the first time I decided that a ’story’ would be the right vehicle for these conversations. I didn’t have one (a story), but I thought it was a great idea. So I began to create characters in situations that would allow my conversations to occur. These conversations were very ‘real’ to me, buried in the experiences and processes of my life…mostly over the last fifteen years.
This ends this particular background blog…I am actually going to pick up the story, sort of, in another blog called "Is the Story of THE SHACK true…is Mack a real person?" Then I will come back and pick up things where this and that blog leave off.
Thursday, July 26th, 2007 by Paul
The Shack – Responses Part II
Hi everyone,
I have been laying a little low with regard to blogging lately…still trying to upgrade my site (getting there)…eagerly awaiting our first two grandbabies (within the next 1-4 weeks, most likely)…moving the business I work for to a new location (finally settled in and phones and Internet are working)…general fun and relationships…summer stuff.
Thought you might to look over my shoulder a bit again and watch grace unfold in small wonderful unveilings:
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 by Paul
Ellul, The Shack and Theodicy
For those of you who don’t know ‘theology-speak’, the term ‘theodicy’ deals generally with the question, "How can a Good God and an Evil World, co-exist?" This is actually one of the central themes in The Shack - Mack finds himself in a situation that screams that question.
A few weeks ago, I ran across the following. I quote one of my all-time favorite authors, Jacques Ellul, who fell asleep a few years ago, but not before he wrote some of the most profound insights I have ever read. I should warn you though…if you decide to delve into some of his work, it is rather like slogging through wet concrete – very slow going because of the weight of his intellect and the translation issues from French to English – but if you persist, you will find diamonds everywhere.
He writes (and I quote this at length because of the wealth of thought it contains);
"Man is so much the prey of the powers, so closely associated with their work, enjoys himself so thoroughly to their profit, desires so much all that they offer, conceives his life to such a degree separated from God, that every approach of God, every positive work of God, appears to him as an unacceptable disturbance and finally an attack against him. When God comes to deliver him, he does not at all perceive his liberation; he protests against the breaking of those marvelous objects, which are his chains or the doors of his prison: the adoored chains. This is clearly the situation of Man."
"And we must take account of the fact that every work of liberation (the process of freeing us) is in fact destructive of the evil environment. And that which assures his liberty is felt by Man asa frightful personal offense. "How can God who is good permit…?" In uttering this phrase so grequently, Man does not envisage for a minute, first of all, that the evil deed is most often the result of the liberty that God allows to Man and of the independence and autonomy that man has seized over against God. Man is responsible for what is done (and he has wished it), but he protests against God for what is done. In short, he would demand that God mechanize him and take his liberty from him."
"Next, that evil also takes place by the interplay of the spiritual powers who act in the world and in society. Finally, that which does ‘evil’ to him can very well be the act of God who liberates him. But this liberation causes suffering. I don not know anything better to compare this to than to an operation. The surgeon who takes out a cnacer destroys the power of death to the profit of the living body. But he removes something of this body, which had become "flesh of his flesh’; he amputates something which had become the body itself. And the patient who does not know what has been done, from what he has been saved, could perfectly well interpret that as a frightful torture, as an illegitimate extracion, being aware only of the pain that remains after the operation is finished."
If you have already read The Shack, you will understand why this relates so well. In the book, I quote my favorite musician, Bruce Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn – which will probably be a relief to some of you), when he sings:
"Though chains be of gold…they are chain all the same."
In another song, Dweller by a Dark Stream, he sings:
" It could have been me put the thorns in your crown
Rooted as I am in a violent ground
How many times have I turned your promise down
Still you pour out your love…Pour out your love
I was a dweller by a dark stream
A crying heart hooked on a dark dream
In my convict soul I saw your love gleam
And you showed me what you’ve done…Jesus, thank-you joyous Son
You entered a life like ours to give us back our own
You wanted us like you, as choosers not clones
You offered up your flesh and death was overthrown
Now salvation is ours…Salvation is ours
I was a dweller by a dark stream
A crying heart hooked on a dark dream
In my convict soul I saw your love gleam
And you showed me what you’ve done…Jesus, thank-you joyous Son
So I’m walking this prison camp world
I long for a glimpse of the new world unfurled
The chrysalis cracking and moistened wings uncurl
Like in the vision John saw…The vision John saw
I was a dweller by a dark stream
A crying heart hooked on a dark dream
In my convict soul I saw your love gleam
And you showed me what you’ve done…Jesus, thank-you joyous Son"
-willie
Sunday, June 24th, 2007 by Paul
The Shack – some responses
Sometimes I get notes from people who would rather stay anonymous but still grant me permission to post their thoughts – I am very grateful, and want to be both sensitive with them and generous with you…
This is all about the grace that is pursuing us all, to the praise of his glory.
Here are a few recent ones:
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It helped– a lot
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I didn’t put this in my comment yesterday, but I want you to know that The Shack has been really instrumental in helping me forgive someone that I’ve been angry towards for years. I’ve prayed for so long that God would help me forgive that person, and I never felt like I could. While reading The Shack, I realized that that person is special and so loved by God, and I started feeling the anger in me drain away. I now think of that person with affection, which I never thought could be possible. How Sarayu works! This truly is a miracle.
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Ist off , I am still having a hard time with the book … so many places you confirmed what God has been speaking to me in the past year … weird … and not only that , but in the early 80’s the Lord gave me an unexpected and quite scary vision , that to this day seemed like an acid trip of some sort , but then , after reading the book , it makes more sense … the book had many similarities of that vision … 2 months ago , I had written some things to my son that you covered “exactly” almost to the word … which I told him I was hard pressed to Theologically prove , but was certain of … and again , I was overwhelmed to read the same experiences … I wished I could say that all this has had an overnite change in me … but I am still struggling to live life … as most days it would seem to be to my advantage to go home and give up the struggle …… Thank you very much for sharing your life with me …It leaves me with a lot more answered questions … which for some reason … raise even more questions , if you know what I mean … and , so , here we are … somewhere in the middle , wishing daily for a closer walk with Jesus … learning to trust Him in all things … feeling so alone most days … yet knowing that Christ is there always… thank you thank you thank you
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Hi, I just listened to the podcast on Waynes sight and heard your story. It touched me deeply and gave me hope! I am in the middle of a process much like yours. Being abused as a young child, I have lived behind my “lies” as a safety net also, but my Father is so loving, He is slowly revealing to me the lies, so I can let them go, and let Him and my family embrace me. It is a very “prickly” time now, especially when I can’t “let” my husband “in” because of the lies. He is very understanding, but it’s painful for him also. I can teach, preach, counsel others and give out, but not really recieve in.
Thank you for sharing your journey alittle, It helped me to know freedom is coming as I just keep facing it with Him! I loved the poem about the wind also, wow you put it into words what my heart is for all of them, My Father, His Son and His Spirit. It’s amazing through all the pain, He placed such a burning for Him in our hearts! I love HIm, and can’t wait to let Him in more and His family in too.
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Oh my goodness, what a story!- Wayne sent us "The Shack" – we got 4 copies. One has disappeared to my friend; my 18yr olddaughter is reading one;my 16yr old son another;& my husband the other one! Thankfully I got to read one first before they all disappeared. I wanted to cry (and I did) so much as I read it; there are so many goodies in it, so I plan to reread it as soon as a book emerges again. And of course, I will have to get some more to give away!
The only thing my "religious" side of me struggled with was "Papa"! I could see it, and yet, my religious hackles rose up! How could Papa look like a woman??? Sigh………….it’s good to have stuff in me exposed to the light! I’ve just never thought of that before. So thank you.
I’m finding I’m chatting to Dad during the day, and in my heart of hearts, I’m calling him "Daddy", and that’s kind of cool.
To see people coming into more freedom from reading this book – wahoo! I’m in!
thank you thank you!
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I appreciate your book and some of the teaching in the conversations are still sinking in . Over the last couple of days since I finished the book I feel a weight gone from me as I consider that I am not under responsibility or expectation. I am to "be" as Christ lives through me. I have over the last few years considered and tried to apply the New Covenant teaching that I am not under Law, but the way you put it has made a fresh, powerful impact on me.
many thanks,
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Thank you, too, Papa.
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For more responses to The Shack, explore the comments section.
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 by Paul
If Anything Matters…Everything Matters!
"If anything matters… everything matters" – comes from the conversation in The Shack in which Mack is wondering (as he anticipates his return to ‘real’ life), if what he does in his day-to-day experience even truly matters (has any significance). I think there are a lot of us who wonder that, especially in a world that reduces individuals to numbers and statistics. What is significant about the daily routine of getting up, going to work, cleaning the house, making meals, doing laundry, changing diapers etc.? In addition, there is such a drive for performance, especially in religious circles, but also in the culture at large, that the question easily morphs a little into, "Does what I do matter enough (to God, to others, to the expectations of others etc.)?" Like any legalism, the answer is inevitably ‘no’, failure is just around the corner.
In my opinion, one of the most fundamental lies resides at the core of this issue, and that is, "Significance is related to Doing (Performance)". In the world, ‘respect’ is linked to significance and significance is linked to performance. Furthermore, rewards and punishments are linked to performance and the world is a competitive place where people use any means to fight for their piece of the pie of significance and attending rewards. This ‘lie’ is a monstrous controlling power whose influence seeps into virtually every relationship and activity. If we can get to the core of this issue in our lives as human beings, I think we would find that most of us believe that this ‘lie’ is the truth, and in fact ‘want’ it to be true. Most people cannot imagine an existence where this ‘lie’ was not a dominating and controlling factor of life. It is almost as if this were not true, people would live uncontrollable lives and chaos would ensue; so it is better to embrace the lie than take the risks involved in any sort of movement toward freedom.
The truth is this: "Significance originates from ‘being’, not from doing." Doing adds nothing to our significance and doing takes nothing away. Doing is directly related, not to significance, but is largely an expression of who we think we are. "As a person thinks in their heart, so are they (so they will act)." Because we are already significant, our choices and actions matter. It is not the choices that make us significant, it is our significance that make our choices meaningful. Every human being is significant by nature. They are imprinted with the very image of God, they are each the center of God’s love and goodness. True significance is individually wrapped up in the uniqueness of each person and each one being created in the image of God, regardless of what Madison Ave says, or how an individual may be damaged or broken.
There is a HUGE difference in living from the truth or from the lie; between seeing every activity as an expression of significance (the truth) or to live in the lie and try to ’suck’ out of every activity some transitory sense of significance. It is easy to see that the latter is totally an ethic of performance. As a result of the truth, the activity that each of us is involved in has significance; what we do ‘matters’ regardless of what it is.
God is not significant because of what God ‘does’, but because of who God ‘is’. God does not get more significant by activity, but because God is significant, what God does ‘matters’. We are made in this same image. We are so significant that even each hair of our heads is important to God.
To take this one step further…because we are each significant and what we do ‘matters’, we can each through our significance indwelt by the ‘Significant One’ change the universe by the way we love and see and hear and listen and speak etc. ‘Doing’ is simply walking in the present tense relationship with God that we are growing in, facing whatever it is that is in front of us today, and making choices or responding or being still or…
Jesus spent 30 years ‘doing’ nothing (as the world would understand it), but the first thing we hear about him out of his Father’s mouth is how pleased Father is of His boy. Did Jesus become significant because of the next three years? Nope. He was already significant.
To begin to think this way is no small change…it is the movement from one universe to another
