http://salemhouseofprayer.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/the-real-controversy-about-the-shack-by-kim-gentes/

but what really got my attention was a brilliant comment to the blog by an ‘unbeliever’, followed by an equally insightful response to that comment, both of which are posted below.  Enjoy!

My name is Aram and I just finished reading The Shack. I then went online and happened across a bunch of people arguing about it, for what looks like a few years now. People are calling this a heresy, a dangerous book, and warning people not to read it.
Why?
I normally never comment on these things, but being an unbeliever – yes that’s right, I am not a Christian – I thought it might be useful for some of these theology spouting authorities to take a moment and look at what I, not a churchgoer in any way, have gleaned from this little book. And then ask yourself – because I really don’t know much about the Bible – is anything I learned leading me in the wrong direction? Perhaps all the way to this burning lake of fire so many Christians love trying and scare non-Christians into believing by? If this is the case, then I guess you’re right, and based on what you believe people shouldn’t read this book.
For me, I don’t believe fear and rules to be the answer, I never have. This has been the main reason for my avoidance of the church. However, when you preach love and forgiveness, through whatever means conveys it the best, whether fiction or otherwise, well now, my heart begins to open a tad. It makes me actually want to pick up a Bible perhaps and maybe read a little further.
Teach love my Christian friends, because people like me, we don’t respond well to fear tactics. And we definitely don’t get turned on by arrogant church leaders who think they have it all figured out.
Below are 57 new ideas I took away from this little book. Many are direct quotes from the book itself.

1. The different appearances of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were used to help Mack break his religious conditioning.

2. You don’t get brownie points for doing something through obligation; only if you want to.

3. Life takes a lot of time and a lot of relationship.

4. How free are we really? – family genetics, social influences, personal habits, advertising, propaganda & paradigms etc. Freedom is an incremental process that happens inside a relationship with Jesus Christ.

5. When all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of God.

6. Pain has a way of clipping our wings, so we can’t fly. After awhile we forget we were ever created to fly.

7. When Jesus became a man he gave up his own ability to heal people and do miracles. His miracles were accomplished by Jesus’ (a man, a dependent limited human being) trust in the Father God. We are all designed to live like that, out of God’s life and power.

8. God exists in three persons so we, his creation, can also live in love and relationship, just like God does. If God didn’t, we couldn’t. “God cannot act apart from love.”

9. Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid wanting power is to limit oneself – to serve.

10. Sin is its own punishment, devouring from the inside. It’s not God’s purpose to punish it; it’s God’s joy to cure it.

11. When people choose independence over relationship, we become a danger to each other.

12. If people learned to regard each other’s concerns as significant as their own, there would be no need for hierarchy. God does not relate inside a hierarchy; God wants us to trust him because he will never use or hurt us.

13. When Christians don’t trust God it’s because they don’t know they are loved by him. They think God is not good.

14. Mack says: “I just can’t imagine any final outcome that would justify all this (pain, suffering etc).” Papa replies: “We’re not justifying it. We are redeeming it.”

15. The choice of God to hide so many wonders from man is an act of love that is a gift inside the process of life.

16. For any created being, autonomy is lunacy.

17. When something happens to us, how do we determine whether it is good or bad? By whether we like it or if it causes us pain. This is self-serving and self-centred.

18. We become the judge of good and evil; so when each person’s good and evil clashes with someone else’s, fights, even wars, break out.

19. Eating of the tree tore the universe apart, divorcing the spiritual from the physical. All of us died, expelling the very breath of God.

20. We play God in our independence. The only remedy is to give up the right to decide good and evil and choose to live in God and trust and rest in his goodness.

21. God is light and God is good. Removing ourselves from God will plunge us into darkness. Declaring independence will result in evil because apart from God, you can only draw on yourself. That is death, because you have separated yourself from God, from Life.

22. This concept is difficult for us because the good may be the presence of cancer or the loss of income, or even a life. Sarayu answers: “Don’t you think we care about these people who suffer too? Each of them is the centre of another story that is untold.”

23. About having ‘rights’: “‘Rights’ are where survivors go so they won’t have to work out relationships.”

24. Jesus gave up his rights so his dependent life would open a door that would allow us to live free enough to give up our rights.

25. Each of us is wild, beautiful, and perfectly in process when God is working with a purpose in our hearts. We are an emerging, growing, and alive pattern – a living fractal.

26. We tend to live either in the past or the future; dwelling on the pain and the regret of the past, instead of a quick visit to learn something from it. Or fearing the future, letting our imagination run wild with worry, and forgetting to see the future with Jesus. This happens when: a. we don’t really know we’re loved and b. we don’t believe that God is good.

27. Apart from Jesus’ life, we cannot submit one to another. Jesus’ life is not an example to be copied. Jesus came to live his life in us; so we will see with God’s eyes, hear with his ears, love with his heart, and touch with his hands.

28. Some say love grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is the skin of knowing.

29. We human beings are constantly judging others because we are self-centred.

30. We say: “Predators deserve judgment, their parents, too, for twisting them, and their parents, and on and on, until finally we go right back to Adam, and then, why not judge God? He started it all…isn’t God to blame for our losses? He could have not created, or he could have stopped the killer, but he didn’t.” If we can judge God so easily then, of course, we can judge the world. We must then (e.g.) choose two of our five children to go to heaven and three to go to hell, because that’s what we believe God does. Mack could not choose any one of his children because he loved them no matter what they did. So instead, he begged that he could go to hell for his children. This response is exactly what Jesus did. Mack judged well. He judged his children worthy of love, even if it cost him everything. This is how Jesus loves. ‘And now we know Papa’s heart.”

31. God’s love is so much larger than our sin could ever be.

32. Evil was never a plan of God’s. We must return from our independence, give up being his judge, and know God for who he is.

33. When we receive God’s love and stop judging him we let go of the guilt and despair that had sucked the colours of life out of everything.

34. God never abandons his children. We are never alone. God could no more abandon us than he could abandon himself.

35. “Live loved.”

36. When we leave the light of God and retreat to the darkness all alone, the darkness makes our fears, lies, and regrets bigger in the dark. Sometimes, as a kid, doing this is part of survival, but now we must come to the light.

37. Jesus will travel any road to find his children. But only one road leads back to heaven.

38. Stories about a person willing to exchange their life for another reveal our need and God’s heart.

39. Even though God can work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies, it does not mean God caused it. Where there is suffering, you will find grace in many facets and colours.

40. ‘Love’ bothers to keep trying to touch people and never gives up.

41. Sometimes we hide inside lies that justify who we are and what we do.

42. Ask for forgiveness and let the forgiveness heal you. Take the risk of honesty. Faith does not grow in the house of uncertainty.

43. Our transformation is a miracle greater than raising the dead.

44. All evil flows from independence.

45. God’s purposes are always and only an expression of love. God works life out of death, freedom out of brokenness, and light out of darkness.

46. Emotions are neither good nor bad. They are the colours of the soul. They are spectacular and incredible.

47. The more you live in the truth, the more our emotions will help you see clearly.

48. Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control. Keeping the law grants us the power to judge others and feel superior.

49. Responsibility and expectation are dead nouns, full of judgment, guilt, and shame. Our identity becomes wrapped up in performance. The opposite is when God gives us an ability to respond that is free to love and serve in every situation, with God in us; and expectancy is alive and dynamic with no concrete expectation – only the gift of being together.

50. To the degree we live with expectations and responsibilities is the degree we fear and the degree we don’t trust or know God.

51. If God is the centre of everything, then together we can live through everything that happens to us.

52. Forgiveness is big.

53. When bad things happen, what God had to offer us in response is his love, goodness, and relationship with us.

54. God doesn’t do humiliation, guilt, or condemnation. They don’t produce one speck of wholeness or righteousness.

55. Forgiving isn’t about forgetting; it’s about letting go of another person’s throat.

56. Forgiveness does not create a relationship; it simply removes them from your judgment.

57. Because you are important to God, everything you do is important.

Hey aramac77,

Only an unbeliever could have your clarity and insight! Believer’s minds tend to be clouded and controled by their beliefs. Believers can’t think clearly. Every bit of information is evaluated, not for its truth, wisdom, or usefulness, but whether or not it’s consistent with what is already believed. You appear to have derived so much more from The Shack than a lot of believers will be able to. They’ll reject the insight simply because it differs from their paradigm, and they’ll miss the benefits you’ve gained from the book.
Well done! Don’t ever let believers interfere with whatever your walk with God turns out to be.

-rosch99

I have recently been in a little conversation and I thought you might enjoy being a part. My friend Drew Marshall, a professing Jesus follower for many years, has seriously put his belief in God on hold, his central question revolving around the lack of communication from God and the absence of any ‘feeling’ about the reality of relationship with God. This sort of question can take us in many directions and the following is only one, but I believe an important one. It is a written conversation between me and a blogger, Mags. She posted on Twitter and I followed the link to her blog (

Why Drew’s Search for God Scares Me
Posted on October 26, 2010 by Mags

Drew Marshall’s (www.drewmarshall.com)  search for God scares me. Terrifies me actually. As it should him too.

Because what if God doesn’t come looking for him?

If the host of the self-titled Drew Marshall radio show doesn’t get a personal message from God, by his self imposed deadline of December 18, the faithful and true will probably conclude Drew was never really looking anyway.

But is that fair?

I’ve mentioned before that I grew up in the world of the spiritually mighty – as for that matter did Drew.  Like him, I sat through Sunday schools, youth groups and churches. I raised my hands. I fell to my knees. I honestly told God I wanted to know him, and wanted to be his child. And I meant it.

Yet I also know what Drew means when he says that his Heavenly Father feels like an absentee one. Sending him second-hand missives through others who seem to know him better.

When I interviewed Drew for ChristianWeek, he told me that you’d have to be “pretty thick” to somehow miss it if God was speaking directly to you. And judging by some of the responses I’ve been reading on his Twitter #droggle feed, plenty of people seem to think all blame lies with Drew. Maybe Drew is insincere. Maybe he’s insufficiently educated, or spiritually darkened. Maybe his faith has failed to reach even that minimal mustard seed level.

I’ll admit – that’s pretty much the response I would have had when I was younger. But that was before I really began admit what it’s like to fall on your knees and beg God for an answer. Or run into a church and get spiritually slapped in the face.

What it’s like to hear the echoing, infinite, silence of God. The silence barren Hannah heard for so many years when she went to the temple and sobbed. The silence Israel faced for years in exile. The silence Jesus heard when he asked his Father why he had forsaken him.

Maybe Drew’s faith isn’t “good enough” for God. But is mine? And is anyone’s really?

At the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Conference (ACFW) in September, Bug Man author Tim Downs pointed out the Bilble compared us to spouses who had left our first love.

“How would you win a lover back?” he asked.

Would you say, “Obviously they have forgotten how worthy I am to be praised” and send them a list of your finer attributes?

Would you say, “Obviously they have forgotten the way home” and send them a map?

Or would you woo them gently, in story and poem, unfolding who you are to them?

To me, it was a radical concept. Because I think in the church where I grew up, the presumption would be that if you somehow managed to get yourselves lost, you had to come to heel pretty darn fast before Got smote you down in your sin.

But I’d like to believe that God is more like Tim Down’s jilted lover. That God and Drew will work out something out, that only they need understand.

And that if I ever get too lost to even reach for the phone – God will take the time to find me too.

October 25, 2010

Here is the conversation that followed:

Hey Mag,
Love your thoughtful response. I also think there are things broken in our ‘receptors’ that Papa can’t forcefully heal without violating our side of the relationship; that God can’t cross without being a transgressor or becoming an abuser.

-appreciating you,

Paul

mags says:

October 27, 2010 at 4:53 pm

Dear Paul,

Thanks so much for dropping by! The Shack touched me quite deeply, and really appreciate the way you created such a powerful image of God’s love and person.

I find your comments about how God can not forcefully heal without violating our boundaries really challenging! Because on the one hand I do completely agree with them. I love that God shows us respect and models healthy boundaries. I love that God knocks, God waits, God whispers… It is because of that respect for our boundaries that those of us who have been abused can feel comfortable being loved by such a gentle God.

And yet, I still struggle with knowing many have a hard time hearing God because our receptors were forcibly broken by others.

We do not always chose broken receptors – and yet because of them we can not hear God or get healed?? That is not fair. It is bad enough to be hurt – how much worse when the actions of others keep us from being able to hear God.

Where is God’s mercy there? How does God reach out to those too broken to know how to even see God’s hand?

I know these are questions you have wrestled with too. And I’m thankful you have.

Wm Paul Young writes:

October 27, 2010 at 7:04 pm

Thank you for the honesty and the glimpse of some of your heart hurt. My father, for example, participated in destroying my receptors, not just to God, but to love and affirmation in the eyes of others, to any sense of self value, to honor and beauty. In part this is such a revelation of ‘respect’, that God did not ‘stop’ my father, or his father who did it to him, or his…. God submits to what we bring to the table, and then begins to weave possibilities out of the shreds of what should have been so natural, so easy, so normal. But I come a heap of hopelessness, hardly able to raise my gaze, deaf and dumb. Fair? In no way. Fair that I then turn and blame God for my inability to hear, that I have no words to heal myself or that the sensors that should be open to his Presence have been shattered into little bits of darkness. In no way fair. But thankfully, God is not petulant but understanding. So in my life God began to find small sounds that I somehow still had the capacity to hear, and for me it was often inside music, combinations of lyric, melody and harmony that put bits of me back together, let me feel and hear some wonder that lay just beyond my sight, sounds that echoed deep in the precious little that mysteriously was still alive. Then there were the surprises, like the blistering rainstorms that always pushed me into the surprise of joy and a sense of hearing something grand that some encompassed my own skin, drenching my deaf ears in hints of beyond and above. And then we demand that God talk to us in the same ways and manners that damaged us in the first place. Perhaps we hope in the certainty of the pain and its prison that we have known for so long, rather than take the risks in the new and incremental. Perhaps we would rather have God as our advertisement than our friend, our trophy rather than our lover and escape the obvious direction toward the bended knee and the torn asunder but healed heart with its ears that are beginning to pick up the simplest syllables of affection.

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!

Miriel

Okay, I have been rather silent, but that is because I have been home doing…home things. Gavin (3 in August) was spending the night and since my flight was very late I had to wait till the morning to … change his poopy diaper. The last three days have included lots of kids and grand-kids, yard work including buying a load of organic compost (I was told that was redundant), trying to catch up on some emails and such, not writing the blog obviously, attending a track meet with the entire family to watch Matthew and his team, cleaning house because people were coming over…all the normal stuff of life. I actually packed for the trip for Chico, CA before I finished unpacking from the last one.

Part of the sadness of the week was the falling asleep of sweet Luke Jensen. Amy, who has been very involved with the Jensen family, had a meltdown at work and came home a bit early. Such a mixed bag, this life here on this planet. Against the darkest backdrop of evil and suffering we see scattered radiant diamonds, the litter of grace. I look into Miriel’s eyes (born Feb 2010) and I got lost in the depths. What universe within those portals lies beyond my comprehension? This is an eternal being and we have been given the honor of caring for her, even if only for such a short time. And then I look and see this magnificence everywhere, especially in sounds of laughter, the wiping of tears from the cheek, the growls of desperate prayer, and deep in the eyes; windows of the soul.

Reminds me of a Cockburn song, “In the Falling Dark”

And the lights lie tumbled out like gems
The moon is nothing but a toothless grin
Floating out on the evening wind
The smell of sweat and lube oil pervades the night
And the rush of life in flight at the speed of light

A million footsteps whispering
A guitar sounds — some voices sing
Smoke on the breeze — eyes that sting
Far in the east a yellow cloud bank climbs
Stretching away to be part of tomorrow’s time

Earthbound while everything expands
So many grains of sand
Slipping from hand to hand
Catching the light and falling into dark
The world fades out like an overheard remark

In the falling dark
Light pours from a million radiant lives
Off of kids and dogs and the hard-shelled husbands and wives
All that glory shining around and we’re all caught taking a dive
And all the beasts of the hills around shout, “such a waste!
Don’t you know that from the first to the last we’re all one in the gift of grace!?“

This particular Church began shortly after AA was brought to the city and is a center for recovery help. About 70 12-Step groups are hosted serving on average 2,500 people per month. They are also heavily involved in serving the prisons and this year received the prestigious Governor’s Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Award.

Again, as always, I met beautiful people. Some had recently lost members of their families to disease, accident and suicide. I think that the suicides are often the most devastating, especially if there was no warning and seemingly no reason.

I have come to the conclusion that suicide or attempting suicide is not evidence that a person has hit the bottom, but is more likely a way to avoid and run away from hitting the bottom. Having been there myself, if ‘feels’ like you have hit the bottom, the pain is so overwhelming and terrifying and the justifications for taking your own life seem so real and logical. I actually believed that the world would be a better place if I were not on the planet and that my children and Kim would be better off if I wasn’t around to hurt them. I was so tired, and it hurt so bad that this seemed like a way to make the pain stop. Actually, once I made the decision to leave this life everything calmed down, almost like the dead zone right before a tornado arrives. If it hadn’t been for God showing up in some friends…

I think suicide is the most fundamentally selfish choice a human being can make, even though in the moment you don’t consider or understand the devastation it will leave in its wake. The pain in the family that picks up your pieces is shattering, the guilt for not having saved you seems irredeemable and life is forever altered by your absence. Suicide is the greatest personal act of control, playing god with one’s own life and death. At the same time, I don’t believe that suicide is an impediment to the grace of God, some kind of unpardonable sin as is taught by some religious persuasions. When faced with one’s failures and damage, the choice is ultimately ‘to live’ not a choice to ‘not die’, which won’t be enough over time.

Hitting the bottom is marked by at least three things. First, a person who has hit the bottom stops pointing a finger at others as responsible in part or in whole for the damage and therefore the hurtful decisions that one has made. When my world fell to pieces, my façade crumbled, I didn’t care whose fault it was or who might have contributed to my pain and damage. Even though the process of healing usually includes exploring how others have hurt and damaged us (and forgiving), the only finger pointing was at myself and I had to fully own my ‘stuff’. Second, a person who has hit bottom lets go of control. You no longer dictate your process; instead you give yourself to it and often without contingency into the hands and care of others. I told Scott M (my counselor) the first day we met, “I promise you that I will not leave this process until you tell me I am done.” The third thing is that nothing is kept secret, no hidden stash of information, and no area that cannot be explored.

Jesus often asked the people who came to him, even the blind and lame, “What do you want?” To Jesus it wasn’t obvious and he invited the hurt to enter relationship and participate in the processes of their own freedoms. It is the first question in the Gospel of John, directed at John the Baptist’s disciples who had come to Jesus.

Regarding the hurt places of the soul, I think there are many of us who would rather hold on to the certainty of our pain and damage than the uncertainty of healing and freedom. Our pain becomes our identity and ‘change’ the enemy. God has come to us and removed many of the bars of our prisons and yet we still cling to the one bar that remains, gripped with white-knuckled intensity. When that moment comes, may we hear the still small voice whispering in our ears, “Daughter of Zion, free yourself.”

The morning started oddly.  I was about to step into the shower and turned on the faucet…no water, just the sound of a mighty rushing wind.  Seeing no tongues of fire, I decided to call the front desk and was informed that due to some sort of emergency the water had been turned off for 30-45 minutes.  Grrrrrr.  30 minutes later I got the call, “We are turning the water on, but it is going to take a while to warm up.”  Having taken cold showers before I turned the faucet back on.  Air came rushing out and bits of water and sediment in fits and starts, the whole system burping and sneezing its way back to life.  I let it run about five minutes and step into tepid water.  I should have looked down sooner.  The water was reddish brown.  I stepped out and waited another ten minutes and when I returned there was small piles of sediment in the bottom of the tub.  This hotel is very nice, but losing points.

I got my shower finally, packed quickly and headed to Lover’s Lane UMC for a book signing and final lecture at a luncheon.  Just before I left the hotel I discovered that my wallet is missing (yeah, I know, Kim…shhhhhh).  I prayed and then began mentally backtracking.  Several times I thought I figured it out but when I looked, no wallet.  I arrived at the event about 5 minutes late, a line already well formed.  I forgot about the wallet in the stories and hugs of those in line.  Later during the luncheon I mentioned my loss to those at my table and Donna perked up, “I saw it in the auditorium yesterday, let me go see if it is still there.”  Five minutes later it was back in my pocket.

I am not at the airport (DFW) waiting for my flight and catching up, before I board for Portland and home for three days.  There is something that I have wanted to write about so here goes.

Some of the stupid things people say to those who are suffering:

1. If you had enough faith, then Suzie wouldn’t be sick.
2. The tongue has the power of life and death, so stop saying Suzie has a brain tumor.
3. If you believe enough and confess with your mouth that Suzie is healed, then she will be healed.
4. Have you tried…fill in the blank.
5. Do you think there might be un-confessed sin in your life?
6. Suzie is God’s gift and He can take her when he wants to.
7. This was God’s plan for Suzie.

Now, having been ‘stupid’ myself, I understand the intent and motivation that often lies behind saying these kinds of things.  I wasn’t trying to be stupid; I was trying to help.  I thought I was bringing to bear the wisdom of God in a certain situation.  I truly thought what I was saying was going to be helpful and I thought what I was saying was true.  It is so easy to have the ‘word of the Lord’ when it isn’t your child, isn’t your husband, when you haven’t had the experience of watching someone deteriorate right in front of you, scream in pain, look at you like you should be able to do something, when it is you that feels so helpless and lost.  If you haven’t been there…keep your mouth SHUT.  Listen, be present, pray but don’t be God’s gift to make other people feel worse and even push them into the impossibility of living perfectly enough to avoid suffering.

Look at these things people say.  Give me a break.  Let’s put it this way, “Since you know about Suzie, how about we put you in charge of having enough faith, and if she dies it’s your fault.”  The whole premise of this ‘stupid’ statement is that faith is a ‘commodity’ that you can have ‘enough’ of it and once you have ‘enough’ (and nobody can tell you how much is enough) then you can do magic tricks.  It is a formula and formula has nothing to do with relationship.

Sure there is power of life and death in the tongue…your tongue.  Is what you are saying bringing and adding life to the situation, or are you speaking death?  This verse is not about healing but about the power of what we say to each other.

God doesn’t punish us because there is sin in our lives; God took the punishment we poured out on Jesus because there is sin in our lives.

It is so easy to be self-righteous when no one is sick in our family, when no one close to us is dying of cancer, when we think that the absence of suffering in our lives is because we have somehow made the right choices and are now receiving the reward.  Listen to me; everyone in this world is dying, right now.  You are going to die.  From the day you entered into this world you began dying.  If ‘faith’ could keep you healthy, surely there would be someone who never died, one person who had enough ‘faith’ to keep from deaths open maw.  God (Jesus) didn’t even escape it, but He did conquer it so much so that it was no longer called ‘death’ but ‘falling asleep’.  Some of us fall asleep quickly and quietly, others in great pain but we know who will kiss us awake and that hope is sure and certain.

The world is shattered.  We (humans) did that.  We made a declaration of independence, taking on the power of playing god, and then wonder why independent cancer cells are wreaking havoc in our bodies.  We bring to the cosmic table our communal sickness and demand that God fix it.  We require God stop the pain and suffering but out of good and kind respect for his creation he often refuses.  Does God do ‘anything’ that is not motivated by love?  NO!!!

There is so much about suffering that I don’t understand, but I will tell you this, it stops us in our tracks, makes us re-examine our sense of control, drives us into community (if we allow it) and transforms us in its crucible.  And then there is this mystery: we are somehow allowed to enter the holiest of places and share in the sufferings of Jesus, destroying evil by our presence in the midst of loss.  Some things are simply too precious to reduce to words.

Grandson Houston Parker - just because it was sent to me today

Yesterday in Nashville was full of meeting new people, friends of friends. Reminds me a little saying some of us have, “If you like someone you give them your time and money, but if you love them, you give them your friends.” Some of the most significant people in my life have been given to me by friends.

Turns out that the hotel, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, is the largest hotel in the world that doesn’t have a casino. I can attest that it is huge, having lost my way in its maze of hallways and atriums more than once. In the evening about sixty men met to talk about life and relationships. Where can you get Dan Polk, Paul Colman and Matt Wertz in the same room signing John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’.

After I finally found my way back to my room I crashed for the night, but not before packing to leave the next morning. Breakfast at 8AM and then I spoke about the relational nature of God, the significance of the Trinity and why our understanding of the character and nature of God changes how we live. Then it was on to the airport to catch my Delta flight to Dallas via Memphis arriving at Love airfield about 4:20 PM.
Did I mention that I woke this morning to torrential downpours and rock and roll thunder? Chase gave me a lift to the airport and on the way I took a call from one of my daughters. She was a little distraught about having forgotten something that changed the course of her day. I encouraged her not to give it a second thought, that God has a way of creating purpose even or especially out of the choices and mistakes we make. I told her, “When something unusual or unexpected happens begin to look for the adventure.” Then they cancelled my flight.

I am standing at the counter when I look up and see that out of about a hundred flights on the board, two have been cancelled and one of those is mine. I have to grin as I tell myself, “When something unusual or unexpected happens begin to look for the adventure.” Don’t you love it when you have to eat your own words?

The wonderfully helpful clerk sets me up on an American Airlines flight and I head down to their desk. Another clerk checks my baggage. Turns out that the American flight is direct, they have to put me in first class and I will get to Dallas two hours earlier than the original flight. Trust me, this is not what normally happens. As I am boarding, one of the gate agents comes flying down the corridor. “Did you really write The Shack?” She gave me a hug and asked me a question about how the book started. I told them it was my wife’s, Kim’s, fault and explained. Another woman boarding in front of me stopped to watch this unusual interchange and then after we settled into our seats she asked for all the info on the book and promised to read it right away.

We landed at DFW (instead of Love Field) and I get quotes from three rental car agencies until I get a rate that is acceptable and headed to the hotel (no hotel score yet since I just got here). It is a Hilton and the room is comfortable. Tomorrow is going to be very busy. I speak four times and am part of lunch and dinner meetings and at least one book signing. I will try to blog tomorrow night.

Gaylord Opryland Hotel

Did I tell you that my contact person at Holland Christian School is Kathi Bates (Author meets Kathi Bates…hm). Turns out she is a sweetheart and both my legs still work. No Misery in Holland.

Kathi picks me up early and we go over the high school where I speak in the early morning chapel. I spoke about the power of our secrets, how the trap us inside. We can’t tell them because we are terrified we will lose control and whatever affection and approval we have managed to scratch together, but when we are offered affection and approval we can’t receive it because we don’t trust it because they don’t know the secrets. Lose/lose. Afterwords many students came up to talk and cry and hug. One young man broke completely down and was immediately engulfed by friends. They held him while he sobbed his heart out. They were the Church doing what the Church at its best does; loving and healing.

I spoke to a class of students and questions led to a good discussion. While Jesus did not have Shack on the inside, on the cross he took on all of ours and out of our lostness ‘felt’ as if Papa had abandoned him, which, of course was not true. And in our darkness, Jesus committed everything he had into Papa tender affection. Father, Son and Spirit accomplishing the purpose established before creation; our salvation, our healing.

A little after noon I boarded a flight via Cincinnati to Nashville. I was supposed to be going to Memphis to play a role in a historical drama, a movie. I know, weird….but kinda way cool too. There were supposed to be shooting scenes with my character, the founding director of Palmer Homes, along with my wife played by Billie Cash, a relative of Johnny Cash. The whole shooting schedule was delayed because James Earl Jones was trapped in England by the Iceland volcanic action that shut down air travel. I may still do the part but now my scheduling might not work…we will see. No expectations.

So I came to Nashville instead and yesterday and today have been filled with conversation with friends new and old. Even got to play golf this afternoon; first time this year if I remember correctly. The weather was beautiful here, but that didn’t help my score. A few years ago I decided to keep my ‘real’ score, so it gets pretty high. I like this actual scoring a lot better; sort of another example of the truth shall set you free. I made my only par on the last hole and that is enough to bring me back another day.

I am staying at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  My hotel ratings are as follows: Shower is 3.  Appearance, cleanliness etc is a 4.  Amenities is 3.5.  1 bonus points: they give me two free bottles of water a day and the view from my window (first pic on this blog) is very good.  Total score is 11.5 out of 17 (including the two bonus points), which is quite good.

Tomorrow (Friday) is another day of meetings and re-connections. I am running out of clothes so I have to hit a Laundromat sometime soon. I probably won’t blog until Saturday night. Saturday morning I speak here at a private event and then fly on to Dallas, where I will spend the weekend at Lover’s Lane United Methodist Church (not making this up), before flying home for three days next week. I am so ready to be with my family!!

It turns out the flight to Holland, Michigan is via Memphis, and after two flights I land in sunny Grand Rapids. The air is crisp; the temperature around 60 and Rick G takes me out to lunch at a local restaurant. The Tulip Fair begins May 1st but they are everywhere. He drives me around a small lake that sits in the middle of Holland and we look at beautiful houses along the waterfront. One of them is being built, belonging to Dick DeVos (of Amway fame) – see pic.

I am staying in an hotel on the campus of Hope College and I settle in, iron clothes for tonight and tomorrow and work on emails and other work related items.

I probably should have started this earlier, but I am going to sometimes rate hotels that I stay in. This is going to be a 15-point rating system. The first 5 points is for what I think is the most important thing in a hotel room, the shower. There is nothing better after flying all day then to step into a really good shower and wash away the travel grime. The second 5 points has to do with how clean, comfortable and inviting the room is. The third 5 points is for amenities, such as Internet, availability of outlets (a room with no outlets drives me crazy). You can add or subtract points for special things like breakfast, special features and surprises.

So tonight I am staying at the Haworth Inn on the Campus of Hope College. Without knowing what their continental breakfast is like, which could add or subtract a point or two, here is what we have.

Shower = 2. The water doesn’t smell nor is it oily (trust me, some places have greasy water, but the pressure is so poor you have to run around in the shower to get wet.

Comfort and cleanliness = 3.5 This is a nice hotel, the carpet is clean as is the room. It is roomy enough to move around easily and the Internet is free and fairly fast.

Amenities = 3 Third floor view is okay and there are barely enough outlets but I didn’t have to move furniture to find them.

If it wasn’t for the shower, this place would have done quite well 6.5 out of 10, but the shower is bad, so 8.5 out of 15.

The evening was sponsored by Holland Christian Schools and a lecture series called Living Stones, used as a benefit to raise funds to help pay for private school for families that simply cannot afford the tuition. Had a very special kiss of grace as relatives of Erin and Todd Barr came for the evening. If you remember Todd and Erin read The Shack a month before Todd was diagnosed with cancer and only a couple weeks ago walked through the thin place and into the embrace of Three. I had a number of conversations with both of them over the last months and was honored to be included in this journey. I had not actually met Erin or any of the family until tonight and it was very tender and sweet.

I signed a book tonight, “Grace sings your name…” and the woman began to cry. Grace is the name of her young granddaughter who drowned not long ago. Grace’s mom was also with her and we had a moment. I told you, “I hang around burning bushes all day.”

Tomorrow morning I speak at chapel for the Holland Christian High School, something that I am excited about. Then I catch flights that will get me to Nashville, TN. Goodnight. Thanks for coming along.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Yesterday when I arrived a huge tornado (sometimes two miles wide) ripped through Mississippi touching down over a 149 mile stretch. Ten people were killed and many injured. One amazing story is about a man who ran into a nearby church as the tornado approached and hid under the altar. The church was leveled and the only thing left standing was the altar and the man hiding under it survived.

Today I spoke with Baxter Kruger at a laid back intimate setting. Five hours with a couple breaks and it was wonderful. Before the event, Beth K and I headed out to buy some copies of The Shack. We found them at Wal-Mart and while we were self checking a clerk came over and told us what a great book we were buying. Beth introduced me as the author and she told us how the book had been instrumental in her life after a family death. Teary-eyed, she hugged me and thanked me.

The event focused on Perichoresis, a term used in the early church which means ‘mutual indwelling or mutual interpenetration of the persons of the Trinity’ and has the sense of inclusion into a great dance. It carries the understanding that Father, Son and Holy Spirit have included us into the great dance of their love, mutuality and union. We talked about how religion has destructively impacted many of us because it communicated a caricature of God as untrustworthy, distant, detached and disappointed, as if the Father had an agenda behind the back of Jesus. While Baxter brought the historic theology that undergirds The Shack, we both wove story and experience. People, especially the younger generations, are hungry for authenticity and for something that actually ‘works’ and would rather vote with their feet than commit themselves to something they consider archaic and ineffective.

A bunch landed at the Kruger house for Pizza and conversation and after a few hours I dismissed myself to seek some rest and comfort under blankets. I am headed there now.

Today, an incredible friend, Scott Closner, turns 49. May grace dog every day of this coming year. Sorry I missed the party.

This week, The Shack has reached 100 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Tomorrow is a day of rest and maybe a little fishing. I’ll try not to hurt myself.

“If Jesus would withdraw himself from the human race, they would vanish”          – quote regarding John 1:4 by John Calvin

Baxter and Steve messin with my fish

___________________________
Monday, April 26, 2010 was indeed a day of rest, for the most part. Baxter K and I spent the morning working on ideas such as how to creatively bring Trinitarian Incarnational understanding to the larger community of faith. I don’t think most people realize the extent that the book is ‘early Church’ orthodox.

This afternoon Baxter, Steve and I went Bass fishing. I was my first time and I am pleased to say, I never injured anyone, including myself, while casting. As tends to be in line with God’s sense of humor, Baxter and Steve, Bass fishing experts and highly experienced, each caught one and I caught five. I told them it is because God helps beginners.

Tomorrow I get up at 4:30AM to catch an early flight to Grand Rapids, MI via Memphis TN, where I will be speaking at the Holland Schools.