the-shackDear God,

Not much on my mind today.  Sorry I had to rush off to the office earlier today without saying hello.  Some days are like that although I know my days always go better when I spend some time with You first.

My mind has been pondering a book I just finished reading – The Shack, by William P. Young.  I have had this book on the Kindle queue for some time now and finally decided to find out what all the fuss is about.  My initial reaction to it was not good.  The writing seemed to me to be very underdeveloped but, I plowed on because I have heard so much good stuff about it.

It became a little more interesting when God appeared as a black woman named Papa, Jesus as a country bumpkin kind of guy and, the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman named Sarayu.  I thought this, at least, has the earmark of creative writing even if it seems a strange way to think of You, God.  The concept reminded me of Joan Osbourne’s song, “If God was one of us.”

“What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home”

Young’s summary of God as only being a God of Love is the God – is the You – I believe in.  I have to admit however that I don’t have those warm and gooey feelings about You all the time.  I don’t always feel Your Presence by my side like You are my best friend in the whole world.  I don’t imagine You as God of the Universe and fixing my dinner for me at the same time.  Believing in You as Love beyond my imagining is very often an act of faith.  The Shack does make me think a lot about my own definite (and limited) ideas of how God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are supposed to behave.

Overall, I felt the book was too simplistic but, it is obviously tapping into a need in this world because it made the bestsellers list.  So as I pass judgment on The Shack, I am reminded of the chapter in the book that had the deepest impact on me.  It was titled, “Here Come Da Judge.”  Mackenzie (Mac), the protagonist, has been lead into a secluded cave-like location to meet Sophia (obviously Wisdom) and to receive lessons on judgment.  Sophia tells Mac that he has “judged the value of a person’s life by the quality of your concept of beauty.”  This reminded me of my recent judgment at the nursing home on the value of the persons living there.  She continues by telling him that judging requires that he think himself superior over the one he judges and reminding him that he has made superficial judgments based on appearance and actions.  This all amounts to behavior designed to exalt self, feel safe and to belong.

After Sophia has talked Mac into a corner where he finally admits that he blames God for all the bad stuff in the world, she invites Mac to judge God and the world.  Well, I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see where this was going but the portrait Young paints of Mac being forced to decide which of his two children must go to Hell and which two go to Heaven was the most compelling argument on behalf of Your love.  Sophia badgers Mac to the point where he refuses to send any of his children to Hell and offers to go himself.

And there it is.  The bottom line.  You, God, sent Jesus into the world to save all Your children because You are especially fond of every last one of us!  Wow!  Your judgment is that You have found us worthy of Love. Wow!! Help me God to accept the WOW, WOW, WOW of Your Love without judging it and making it so complicated!!!

“Whoever undertakes to set him(her)self up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

Albert Einstein