The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity

by William Paul Young

Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.”

They still play us off like good cop/bad cop most of the time, especially the religious folk. When they want people to do what they think is right, they need a stern God. When they need forgiveness, they run to Jesus.”

Faith does not grow in the house of certainty.

There are many folk like you, Mackenzie, who end up locking themselves into a very small place with a monster that will ultimately betray them, that will not fill or deliver what they thought it would. Imprisoned with such a terror, they once again have the opportunity to return to me. The very treasure they trusted in will become their undoing.”

True love never forces.”

You are wonderful beyond imagination. Just because you make horrendous and destructive choices does not mean you deserve less respect for what you inherently are—the pinnacle of my creation and the center of my affection.”

“don’t forget that in the midst of all your pain and heartache, you are surrounded by beauty, the wonder of creation, art, your music and culture, the sounds of laughter and love, of whispered hopes and celebrations, of new life and transformation, of reconciliation and forgiveness.

God is a verb. —Buckminster Fuller

The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don’t want to trust them more than me.”

And the Law that once contained impossible demands—‘Thou shall not…’—actually becomes a promise we fulfill in you.”

Humans, on the other hand, have a knack for taking a verb that is alive and full of grace and turning it into a dead noun or principle that reeks of rules—then something growing and alive dies.

Nouns exist because there is a created universe and physical reality, but if the universe is only a mass of nouns, it is dead. Unless ‘I am,’ there are no verbs, and verbs are what makes the universe alive.”

“For something to move from death to life, you must introduce something living and moving into the mix. To move from something that is only a noun to something dynamic and unpredictable, to something living and present tense, is to move from Law to grace.

If I simply gave you a responsibility, I would not have to be with you at all. It would now be a task to perform, an obligation to be met, something to fail.”

Responsibilities and expectations are the basis of guilt and shame and judgment, and they provide the essential framework that promotes performance as the basis for identity and value.

When you forgive someone you certainly release him from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established.”

forgiveness does not excuse anything.

“Just say it out loud. There is power in what my children declare.”

But don’t let the anger and pain and loss you feel prevent you from forgiving him and removing your hands from around his neck.”

you may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely.

“Don’t ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.”

this world is full of tears, but if you remember, I promised that it would be I who would wipe them from your eyes.”

And one day, when all is revealed, every one of us will bow our knees and confess in the power of Sarayu that Jesus is the Lord of all creation, to the glory of Papa.

If you tell me this is only coincidence, I will tell you that coincidence has a Name.

You can visit Wayne at www.lifestream.org, Brad at www.thegodjourney.com, and Bobby at www.christiancinema.com. I am especially fond of each of you three! KMW!