The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity

by William Paul Young

I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships, so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside.

we knew once the creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering. Don’t misunderstand me, both are needed—but an emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence.”

when all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me?”

pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly.”

“Jesus?” he whispered as his voice choked. “I feel so lost.” A hand reached out and squeezed his and didn’t let go.

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

“We carefully respect your choices, so we work within your systems even while we seek to free you from them,”

So when your good and evil clash with your neighbor’s, fights and arguments ensue and even wars break out.”

do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?”

He spent a lot of time fretting and worrying about the future, and in his imagination it was usually pretty gloomy and depressing, if not outright horrible.

“I would have preferred that you did take control at times. It would have saved me and people I care about a lot of pain.”

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. —Blaise Pascal

“An awful lot of what is done in my name has nothing to do with me and is often, even if unintentional, very contrary to my purposes.”

“That’s all I ask of you. When you start to sink, let me rescue you.”

just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies.