The Shack - a "Review"

About 2 months ago I finally finished William P. Young's The Shack. The first thing I want to acknowledge is the simple fact that this book has sold millions of copies, and has many, MANY people talking & sharing & reviewing and that this is merely a drop in the bucket. With that said, I also want to acknowledge that this book has a back story, a context that is important to know, especially if you want to slam it. And Chad Estes on his Captain's blog, does a great two-parter on it here: here (part 1) and here (part 2).

With that out of the way, the main thing I want to say is how glad I am that people are connecting with God through this book. That's awesome. To know the backstory, how it was self-published & written only for Young's kids, and yet it's been ready by over 7 million people. You can't make that up. That's definitely God. So it's hard to complain when you see that happening.

One thing I love is that the Shack takes head-on a very serious issue - evil in the world. It's an issue you can't really come up with an answer for. It's there, it sucks, it's absolutely painful. Young doesn't dodge that. But he also doesn't try the pat answers. He wrestles with it. He digs into it. He experiences (the main character, the supporting characters, and by extension the readers) the pain. There's a great line towards the end by God the Father - "just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don't ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me. Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."(p. 185)

A second thing to commend is the dealing with the trinity. Certainly, it's not a systematic theological treatise. But honestly, it took hundreds of years for faithful Christians, dialoguing together, to come up with the concept of the Trinity in the first place. And still not everyone was happy. So the presentation of the Trinity in the Shack isn't going to be perfect, but it's a lot better than most come up with. What you've got to remember when reading it is that it's a parable. It sheds light on the Trinity. You can't critique it for what it's not.

So, with those positives, I want to throw out one point that I disagree with. It's minor, but in a way it's significant. In the middle of the book, God is talking with Mack, the main character, about Jesus on the cross, and he says "Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him." Now, it totally serves the purposes of the book. I can't complain about that. But personally, I've hung my hat on something that I still believe pretty strongly in. It's an ontological issue, which is probably way beyond the scope of a novel like this, but I think it's pretty powerful and accessible nonetheless. I actually do think that God the Father was separated, ontologically from God the Son (Jesus), at the moment of his death. Sin did that to God.

I know there are many who would disagree, but briefly, here's why I think it's actually MORE powerful, to understand the atonement like this: God's internal separation allowed God to experience the separation that we feel from God. God, in Jesus, not only felt physical pain, emotional pain and all of the other experiences and emotions that make up the human condition, Jesus even actually felt estrangement, separation from God. That's the most important difference between God in the trinity and humanity - that connection that was lost after the Fall. But in the death of Jesus, God experienced internally the estrangement that humanity felt and has felt, and what is more, God did something about it in re-connecting internally, in re-making the Trinity in the resurrection and therefore re-making humanity. God, as the parable of the prodical son so aptly describes, was not willing to allow the internal relationship among the Trinity, nor the external relationship with humanity to remain estranged. God, rolled up His robes and did something about it - in the parable, running to the son - reaching out before the son had completed his return journey, and not even allowing him to complete his repentance.

If anything, the Shack actually epitomizes this view of God & humanity's relationship in the opening chapter, as Mack receives the note from "Papa" - God wasn't willing to have Mack's relationship severed. God reached out. But God did so because God has felt that separation, experienced that internal estrangement, which makes God's empathy that much greater.

Overall, I thought the book was good. There's spots of hoky-ness, but can you ever get away with that? Life is hoky sometimes. If I was rating it on some kind of scale, which I haven't done before, I'd probably give it 4.5 "shacks" out of 5.

One final comment - to any detractors that complain about God the Father as an Black woman called "Papa" or God the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman called "Sarayu" - seriously?! Read the bible. Wisdom is personified as a woman throughout. Song of Songs is all about sex. Jesus' parables are some of the most risque stories about God, and that's one of the reasons he was dubbed as a heretic by the religious authorities of his day. Seriously?! Don't we have better things to do as Christians than to throw stones? Happy reading...

Driven or Called?

This is the third part of my reflections on Gordon MacDonald's Ordering Your Private World.

"rrrrring!.........rrrrrring!" I'm in the middle of doing the 3rd thing on a list as long as my arm and the phone is ringing. That interruption is not what being a called person is about. MacDonald, in the fifth chapter of his book describes the called person like this:

Called people...possess strength from within, a quality of perseverance and power that are impervious to the blows from without. p.53

When comparing a Driven person to a Called person, the single most important difference is where the drive comes from, where the energy comes from, where the force of engagement comes from. Is it coming from with-out? From somewhere out there? Someone who is pushing you toward some goal? That's being driven. Or is it coming from within? Is there a strength of character, an ability to withstand the pressures and drives from outside and continue to be about the purpose to which one was, wait for it, called?

Using John the Baptizer as his model, MacDonald goes on to describe the attributes of a called person:

1)Called People Understand Stewardship
"The task of stewardship is simply to properly manage something on behalf of the owner until the owner comes to take it back."
This is a very hard concept for us to understand, especially in our buy-now, pay-later culture. We want to own and often grow bored with it before we've even paid for it. I'm certainly guilty of that.

2)Called People Know Exactly Who They Are
"Today in our media-fashioned world many good and talented leaders face the constant temptation to begin believing the text of their own publicity releases."
This is definitely something I am concerned about, when I think of my boys, growing up, seeing "Pastor Daddy" and then seeing "Daddy" at home. I hope they're both the same daddy.

3)Called People Possess an Unwavering Sense of Purpose
This for me is key in differentiating it from being Driven. You always think of purpose and passion as signs of drivenness, but MacDonald wants to remind us that if you're truly called, you understand in a deep way that the call you've received is the most important thing in the world. You run after it with passion.

4)Called People Practice Unswerving Commitment
Here's a great story that MacDonald shares that really explains this:
"Somewhere in my library is a book in which the story is told of an English headmaster who was appointed when he was forty-five years of age. His first act was to write himself a letter to be opened on his sixty-fifth birthday. In it he wrote (and I paraphrase), 'Today you are sixty-five, and it is time to give the task of being headmaster over to a younger person. You will tell yourself that there is no one who can replace you; that the school cannot do without you. But don't believe this self-aggrandizing propaganda.'
Sure enough, when he turned sixty-five and opened the letter, he found that he entertained those exact feelings about his indispensability. But he took his own advice and released the leadership to another. Which is exactly what John [the Baptizer] did [Jesus]."p.60-61

The biggest thing that I come away from this chapter with is the idea of forethought. With the right preparation, being called is possible. If you have a long-range outlook you can remember you're just a steward, remember who you are, what you're about, and allow you to be committed. For me, the main thing I keep coming back to is the need to give something up. I'm not making more time in my day - it just doesn't happen. And in order to be, well, ordered, I need time. So, I'm gradually being won over to the idea that something, or some things in my life need to be given up so that I can indeed have that privately ordered life...


Part I: Ordering Your Private World
Part II: Symptoms of a Driven Person

Symptoms of a Driven Person

This is Part II of my reflections on Gordon MacDonald's Ordering Your Private World.

I don't tend to think of myself as being "driven." Maybe it's my self-critical nature that tells me I'm way to lazy to be driven, or maybe it's my true self that looks beyond that as a mere facade, I'm not sure. But MacDonald has a whole chapter on the symptoms that suggest a person is driven. As I read them, I found myself face-to-face with a lot of similar symptoms in my life. Maybe you may find some too:

1. A driven person is most often gratified only by accomplishment.
"Arrival is everything to this accomplishment-oriented individual; the trip means nothing." All too often, I travel impatiently, wishing I could beam myself to my destination. check - I'm all about arrival.

2. A driven person is preoccupied with the symbols of accomplishment.

3. A driven person is usually caught in the uncontrolled pursuit of expansion. "Driven people like to be part of something that is getting bigger and more successful."
Numbers, while are not my primary concern, are definitely a force. I'm about to roll out something new here @ Liberty with Adult Discipleship and concepts of growth, expansion and potential have been huge influences in this. check - I'm interested in expansion.

4. Driven people tend to have a limited regard for integrity.
"Because the goal is so important, they drift into ethical shabbiness. Driven people become frighteningly pragmatic."
I don't think I have sacrificed my integrity on the altar of a goal, but I am pragmatic, most of the time.

5. Driven people are not likely to bother themselves with the honing of people skills.

6. Driven people tend to be highly competitive.
Uhhh... yeah. It's possible that nothing has gotten me into more trouble in my life than my competitiveness. Since High School, when a couple of people hit me square between the eyes with this act, I've made serious attempts to control this, sometimes successful, sometimes not-so. check - I'm competitive.

7. A driven person often possesses a volcanic force of anger...
Yes, I have a temper. It doesn't show up too often, probably with Bridgette more than anything/anywhere else, but yes, - check, I have a temper.

8. Driven people are usually abnormally busy, are averse to play, and usually avoid spiritual worship.
"They are too busy for the pursuit of ordinary relationships in marriage, family or friendship, or even to carry on a relationship with themselves-not to speak of one with God."
This maybe more than any other didn't seem to jive with me. I love people, I love to interact with people. I love my wife and my sons. I have some great friends. Then I read on, to see MacDonald say "I have, at one time or another, seen in myself almost all of the traits I have listed." And I had to admit, there have been times where I have been driven to abandon those relationships in the "greater" pursuit of some goal.

Seeing myself as a driven person was and continues to be somewhat of a struggle. What I appreciated most about MacDonald in this respect, is when he diagnosed this in himself, he said this:
"What I had to learn was that my drivenness needed to be consecrated on a daily basis...To ignore the possibility that my life could be taken over by the spirit of drivenness would be to my peril."

I'm going to try to avoid that same peril myself. Maybe you've read this and discovered a certain amount of drivenness in you. Maybe we can all avoid this peril...

Part I: Ordering Your Private World

Ordering Your Private World

Recently I finished an odyssey that began a couple years ago in completing the classic by Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World. While I like to give some kind of report when I complete a book, I think this one's worth more than a single post, and it really hit home for me today in an odd way. I was doing a mock phone interview for our church's Youth Director search committee and I was asked the question "if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?" I froze. One thing came to mind that I've been wrestling with for awhile now. But this interview wasn't about me. It was simply a practice for the committee to get a handle on things, their technique, etc. But I couldn't come up with something plausible, so I ended up answering in a round-about-way, to my boss & members of Session & friends (all of whom were on the committee) one of my own, REAL struggles. I shared procrastination, but the heart of it was discipline. And in that raw moment of me being real, I couldn't come up with anything else but that reality because I've been dealing with it - or not dealing with it for awhile now. If I could change 1 thing about myself, I'd be more disciplined. Problem is, unlike winning the lottery, you can't wave a wand & be more disciplined. It's something that comes with work. One that note, here's a couple quotes form the intro of MacDonald's book that hit me as I read them years ago and still pack a particular punch:

"Sadly, we do not have a Christian culture today that easily discriminates between a person of spiritual depth and a person of raw talent."(p5)

Those who brought their lives into discipline or (and this is a favorite word of mine) intentionality would, more than likely, go on to long-term lives of fruitfulness, adn their best years would be in the last half of their lives when discipline and depth paid off. And those like me, who relied heavily upon our natural giftedness, would reach some high point early in our lives and, more than likely, trail off into averageness for the last half of our days on earth." (p6)

If my private world is in order, it will be because I am convinced that the inner world of the spiritual must govern the outer world of activity."(p9)

If my private world is in order, it will be because I make a daily choice to monitor its state of orderliness."(p17)

After this last note, I wrote "-Keep A Journal" It's one of MacDonald's big things and it's something I did years ago, not quite daily, but nearly. I can also think back to my HS days - when I was definitely more disciplined. Finishing this book was great, but going back and re-reading the beginning was a good kick-in-the pants reminder for me...