Why I Choose to not Burn The Shack Up or Down

Faith is a Journey

As a writer, I know how difficult it is to write from my Christian worldview—from a faith that is ever growing in truth and grace.

As a Christian, I know how hard we can be on one another.

As a Caring for the Heart coach, I know how damaging emotional pain is to our ability to give and receive love, even the perfect love of our Triune God. When someone touches our pain, we react.

Those three perspectives motivate my thoughts.

In deciding whether to enter the fray over the merits/demerits of William Paul Young’s novel The Shack and the recently released movie The Shack Official Movie Trailer, I wondered if anything I had to say could enhance the discussion. I don’t like controversy, but I do enjoy an amicable debate. Most of what I’ve seen written surrounding the movie’s release qualifies as highly contentious in my book—though I admit my meter tends to run on the sensitive side.

I almost kept silent on this one. The ruckus is just too loud for my liking. I don’t like name calling. I don’t want to be called names. So can we agree to not do that here?

I’ve read Young’s book more than once and went to see the movie on opening weekend. I’ve read many of the reviews written by the pros and my Facebook friends. I’d say if I took a poll, it’s about a 50/50 split. Both sides adamant they are right.

But then I heard Paul Young tell his own story. Those who know me know I love to hear personal stories and love them even more if the storyteller includes God’s activity in the story. I don’t ordinarily watch TBN, but tuned in when I saw that Paul Young would be telling the story behind The Shack. Restoring the Shack  

As Mr. Young spoke, I tried to understand his heart. I listened to him relate his story of childhood sexual abuse and spiritual abuse as a son of missionaries. My Caring for the Heart training and experience heightens my awareness of how what happened to us as children influences our relationships as adults—with our spouse, our children, and especially our God.

Young acknowledged being the victim as a child; I can respect that. But he didn’t stop there. He continued by confessing his own sinful behavior as an adult and the explanation of his process of repentance and reconciliation. He was clear to point out that he had been the perpetrator; I respect that. I listened to his heart yearning for redemption of the pain from his past.

I will not condemn this man, his work of fiction, or the resulting movie. What I see is a man who is trying to explore difficult topics, sharing with others how God met him where he was and loved him through the hard places. I can’t cast the first stone, because I walk this same path. Sometimes failing. Other times succeeding. Nonetheless, walking with my God who is forever faithful in helping His children unlearn the lies we have believed and teaching us His truth.

It is my prayer that the Lord will use the message of The Shack to start dialogues with Him in the midst. He is perfectly capable of correcting any misconceptions. Mine. Yours. We don’t have to defend God, but we do need to allow space for Him to speak. And for us to listen.

I want to be a part of the healing conversations. How about you? Can we agree to not use words as weapons?

Knowing Jesus

Ya'akov--a younger brother of Yeshua

In five chapters James confronts some of the toughest questions that confuse Christians—then and now. Paradoxical, not easily reconcilable, yet he seems to “get it” not grapple with it.

Godhead bodily                                   Jewish Christianity                                        Performing faith

Just mercy                                                        Joyful trials

What strikes me as I read the words he penned is that he is not struggling with understanding. Not a “how can this be?” line of thinking, but a “this is how it is” attitude.

And I have come to this conclusion: he gets it because he knew Jesus. He was the second born of Mary’s children. He lived in Joseph’s house. He bunked with Jesus as a boy and continued to tag along after him into early adulthood. He tried to make Jesus behave and bore the frustration of all who have tried and failed to do so. Then he was visited by the resurrected Messiah and put two and two together and saw the trinity--the fullness of the godhead bodily.

 

James wasn’t a disciple of the great Rabbi. He was kin to him all along--following in His footsteps since birth and now a witness of the resurrected One. He had been listening to what his brother had to say from the cradle. Now that the spiritual eyes were open to the truths embodied in the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, James did not need to grapple. He was compelled to lead others to understanding. He no longer invoked nepotism, but declared himself “a slave to God and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”

 

His words are humbly powerful, knowledgeable, and challenging. Worth anyone’s while to read.

Testing the Teeter Totter Theory

A previous post discussed how I came up with this teeter totter theory. I'm no scientist, but I know theories beg to be tested to decide if the theory can be practiced.

As a short recap, I'm operating under the assumption that God does not create and require without also equipping. I'm also thinking that He provides the platform for us to stand on when He calls us to something. With that in mind, I'm going to look at a few common issues I face as I try to live a life of faith.

I will start out theoretically. In governmental politics as well as religious politics we often talk about the left and the right. The terms right and left are often preceded by adjectives such as extreme, far or moderate. People are often encouraged to take a stand and pick a side.

What does that do to the teeter totter theory?  If the fulcrum is the opinions of the issue, we can get a variety of outcomes based upon the number of people who jump on board on the side of their position. The more people you can get to join you, the better chance you have of tilting things in your favor.

Did anyone besides me ever play that game on the playground? Someone was always trying to leave someone else hanging up there in the air. In order to accomplish that, you'd solicite others to help you hold your end down. Ever been the one left hanging in the air? The only way down was to join the others at the other end, or jump off...or,convince the others to come to your end. That works too and the game goes on until the bell rings.

What happens, however, if the fulcrum is not personal opinions but God's position?

Opinions are about as fickle as weather forecasts in an unstable atmosphere. However, Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

I'm thinking that I'd rather stand

with Christ as my fulcrum.

 

Balancing Act

 

Watching my granddaughter learn to walk has reminded me of how important balance is if we want to move forward.

From very early in her new life, her legs have been yearning and churning to move!  Try to change her diaper if you don't believe me.  If you're not careful, those flailing feet can do some damage!!

She wants to move.  As she grows and matures, she has moved from reclined kicking, to creeping and crawling, to the much anticipated wobbly walking.

I love to watch how focused she is as she goes from a stationary sit to a straddled stand.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  She plants her feet so that she has a wide base.  Then she slowly reaches out with her arms as she strives for steadiness.  Then slowly and deliberately she engages her leg muscles as she begins to stand upright.

TA DA!

But she is not satisfied with merely standing still.  She wants to move!  She has places to go and things to explore. 

It occurred to me that whether we are talking about physically walking or spiritually walking, we all want/should/need to move forward.  Physically speaking, when someone cannot walk, it is recognized as a handicap and special provisions are made.  Spiritually speaking, as long as we are alive God expects us to grow, mature, and move forward.  If we are not walking and moving forward in our spiritual maturity, what is blocking our growth?

To help us with this one, let's take this spiritual/physical thing a step further.

In the church culture, we talk about being reborn.  Therefore, at the beginning of our walk as a born-again believer, we are mere infants.  We need someone to bottlefeed us, so to speak. 

Unfortunately, this is where some believers are satisfied to stop and, even more unfortunate, some churches are satisfied with leaving their newest additions.

Think about that--parents who are willing to bring new infants into existence, but don't want to help the newbies grow up.  "I just want more babies!" 

Why would anyone want to do that?! 

Well, let's admit it.  Babies are cute.  Plus, those who have helped babies grow into adults know that babies are demanding, but sometimes changing a messy diaper is an easier and less painful parenting task than watching a maturing child make messy mistakes.

Helping an offspring mature requires time, energy, and financial resources.  It takes more energy to practise walking with a toddler or to chase after a careening bicycle than it does to corral the kid in a crib.  An education is expensive.  And let's face it walking, pedaling, and learning take a lot of time for both the student and the teacher.

The same can be said of spiritual babies. 

In order to properly care for spiritual babies, there need to be spiritual parents to help them grow during the different levels of maturity.  We don't leave the birthing room expecting our physical offspring to walk, and we shouldn't expect our spiritual babes to come out of the baptismal ready to hit the road running. 

Yet helping the new believer mature may require more time, energy, and financial resources than some want to invest.

Continuing with my analogy, the natural progression is for physical children to progress from fully dependant to fully independant individuals over the course of time.  Personally, I don't want my children to be infants forever.  Although I was happy to provide feeding and diaper changing services to them as newborns, I am glad I don't have to provide those same services for my adult children.

Which brings me back to the issue of balance. 

Just as a society needs procreation to continue, a church needs both infants and adults to be healthy and growing.  Only mature oldies?  The church ceases to exist as its numbers naturally decrease as they become deceased.  Only aged immatures?  Many monster messes with no one to clean them up!

If your church invests in growth, get involved.  And don't just learn for learning's sake.  Use what you learn, for goodness sake!  Grow up and then invest in the youngsters around you.  And then help them grow so that they can  help others grow.  (Don't even get me started on the joys of being a grandparent!!!)

If your church doesn't offer opportunities to grow...maybe it's time to make a change.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.    Ephesians 4:14-15