Rev Rae

These chapters have a lot of meet in them.  In chapter 11, Mack meets up with Sophia (the personification of Wisdom) for judgment.  Not the judgment that he expects however.  Mack assumes that he must be dead and this is his time of judgment, to be held accountable for all his sins.  Instead, Sophia vacates her seat to give Mack the chance to judge others and God.  The discussion around judgment takes shape around Mack love of his children.  He is asked which child does he love the most.  His response is “I don’t love any one of them more than any of the others.  I love each of them differently.”  (P 154)

• For the parent’s reading this blog, how did having children change your understanding of love?

The love that Mack has for his children is then put to the test.  He is told that he must now choose two of his kids to go to heaven and three to go to hell.  What an awful task!  But isn’t that what we ask God to do on a regular basis?  With our concept of heaven and hell, judgment and penitence, we have put God in a position of placing half (if not more) of the children is especially fond of in a place of damnation.  This does not jive with my understanding of a loving and grace-filled God.  My definition of hall is a life apart from God.  Sophia says to Mack, “Judging requires your to think yourself superior over the one you judge” (p. 159)

• Are there times where you felt you were on trial but in reality, you had been playing judge?
• How have you judged God?
• What are your feelings toward God?
• Have you tried to look at things from God’s perspective?
• How often has it been your perception of something that puts you through hell?
• How is guilt and self-blame a form of judging yourself?

Sorry more questions than answers this time.  Chapter 12 is coming soon!

Blessings, Rachel

These chapters contain the breakfast conversation, tending the garden of your soul, and walking on water with Jesus.  Chapter 8 reminds me of the age old question, if you could have a meal with God what would you ask?  Mack’s questions seem to be shaped around issues of Papa’s feelings about her creation, is there ever anger/disappointment, and what does God desire from us.

I love that Papa is particularly fond of each and everyone of us.  This is something that resonates with me…God is particularly found of each and everyone of us.  Even when we mess up, we stray from God’s will, we sin, God loves us and does not lose that fondness.   “There is a lot to be mad about in the mess my kids made and in the mess their in,  I don’t like a lot of choices they make , but that anger–especially for me–is an expression of love all the same.  I love the ones I am angry with just as much as those I’m not” (p 119)

• What do you feel when you read this statement?
• What do you think about Papa’s statement about sin on the next page?

Following this there is a conversation that comes down to a discussion about power, relationship, and hierarchy.  This has to do with the Trinity not having a leader, but they work in relationship with one another.  The book states that humans are so far from God’s intended purpose that we cannot imagine a world where someone is not in charge.  The books states that to live in such a way would require each person to view each others concerns as significant as their own.

• Do you believe that authority, hierarchy, and rules are part of a matrix that we have created to be in control?
• What would it look like to break out of this paradigm?
• What is the difference between justifying the issues of the world and redeeming them? What does it mean that God is not trying to justify our reality but redeem it?

Chapter 7 takes us to the garden.  I love the imagery here.  Sarayu and Mack go to the garden to prepare a plot of land for tomorrow.  The garden to Mack looks like a mess, but he can see some beauty in it, just not what he was expecting.  He was shocked at the area that they were pulling up because it looked nice to him.  Sarayu highlighted the need to trim back and the need to turn over the earth to get the roots out so that they don’t strangle the new seeds being planted.

• What are the things in your life that you need to trim back?  What are they things that you need to completely uproot?
• Is God planting a new dream in your soul right now?  Can you put words to it?
• How do you feel to know that you don’t have to tend to your soul on your own, but know that the Holy Spirit is working with you to help along the way?

This is also the chapter that begins to get you to wrestle with the concept of good and evil.  The book posits that God created all things good, but we have subjectively labeled things good or evil to serve our own purpose.  Evil is the absence of good.  Darkness is the absence of light.  Death is the absence of God in your life.

• Can you let go of deeming things good and evil and trust those judgements to God?
• Can there be good in the presence of cancer? or a child dying?
• What does it mean that each person is at a center of another story?

In Chapter 10, Jesus and Mack go for a walk…on water.  Mack struggles with this concept, as did Peter in the Bible.  In both cases it seems to be an issue of trust and a lack of focus.  Jesus and Mack discuss focus in terms of where Mack spends most of his thoughts, the past, present, or future.  Mack had to admit that he spent most of the time in the past (his great sadness) or in the future (worried about what was going to happen).  Jesus pointed out that when we think about the future we rarely factor God into the equation.  We are still trying to be in control, but if we factored God in we would have nothing to fear.  Jesus says to Mack that people who live in fear will not find freedom in God’s love.

• What is a fear that you need to let go of?  How do we let go of our irrational fears?
• Why is the first step the hardest?

Jesus and Mack talk about the fact that God gave the world to us.  This part of a discussion we can have about free will.  God doesn’t interfere in the choice we make, even when they are not what God desires for us.  God submits to us, asks us to submit to God and each other, but acknowledges we can’t do it outside of God.

• What would submitting to God look like?
• What does it mean that God submits to us even when our choices are not healthy or helpful?

• What issues came up for you in these chapters that I did not lift up?  What piece of insight can you share with us?
• Are these blogs and questions, helpful?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel

We are at the point in the book where Mack goes to meet Papa.  He sends Nan and the kids off to the cousins’ house so that he can sneak away to the shack with out telling her.  Because of the season, Mack borrows Willie’s vehicle to get up to the Shack.  As they are exchanging cars, Mack has to tell Willie what is going on.  After convincing Willie that he has to go by himself, the two have a discussion about what they think God will look like.  Mack envisions God looking like Gandalf the Great from the Lord of the Rings series.

• What images do you have for God?

As Mack gets closer and closer to the shack the journey gets more difficult.  It seems to me that sometimes the “known” of the sadness or pain that we have is “easier” to deal with than the “unknown” of dealing with and processing the pain.  At least we know what this feels like and we don’t want to feel worse.  This is part of what keeps us stuck…the unknown…the part where we can’t envision the future without our pain.

Mack actually gets to the shack and sees the place where Missy most likely died.  He is beside himself and decides that this was a terrible idea and he is going to leave.  How often do we go to meet with God, but don’t wait to hear God’s message for us before we retreat?  We don’t wait to see what God is inviting us to.

• Can you think of a time where this happened?  Why do you leave before God could talk?

Mack is leaving the shack, making his way back to the car when everything is transformed.  It is now spring in the valley and Mack is drawn back to the shack, which also looks much different.  Mack begins to wonder what he should do as he approaches the shack…walk right in, knock, wait?  It reminds me of the song, “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me.  What should you do?  How should you act?  The reality is that God responds before you knock…similar to the story of the prodigal son

Papa opens the door and throws her arms around Mack.  Papa is a big Black woman.  Along with Papa are Jesus (a not so attractive Hebrew man) and Sarayu (a petite Asian woman who can not stay still long enough for you to truly focus on her).  This image of the Trinity is uncomfortable for some people.  The author’s mother got to this point in the book, stopped reading it and labeled her son blasphemous.  This image of the Trinity speaks to the fact that God appears to us as we need God to appear to us.

• Do you have an affectionate name for God?
• How do you explain the Trinity?

Chapter six takes us on a flying lesson.  We encounter issues of God’s desire to have a relationship with us based not on obligation or because we feel like prisoners, but rather because we want to be in relationship with God.  We do not glorify God because we feel like we are supposed to do it but because we want to do it.  The gifts we give to God are gifts that are presented from the heart just like artwork given to us by children.  Papa and Mack have a discussion that covers many bases ranging from our image of God being shaped by our experiences to a life lived without love.  The image of a bird who intentionally lives grounded as an explanation of Jesus in our lives.  Jesus lives this way to show us how to fly when we are in relationship with God and are connected to God’s love.  Papa says to Mack “Remember this, humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the intentions that I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image.” (p 100).

Chapter 7 gives us our first meal with Papa, Jesus, and Sarayu…watching their interaction, their focus to one another, and the devotion paid to each other.  It is so important to recognize the God moments in your life and thank God for them.  Afterward, Jesus and Mack go out to the dock to do some stargazing.  Jesus tells us that we are right where we are meant to be, in the center of God’s love and purpose.  We are at our best when we have a dynamic relationship with God where God lives in us and we live in God.  Even when we feel lost we aren’t because Jesus is with us.

• Have you ever tried to personify God? How?  What are the pluses and minuses of doing this?
• How is the scenario at the dinner table (p 105) different than what happens at your dinner table?
• What other topics spoke to you that I did not lift up?

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the discussion forum for The Shack!  I thank you for for coming to be a part of the discussion!  We are using The Shack by Wm. Paul Young as part of our worship experience at La Tijera UMC between now and the beginning of Advent.  Last Sunday, I preached on “God’s Desire to Meet With Us” based on the readings from the Forward through Chapter 4.  I talked specifically about God’s invitation to Mack (as well as to each and every one of us) and God’s desire to meet us in the places of our Great Sadness.  Warren did record the sermon, so I will see if we can get an audio feed up on the website.  I want to take some time to post some questions that came up for me from the first few chapters and then open up discussion!  Please forgive me that page numbers are not listed right now.  The book is in my car and I biked to the church this morning.

From the get go, the book starts with statements that could be explored.   In the Forward, Willie introduces us to most of the important people in the book.  He gives us a little background on Mack and his family.  Willie contrasts Mack’s relationship with religion as a love/hate relationship with Mack’s wife, Nan.  Willie states that Nan’s relationship is deep while Mack’s relationship is wide.

• What do you think the difference is between having a deep faith and having a wide faith and how would you characterize your faith?

In Chapter 1: A Confluence of Paths, Mack gets his invitation from Papa.

• What would you think if you got such an invitation?  Would you tell others about it or keep it to yourself?

Chapter 2 has a lot of stuff in it.  Mack and his children are heading up to the camp site for a getaway.  They have made this trip before. Missy is Mack’s youngest child who asks the best questions.

•  Have you ever had a child ask you a question that just brings your world into focus?)

Mack has shared with his family many times before the story of the Indian Princess who sacrifices her life for the love she has for her family and community to save them from their sickness.  This brings about a discussion about having to do something versus choosing to to do something and equating the story to Jesus’ sacrificing his life to save us from our sickness. Missy asks why is God so mean?

• Do you feel that God is mean?  Or do you know people who feel this way?  What would you say to them to when they talk about God’s meanness?  Missy asks her father if she will ever have to make such a choice.  What do you think about Mack’s response?  How would you have responded differently?

In Chapter 3: The Tipping Point, we hear about Nan’s career as a nurse and how she has worked in hospice-esque situations helping people through the dying process and talking about her relationship with God.  Nan is so close to God that she refers to God as “Papa”.

• Do you have any names for God?  How do you refer to God in Prayer and what does that mean to your faith?

There is also a reference in Chapter 3 about people who can penetrate your defenses so easily.

• Why do you think that there are people who can know you in moments while there are others that it takes forever to feel close to?

In Chapter 4, the Great Sadness unfolds.  The unimaginable happens, Missy is missing, someone has seen a little girl screaming in a vehicle driving out of the camp sight, a clue is left that makes authorities suspect fowl play.  Eventually the mysterious vehicle is found at the end of a path that leads to a shack where all that is found is Missy dress and a blood stained floor.  Mack falls into the “what if?” game which takes him down the slippery slope of despair.  He is blaming himself for what has happened.  The tragedy increases the rift that was already between Mack and God.

• How would such a tragedy affect you?
• Do you have a personal great sadness and how did that impact your relationship with God (I am not asking you to post your great sadness online for the whole world to see.  Just reflect on it and share the how question.)
• Mack asks “why the shack?” What do you think the reasons for meeting in the shack might be?

Okay that is a good starting point I think.  Feel free to answer any or all of the questions posted.  Also, feel free to lift up topics that spoke to you that I have not hit on.  Please respond in the comment section of the blog.  Since this is this is the first in a series of posts and discussions, I ask that you also introduce yourself a little bit.  Thank you!

Blessings, Rachel

Hi there!

It has been a while.  I am in a new church as the Solo Pastor, having a great time.  Warren and I have transitioned from engaged to married and are enjoying married life.  Things are going good.  Coming now is a book study of The Shack by Wm. Paul Young.  I look forward to posting and hearing back from people.  Blessings, Rachel

Love of Self and Jesus

I am one of those people who has an easier time loving others than I do loving myself.  I don’t know if is something that many people feel.  I realized that I was not internalizing the message of Jesus’ love as I was working as a chaplain a few summers ago.  I was sitting in rooms with patients who were facing major medical issues and wondering why God was doing this to them.  My job was to talk with them through their feelings.  My goal was to help people realize that they were precious and beloved in God’s eyes.  I believe that to the bottom of my toes.  Ironically, I did not believe it for myself.  As that epiphany hit me, I had to re-evaluate  my concept of self.  If God loves me for me then I need to love myself.  I did not and sometime still don’t treat myself the way I treat others.  Sad but true.   These chapters speak of this reality for Miller.

I would be interested in hearing what this book has meant to those who read it.  I apologize that this entry is short.  I am about to go out of town, but want to make sure that we have a chance to process the entire book.  So, what are you going to take away from this reading.

Blessings, Rachel

Worship and Love of others

I am going to keep this short, to make sure that something is up for today.  I apologize because I have been in more meetings than I have expected this week.  It happens.

Initial thoughts are as follows:  Worship is more than just a formula that we follow.  We need to allow ourselves to be mystics and allow the Holy Spirit to work among us.  When we try to control worship and reduce it to math we do not allow for the mystery of God to stir us.  Worship needs freedom from strict structure.  I love Miller’s statement about there being not better worship than wonder.  I underlined it 3 times.  It is the awe moments, the curiosity and the ability to be spellbound by God’s love and grace that makes worship so spectacular.  For those of us who focus on the structure, we do not allow ourselves to experience the moments of worship.  Worship becomes more of a research project for us.  Let’s get back to the wonder.

The chapter on love really spoke to me.  Images of the Nooma video “rhythm” dance in my head.  Are we in tune with God’s love?  Are our actions congruent? Do we speak of love of others, but not demonstrate that love?  Do we hold out love out with a bunch of contingencies and rules?  Why do we find so much contradiction between the words and the actions of many church communities?  Miller’s conversation about the person on his ministry team who drove him batty resonated with me.  I have been sitting with this story in my gut for the last 6 days and it has transformed me in many ways.  When I start to get cranky at someone, I work to let it go and operate out of love instead.  “I loved the fact that it wasn’t my responsibility to change somebody, that was God’s, that my part was to communicate love and approval.” (p. 221)  What a powerful message for me.  I hope the reading has been beneficial to you.

Blessings, Rachel

Community and Money….Money and Community….two great topics.

I have kinda touched on community before in my posts.   I miss the community that we had at Iliff.  While we lived in individual apartments, we definitely had a community feel to it.  We knew when someone hadn’t been out of their apartment for a few days.  We gathered at people’s homes to BBQ, watch TV, share in our joy, and support each other through our pain.  Even with our own apartments, there we definitely days, weeks, months, where we felt that tension and conflict that Miller talks about.  Sometimes as I am reading, I get a little freaked out because I feel like he is truly talking about me.  I spend too much time in my head.  I can perceive  things that are not really true.  I can take offense to a situation that isn’t there.  I also get annoyed when my story gets interrupted.  Whether it is that phone call on my day off, when I am at the end of my rope, or when I need to pull myself away from TV or the computer to engage someone in conversation.  Why are you interrupting me?  This is a character flaw that I am working on.  The more stressed I am the more likely I am to engage in it.  Oops, sorry sweetie!

Ironically, I can see the best of myself and the worst of myself in this chapter.  I long to be in community, to be a part of something larger than myself.  I work to nurture relationships, try to understand everyone’s position and gifts and really be in ministry with all.  While I would occasionally get in a mood where certain friends would annoy the piss out of me, I think that I was also at my best in terms of looking at the community and supporting; following my calling and allowing the Holy Spirit to direct me.  The chapter’s final sentence sums up the message well for me.  “‘Don’ he said. ‘If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether or not we are really following Jesus.’”    What does our life and our community look like when we put ourselves (our psyches) our of the equation?  Can we put ourselves aside to serve God?

Money, Money, Money….This chapter echoes what one of my fellow clergy people said recently.  I am guilty of giving God what is left instead of what God deserves; my best, my first!  The clergy friend spoke to the fact that her finances came into control when she started to tithe.  She was able to manage her funds better as well as pay off those pesky student loans.  So often we stress about money.  We try to be in control.  We want to give God our money but then control how that money that belongs to God is spent in the world.  Maybe, just maybe, Churches would be served well to do the same things.  Give what is asked for by the larger institution and trust that God provide what we need.

I know that I am one who impulse buys.  I like the imagery of not allowing our possessions own us.  We can allow our stuff be what drives us either in current purchases or in paying off old purchases.  Better yet, we can allow God to drive us and let the possession take less importance in our lives.  Today, I turned in my pledge for next year.  It is a tithe of my salary, I do not know how I will make it work, but I will trust God to make it possible.  God will get my first, my best!  Not my left overs!!!

What jumped out to you this week?  Any personal revelations, you are willing to post online?

Blessings, Rachel

Romance and Alone:

I find it appropriate that these chapters are listed together. I like the progression that is going on in the book right now.  I can’t wait to get to the next chapter: Community.  This week’s readings tie into my concepts of heaven and hell.  Miller articulated it well.  If being in a loving relationship (romantic or not) is a little bit of heaven, then existing alone is a little bit of hell.  My definition for hell has been life apart from God.  Miller has crystallized for me that isolation, loneliness, etc is a form of hell because contact, community, and relationships connect us with a little bit of God’s love and grace.

When we feel separate, or trapped in ourselves, we need to reach out for community, to initiate relationship.  I know that I am one of those people who needs alone time.  Anne can attest to this.  She could tell days that I needed to be alone, but she also knew when I had been alone too long.  She was really good at getting me out of my head.  She would talk me through what ever my cycling thoughts were on (usually boys) and move me to a point of being back in community.

Warren, my fiance, has taken on some of that for me.  He gets me out of my apartment, socializing with others, and talking about what is going on in my head.  Warren helps me to be the person I strive to be.  Sometimes in the most strange of ways, but he is helping me on my journey.  I pray that he feels the same way.

Paul’s comments to Miller about marriage and relationships are great.  We cannot fully know one another, but this is as close as we can get.  There is a level of trust that has to happen for us to share the parts of ourselves that we hide from so many others.  It is true that there are places that only God can go.  God knows us from inside out.  God knows our heart.  God placed us in relationship to see glimmer of what is possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.  Just as a relationship grows, so does our relationship with God.  As we invest in that relationship, that commitment, over the course of time, our connection gets stronger and truths are revealed.

I love the scene for the play that Miller is writing.  I especially love the last few paragraphs of the monologue.  “I will give you this, my love, and I will not bargain or barter any longer.  I will love you, as sure as He has loved me.  I will discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery, save God’s own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed Himself in me.” (p. 149)

Today, I want to hear what you are thinking.  Just let us know if you are reading along.  What has stood out to you as the most significant portion of the book thus far?  What is speaking to your heart today?

Blessings! Rachel

Chapters 11 and 12

It seems a happy coincidence that we read these two chapters together because in my world they do go together. The church is made up of people and people are the cause of the problems that Christianity needs to apologize for. I really resonated with chapter 11. In fact, in high school and college, I was mad at the church. I was mad that atrocities had been committed in Jesus’ name. I was mad that the church didn’t take seriously it’s own call to serve all and care for all, I was mad at pastors who didn’t preach the socially radical message I was (and still am) sure Jesus preached and lived out in his ministry.  I was seriously contemplating converting to Judaism because of it. I could keep God and even Jesus to a certain extent but I didn’t have to deal with Christendom and the confusion of politics and faith and all those things that Miller mentions in chapter 11. Like I said, I really resonated with this chapter. But here’s what I’ve come to realize as I’ve grown up and worked in the church and experienced more of the world…

1. yeah, the church is flawed… the church is flawed because I am flawed, as are the rest of the people sitting in the pews and the people preaching from the pulpit. That was a shock for me to realize. I have a very high view of the pastoral office - there’s a lot of authority there for me… it’s hard for someone who has that much authority to be human, it’s even harder for someone who gives that much authority to people to understand that they are flawed and make mistakes.

2. you need the church… Miller himself recognizes this because he spent so much time trying to find the right church for him. I find his language distinguishing Christianity from Christian spirituality a little silly because I don’t think you can have the spirituality without the community. Everything that Jesus did was inherently communal. We are communal creatures… we don’t do well in isolation… I think the heart of Christian spirituality is living within that flawed community and being conscious about how you’re living in that community. For me prayer is more powerful when done in a group, worship is better when done in a group, Bible study is done better in a group… I mean, think about it, our faith is grounded in a meal - something always better done in a group… Okay… getting off the soap box…

3. here’s something I’ve learned from a Catholic nun: you can’t change the system when you are outside the system. To effect change within the church, within Christianity, you have to be inside.

One other comment: if Imago Dei is really as authentic as they say it is and about encouraging people to live their faith on days other than Sunday and Wednesday than I would like to be a part of that… It’s hard to get people to embrace their faith on days other than “church” days…

So, here are some questions to ponder…

1. How has the church wronged you or let you down? Have you forgiven the people within the church who hurt you? Have you forgiven the church?

2. Does what Miller described about Imago Dei congregation appeal to you? What parts in particular? How could you bring some of that to your community?

Peace be with you this week! Please share your thoughts and comments on what Don Miller is saying.