Revamping My Thinking

Well, I did it!! Last night I finished The Shack by William Young, and stayed up late thinking about the book and what I had just experienced in reading it. As I sat there and thought about my previous blog, I realized I probably overstated my response to what I had read when I said that I had made some paradigm shifts. What actually went through my mind were some examinations of my paradigms and I had to see whether they were founded in Scripture or just in the course of my upbringing and influence of what other people thought.

I loved the book and the way it made me examine myself and what I believe. I do recommend it. You might look at some of what others say on their website. But I would warn you not to read the ones who spoil it by telling you too much of the plot. It is much better reading the story with little to no knowledge of what is going to happen. Honestly, I had to rethink what I had just read to make sure I could decipher what was real and what was not.......rather, what was truth and what was fiction. It is a novel. But I, somehow, had led myself to believe it was a biography. which probably made it even more challenging to my thinking.

The revamping of my thinking has been to review the book afresh through my biblical grid of knowledge from years of studying Scripture. So, if we were able to sit and visit about the book after you read it, it would be great to get into the Word together and find the Truths that were there all the time, just not stated in the way Young expressed it. That is a part of the revamping of my thinking I experience..............seeing Truth with new lenses.

One question I am most often asked when talking with others about the LORD is that one which plagues most people, "If God is such a loving God, why is there so much suffering?" The Shack deals with the hidden concepts that are beneath the surface of that question with amazing creativity, challenging the reader's beliefs about God and His character.

It is not often that I finish a book with the desire to pick it up and start it all over again. I will probably wait until I get my own copy (which I ordered) so I can mark it up with freedom, noting references to Scripture that come to my mind, so I can share them with others.

Before I close this ......... what I consider to be my final comments on The Shack, I have to make a disclaimer now. As with any book, I usually find things with which I disagree and The Shack is no exception. With that said.................go read it anyway!!!! ENJOY!!!