The Shack Book Club

excerpt from "The Shack"

Almost as if on cue, a blue jay landed on the kitchen windowsill and began strutting back and forth. Papa reached into a tin on the counter and sliding the window open, offered Mr. Jay a mixture of grains that she must have kept just for that purpose. Without any hesitation, and with a seeming air of humility and thankfulness, the bird walked straight to her hand and began feeding.
"Consider our little friend here," she began. "most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around." She paused to let Mack think about her statement. "You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around.".......
"Living unloved is like clipping a bird's wings and removing its ability to fly. Not something I want for you."
"Mack, pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly." She waited a moment, allowing her words to settle. "And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place." (Pg, 97)

What an incredible analogy of how we were meant to live as God's children. How truly we are to live, to be loved and to love. But unfortunately life has sometimes clipped our wings and we don't live up to our full potential of what God has designed for us. Are there things in your life that have been unresolved? Have you forgotten how to fly?

Matt. 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father (Papa) feeds them. Are you not much more VALUABLE then they?

Book Club week One

Well I know that I am a little late in posting my thoughts on our Book club. We are reading the book "The Shack" by William Young and it started last Wed night and we will be meeting every other Wed night. We had 11 ladies out and the discussion was so good. The things we got out of the first couple of chapters were amazing.
I asked Maureen if she could right down a few thought on how the evening went and what we got out of it. So here are a few of her thoughts. Thanks, Maureen for your insight.

Nature vs Nurture perhaps will be apparent as we delve deeper.

I also thought and I agree with Julie that Mack was a religious man a pharisee of sorts.

Book smart but not life smart in the sense of a personal relationship with God however Nan was just the opposite her relationship was purely personal.

Her comfort in knowing The Father as Papa kinda like Gary calling God Daddy.

I think Mack loved her way of worshiping but was conditioned as we all may have been growing up.So he clung to her freedom in Christ to get him through the Great sadness.

Stay tuned, I am sure there will be other comments to blog. So if your reading this book but can't make it out to our discussions please feel free to comment at anytime. Look forward to hearing what you get out of this book.

Happy Reading!!!!

The Shack

Well I thought I would just let people know that I am going to be hosting a book club starting in April. A lot have already read the book "The Shack" or are in the midst of reading. If you have already read it that's OK because there is so much in the book to discover that we can together read it again and will probably see more in it the second time around.
So mark April 2 on your calenders and plan to attend. My house starting at 7pm.
It should be a time of exploring our walk with God.
I am going to include some comments about the book that I got off the website. So see you April 2.

**Jason the lord has led us to a small number of life-changing books and this one heads the list. When you close the back cover you will be changed.

Dale Lang, (rockcanada.org), father of student killed in Columbine copycat shooting

**You will be captivated by the creativity and imagination of the shack, and before you know it you’ll be experiencing god as never before. William Young’s insights are not just captivating, they are biblically faithful and true. Don’t miss this transforming story of grace.

Greg Albrecht, Editor, Plain Truth Magazine

I read and wept and slept and read again. I am full of words, inexpressible thoughts, shades and hues of hope and light and joy.

Larry Gillis, pastor/counselor

This is from the author's bio:

These are some of the facts of my life, but they don’t begin to tell the real story. That would take much more room than is available here. The journey has been both incredible and unbearable, a desperate grasping after grace and wholeness. These facts don’t tell you about the pain of trying to adjust to different cultures, of life losses that were almost too staggering to bear, of walking down railroad tracks at night in the middle of winter screaming into the windstorm, of living with an underlying volume of shame so deep and loud that it constantly threatened any sense of sanity, of dreams not only destroyed but obliterated by personal failure, of hope so tenuous that only the trigger seemed to offer a solution. These few facts also do not speak to the potency of love and forgiveness, the arduous road of reconciliation, the surprises of grace and community, of transformational healing and the unexpected emergence of joy. Facts alone might help you understand where a person has been, but often hide who they actually are.

The Shack will tell you much more about me than a few facts ever could. In some ways my life is partly revealed in both characters—Willie and Mack. But an author is always more. I hope that someday we can share a cup of coffee, or for me, an extra hot chai tea with soy. If that happens, and if you want, I will tell you a little more about the bigger story and you can tell me some of yours.

That about sums up my life. For me, everything is about Jesus and Father and the Holy Spirit, and relationships, and life is an adventure of faith lived one day at a time. Any aspirations, visions and dreams died a long time ago and I have absolutely no interest in resurrecting them (they would stink by now anyway). I have finally figured out that I have nothing to lose by living a life of faith. I know more joy every minute of every day than seems appropriate, but I love the wastefulness of my Papa’s grace and presence. For me, everything in my life that matters, is perfect!