08.30.08
Posted in books, christian resources
at 2:09 pm
Living overseas sometimes means that we’re a little behind on what’s going on back in the US. The internet has changed things dramatically, but sometimes we’re just out of the loop.
Today I finished The Shack by William P. Young. I had heard that there was some kind of controversy about it, but never really heard any details. This is a case of me being very glad I was out of the loop, because I was able to read this story without any outside interference.
I remember as a new Christian I read The Pilgrim’s Progress, and was amazed at how a fairly simple story was able to clarify so many things that were somewhat muddled in my head about the Christian walk. Hind’s Feet on High Places, The Lord of the Rings, even Dante’s Divine Comedy were all stories that helped a growing Christian to understand the heavier topics of our faith. The danger with allegory is that every detail of the story has the tendency to become doctrine in the mind of the reader - even if that wasn’t the author’s intention.
I don’t remember any other book making an impression on me like The Shack did. It allowed me to see God in a new and refreshing way, and more importantly, showed me how He relates to me and I to Him. It’s not a theology textbook. It’s not the Bible. It’s a simply-written story that moved me to tears on more than one occasion. Even now, I’m still scratching my head as an image from the book pops in my head and makes it hard to talk over the emotions that well up.
I’ve poked around on the internet to try and figure out what the big problem is with this book. I suppose I should have known that people get threatened when their pre-concieved and 100%-human notions about the nature of God get challenged. When a different kind of box to put God in comes along (and aren’t all allegories just a different box?) people get upset and cry heretic.
I would encourage anyone to read this book. Read it with a grain of salt if you have to. Certainly read it as the work of fiction that it is. And then stop and ask yourself what you can learn from it, and how your relationship with God might change.
And change it will…
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10.28.07
Posted in books, christian resources
at 10:23 am
Having recently dealt with the unexpected death of my own father, I’ve been sort of scared to read Pete Greig’s book God on Mute. The book basically deals with the Christian response to unanswered prayers, or the problem of pain, or why bad things happen to good people. Obviously, a subject that has been written about quite a bit. But I’ve found this book to beautifully blend the smartie, theologically-deep stuff with day-to-day life. Check out what Pete says about what he calls “the ultimate unanswered prayer” when Jesus asked that God take the cup from him.
‘Yet…’ and on that single word from Jesus, I imagine traffic screaming to a halt and birds falling from the sky. The Father’s hand pauses by the cup, heaven falls silent in suspense, hell jeers, drooling with lust for blood and power, too stupid to understand its own undoing. ‘Yet not my will’ - and perhaps the screams of delight in hell were so loud when they heard these four words from the lips of the one whose will had tormented them for so long that they never even heard the final five words at all - ‘but your will be done.’
Isn’t that where all of us need to be in our lives? Able to say that no matter what, we will give up our personal needs for God’s greater glory? This is a tough prayer to prayer the day before nails are driven through your wrists, or when the cancer is inoperable, or when your dad is mechanically breathing after a freak car accident. And I’ll be the first to admit, that kind of prayer was the furthest from my mind at that time. All I could offer to God were groans and hope that the Holy Spirit was able to piece together a prayer on my behalf.
But slowly … slowly … I think I’m getting to the point of being able to say “yet…”
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06.01.07
Posted in books, family, ministry
at 8:00 pm
I have been reading a classic C. S. Lewis book called Surprised by Joy
. It is, as he calls it, his autobiography and the story of his conversion. I’m only a few chapters in, but the second chapter, called Concentration Camp, talks about life at a boarding school he attended as a boy. I’ve known a lot of missionaries who, not having any schools to send their kids to in the country where they serve, have also sent their kids to boarding school. The results of such an education are decidedly mixed. Some who I know have done great in this kind of learning environment, some not so well.
C. S. Lewis vividly explained the tyrant that he had as a teacher at his school. This man, a supposed religious person, routinely beat the students with a cane pole. Any mistake was grounds for punishment. Lewis’ description of his teacher, who the students called “Oldie,” is enough to scare anyone away from religious education. As I read the chapter, I thought of my mom, who has often told us how teachers in her high school mistreated the students. Instead of encouraging the students to learn, they scared the students into submission. To this day, my mom, an intelligent person, has doubts about her abilities because of what several “religious” teachers told her.
I think it’s a miracle that C. S. Lewis walked away from his experience and was able to move on and grow in his faith. Unfortunately not every student in a similar position can say the same. Our work in Italy involves a certain amount of religious education. It’s my prayer that our education inspires people toward a relationship with Christ, and doesn’t scare them into some sort of “holy” fear.
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