Everything Matters

I saw this book lying around Ginger's 'new books' pile the other week - and I was wondering why she had it when I've never even heard about it. We were both going through the Women's Murder Club (James Patterson) series, and I was reading through my share of Jeffrey Archer and Robert Ludlum books which I've long forgotten. We'd occasionally pick up chiclit for those stress-free days, when our mind was too filled up with all these plots of espionage and homicide. Incidentally, I was trying to start the Bourne series this week - but I've been struggling with Ludlum's circuitous plots that I just might not finish it.

So I pick up this book, at random - just because I needed a break, and because I saw it on all the bestseller lists at the bookstore the other day.

And I'm glad I did.

I just finished reading THE SHACK by William Young. It's a story about Mack, whose daughter was mysteriously abducted and murdered near an abandoned shack somewhere in the wilderness. A few years later, he receives a suspicious note from 'God' who invites him to the same shack for the weekend. Intrigued, and lost in a cloud of his Great Sadness, he drives to the shack in the dead of winter - and finds something there that changes his life, and his world forever.

In this modern day when talking about God or your faith is never commonplace or the norm, when God is taken out of schools, when His name cannot be mentioned (lest we be found politically incorrect), when religiosity becomes a lifestyle choice, when SELF-help and SELF-actualization is celebrated, when society and culture seemed to have bogged down, when the world has become so dark and dangerous that we question God's hand, or His existence in this place of misery, THE SHACK offers us a view of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in human and everyday language almost anyone can relate to.

I was deeply moved by the character, Mack's inner struggles and questions on God's love, on forgiveness, on being a child of God, on calling Him Lord (and therefore Master of our lives), on His perfect will, on His wisdom, and of His 'fondess' for EACH of us. I see myself in Mack, in all his questions, in all his uncertainties and his lack of faith. It rebuked me, and reminded me of how finite my knowledge and understanding of the world and of my life is. I was reminded of how I act like such a child in the midst of such an amazing Father. His love is infinite, and He loves ALL of us UNCONDITIONALLY.

An inifinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.
-A.W. Tozer

I know that I am a work in progress. I am simply made perfect because of Him, and through Him, we are able to live a life a tinge closer to what He wants us to be.

God DOES NOT promise us a perfect life, when we surrender our hearts to Him. We are made human, and therefore, human intellect, understanding and emotion can only take so much - and life is bound to breakdown at some point. But God's love and His grace sees us through this. Sometimes, it is in these struggles that we are able to see His glory - and we are again, stubbornly reminded, to glorify Him (and Him alone).

There are times when we wonder whether this life is worth living, whether whatever we do here is even worth mentioning, whether God even listens, or whether He even cares. God knows us - He knows our name, He knows our heart and He has placed us in this world for a purpose. Yet, oftentimes, we judge Him, we question Him, we go ahead of Him.

...If anything matters, then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again.
- 'Sarayu', THE SHACK

I have never been this moved by anything in a long, long time. I didn't intend to, but I found tears rolling down my cheeks every few chapters along the way. And I'm not even exaggerating.

Find the time to read THE SHACK. It's only about 200+ pages, the words are easy to understand, the letters are big enough. It's relatively short - but each page will bring you to a new perspective, that can and should change how you view God forever.

Read it. It just might be what the whole world needs at this moment. It just might be what YOU need at the moment.

I know I did.