Read Write

The Shack by WM. Paul Young

I’ll leave the summary to the man, woman or child that penned the back of the book. The Shack by WM. Paul Young is the latest book I have conquered. In short, it is about Mack, a father, whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered. Mack had an unstable relationship with God, not a complete believer, and ends up having a conversation with God that changes his perspective. While reading it I jotted down some possible useful quotes…drum roll…here they are:

“There is something joyful about storms that interrupt routine…release you from expectations, performance demands, and the tyranny of appointments and schedules…united by a mutual excuse…” (Young 17).

We have all experienced this. It’s rainy outside. Can’t go outside or I’ll get all wet. So we stay in and for some reason are able to relax more, maybe watch a movie or enjoy reading without feeling guilty. I thought it was clever the way he put it.

“…I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature…for me to appear to you as a woman and suggest that you call me ‘Papa’ is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning…[you are not here to] reinforce your religious stereotypes” (Young 95).

I have been cynical of religion over my hall of fame career, and still stand by the “and rightfully so”. However, I don’t believe I am as cynical as I used to be, or at least with the idea of God. I think insomnia can lead to this and other imaginary conversations someone may have. The above quote is one of many that enable me to lean to the less cynical side. Below there are more of these quotes and I think they allow people to have their personal relationship with god rather than getting into religion and the I’m right and your wrong type of debates – and then a war breaks out.

“…pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. And if it’s left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place” (Young 99).

The idea is birds were created to fly and humans were created to love/be loved. We can all relate to this. Personally dealing with insomnia I can relate to this. I graduated college with a sleeping disorder and for awhile didn’t feel alive anymore. Until recently I felt that way. I guess a person has to find something they love – a person, a cat (Bobby D!). For me it’s been both of those and also the start of reading and writing again and constantly listening to music.

“Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown” – unknown author - (Young 117).

This is what I was getting at with my reaction to the previous quote. I recently realized that to truly live you have to keeping experiencing and learning – add some books to your life, a new cat, a girlfriend and conversation with some peeps and that enables us to grow. As for the risk part, posting a blog about pizza with semen I think qualifies. I will be getting into some more risks soon.

Mack is talking with Jesus, and Jesus says, “…you’ve seen so little. For now most of what exists in the universe will be seen and enjoyed only by me, like special canvasses in the back of an artist’s studio” (Young 146).

I like this because I’ve got special canvasses that nobody’s seen. And that risk I talked about above includes showing people these canvasses.

“…You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules…like responsibility and expectations, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty…rules cannot bring freedom; they have only the power to accuse” (Young 205).

I like this quote too like I liked the above ones too – otherwise I wouldn’t have posted them. But I like this one in particular because over the last few sleepless years I think I have become less judgmental. I mentioned becoming less cynical about religion. That along with simply not judging people anywhere near as much I believe comes from experience. People experience more and their flaws and insecurities are exposed more – most notably to themselves, and thus, why judge another person for trying to do their “thang”.

“God is a verb” – Buckminister Fuller - (Young 196). “…living, loving, responding, growing, reaping, changing, running, dancing, singing…Humans have a knack for taking a verb that is alive and full of grace and turning it into a dead noun or principle that reeks rules – then something growing and alive dies” (Young 206).

These two quotes are a good way to end this blog and explains my gained perspective from reading this book.