Often when a person is hurt they'll express it in anger. Mature and trusting is the friend who will let you see the pain. And lucky are you to see it.

just started writing... more to do before posting

There are some bandwagons in our culture that border on being overcrowded... and I jump on some of them. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love U2 and The Office, to name two.

But sometimes I dig my heels in and refuse to participate in the "herd mentality". That's what I call it when I'm not in it. I have never seen that Christmas movie called, "A Christmas Story". The one with a Macauley Culkin look-a-like... the one that TBS shows for 24 hours on Dec 25. That's one I've tenaciously avoided.

I had also extended some vigor saying no to being the 4,000,001st person to read "The Shack". Dozens has asked me about it. Finally the kicker came and I had to read it: My mother, the woman who brought me into this world, gave it to me for Christmas. There you go.

What did I think of it?
Random thoughts:
1.) The writing was not engaging... to me. So that was a struggle. But it could be that I've been reading alot of Flannery O'Connor and EVERYBODY's writing pales to her.

2.) The main character entered the book struggling with what many people struggle with... a view of an unhappy God who is an angry taskmaster. I, like the author, grieve when I see this... in my heart or in others.

3.) The whole embodied God the Father and God the Holy Spirit simply seemed unbiblical to me, not to mention cheesy. Some might say I just didn't like that they were both female. Maybe. But I didn't like God the Father any more when He morphed from Big African American Lady to Cool White Guy with Ponytail. Some may say I'm just simple-minded and the Scriptures say that only one member of the Trinity is embodied, yet the Father and Spirit are knowable... and I know them and have experienced them.

If you have not read
Desiring God
The Pleasures of God
Knowing God
The Holiness of God

read those first... they show you a happy and holy Triune God who reveals Himself to us with a depth & strength that leads to intimacy that--forgive me--cheesy stuff cannot.

More on The Shack some pro some con:
1. abbreviated Review by
2. LONG review
3. Reading the Shack in Good Faith
seems like helpful balance..

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. ~Frederick Buechner

Ashes... ash wednesday explanation here

You can only begin to get better when you know that God won't leave you even if you never get better.

--Steve Brown