More heavy...The Shack

I didn't even get my tooth worked on today, they were doubled booked. I guess that's what happens when you get free dental work - family can wait apparently. Oh well, I'll get it done tomorrow. Moving on...

Part of healing is coming to a better understanding of God...please don't misinterpret - I, in no way, claim to understand Him completely, but I feel him at work in my life in the things that I do that are truly good. I wish I could just type out this whole book for you to read because it has a lot of good stuff in it...but that would take entirely too long and not all of it is truth so I don't want anyone to get confused about some pretty major things if they didn't have a testimony of such things already for themselves. (Make sense?)

Anyway, here's something that Papa explains to Mack that I thought was very interesting indeed about what and who he is. "...I am what some would say 'holy, and wholly other than you.' The problem is that many folks try to grasp some of sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think." "Even though you can't fully grasp me, guess what? I still want to be known." " By nature I am completely unlimited, without bounds. I have always known fullness." "We (speaking now as God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost) created you to share in that. But then Adam chose to go it on his own, as we knew he would, and everything got messed up. But instead of scrapping the whole Creation we rolled up our sleeves and entered into the middle of the mess - that's what we have done in Jesus."

I'll stop here for a just minute and offer something extra. What we're living is not Jesus' plan. It's our Heavenly Father's plan and we are His children. Some might argue this who believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are One being and so argue that if it is one of their plans it is all of theirs. I agree, to an extent but only to suggest that they are, indeed, one having the same purpose, but are entirely complete and separate beings...later on in the book it will be explained as such, but not before it confuses things up a bit..here's that part: "We are not three gods, and we are not talking about one god with three attitudes, like a man who is a husband, father and worker. I am one God and I am three persons, and each of the three is fully and entirely the one."

This next part, while beautifully written and holds truth as it applies only to Christ is a little off the mark simply because of what I stated above. For those of you out there who believe it as it is written, I still believe it is written beautifully and have to put it down because of that. "...we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this created universe, we now became flesh and blood. It would be like this bird, whose nature it is to fly, choosing only to walk and remain grounded. He doesn't stop being the bird, but it does alter his experience of life significantly." (That's a understatement to say the least.) "Although by nature he is fully God, Jesus is fully human and lives as such. While never losing the innate ability to fly, he chooses moment-by-moment to remain grounded." - While I know Christ's decision to fullfill the law and come to earth and die for us was his choice, reading it that way helped me better understand it...but again, I don't claim to have a complete understanding. Papa continues, "Mackenzie, I can fly, but humans can't. Jesus is fully human. Although he is also fully God, he has never drawn upon his nature as God to do anything. He has only lived out of his relationship with me, living in the very same manner that I desire to be in relationship with every human being. He is just the first to do it to the uttermost - the first to absolutely trust my life within him, the first to believe in my love and my goodness without regard for appearance or consequence." I love this! I would add that not only was Christ the first to do this, but the only one to do this. Sure, I think there have been men, and women, who are good through and through, but they are still only human and not perfect. Christ is perfect.

Papa continues, "All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists within Me, within God myself. Love is not the limitation; love is flying. I am love." I think that most of us know this: God = Love. Ok, now when I read this next part, it jolted me a little but after I really thought about it I let it's truthfulness sink into my heart. "The God who is - the I am who I am - cannot act apart from love!" Beautiful. Sometimes, for me, I've been hohum and poor me because I thought or felt that Heavenly Father forgot me. That I was given experiences because He was punishing me for something I did or didn't do. Of course, I'm older now and I'd like to think wiser, so I know this to be absolutely false...that is that He's punishing me. He loves me...and he cannot act apart from that. It makes me feel really good and lighter to think about how very special I am to Him and how very fond of me He is...and it's just my nature to not even understand why.

Ok, back to the real world...now I'll delve more into what else I've learned or remembered from reading this book. It really is a good book. If anyone wants to borrow it, I'll be happy to lend it out.