Comentary on "The Shack"

I have been reading bits and pieces of “The Shack” again. I have heard that there are some that have trouble with the way the author presented God and especially the triune God that is a foundation to the Christian faith. Personally it has clarified some things that have never made sense to me the way man has tried to explain them.
After reading the following excerpt from chapter 8, I am beginning to realize that the basis of the trinity is love. Love is the bond and unity is the explanation for the trinity. Because we humans base our relationships around authority and power we have no grid for this kind of relationship so we try to explain it like an egg or water as steam, liquid and ice. To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him? Isaiah 40:18 These are human ways of understanding something awesome. This is all we have. Can we just admit that there is a higher way? The way is simply love. The Beatles had it right and we missed it.
The following explains the great rift between God’s ways and human ways.
“…We have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or “great chain of being” as your ancestors termed it. What you’re seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power. We don’t need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem not ours.
Really, how so?
Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge…If you had truly learned to regard each other’s concerns as significant as your own there would be no need for hierarchy.”
Is this what Jesus is trying to get across to us in chapter 17 of John’s gospel?
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one just as You and I are one – as you are in me Father and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe that you sent me.
These thoughts are rocking my little religious world and I love it! It is a paradigm shift. God is always bigger than me and that is comforting. His thoughts are nothing like my thoughts and his ways are far beyond anything I could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth so are His ways higher than mine and his thoughts higher than mine. (And remember we still don’t know how high the heavens are from the earth.) Isaiah 55:8-9
Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give Him advice or teach Him? Isaiah 40:13
We have reduced the creator to our way of thinking rather than humbling ourselves and admitting that our ways are shallow and our thoughts are limited.
God is love 1st John 3:16 God has power but He is Love.

The Bakery

Making chocolate chip cookies today I began to realize that most people in this world have never had one, even oreos, Wow! what kind of deal is that?
I also began to think about how many people who eat chocolate chip cookies have never had mud on their floors or should I just say mud floors, or for that matter mud walls.
Even though these people are so different I find that the ones who have never had a chocolate chip cookie really don't care because they don't know what they are missing. They seem quite content without them.
I, however am planning to change that a little in my own neighborhood of mud floors and walls. My landlord used to run a bakery. He came to me last year with a proposal for a bakery in his yard, which is just in back of the girls house. 1,200 USD is all he needed. He is now in the building stage of it and we are working out some deals that he would help us with. He will help some of the children in HoB to learn business and some can work for him.
I taught some of my girls to bake bread last year and they make it twice a week for breakfast for both houses. They love it and it always turns out great.
I hope to introduce some sellable items for the community. I'm not sure still about chocolate chip cookies because I can't get the chips in Moz but there are many other things that will be fun to do.
The first time I met Heidi Baker before I went to Moz I told her I wanted to make a bakery to feed the orphans. She was excited about that. Funny how things come around. They kind of sneek up on you. My intentions were good I guess.
Somewhere in Proverbs is says Man makes his plans but God orders his steps.

Dealing with grief

Sept 28, 2008

I thought I was being very clever teaching the children about who Jesus is and what he did on the cross according to Isaiah 53 at HoB church last night…

He took our griefs and sorrows…

In that room there is a deep well of griefs and an ocean of sorrow, much of it is mine but as I looked around I realized the children’s.

Teresa’s baby brother died on her back as she was trying to care for him after her mother’s death when she was just eight.

Julia had cared for a baby at another orphanage that died in her arms.

Mangueze had just cried with me that day as he once again expressed his grief over the loss of his beloved little brother earlier this year.

Dauce lost his father just a few months ago and then there was his mother, the widow along with the younger siblings there in the room.

These are just a few.

Because I know each story I know that not one has been untouched by terrible grief and deep sorrow. The kind of grief they have had in their lives should by all means have debilitated them but it hasn’t. I watch them play and sing joyfully. I see them learn, love and serve freely, enjoying this life.

They are teaching me Isaiah 53; they are living it out before me.

Oct 4, 2008

I think I am beginning to understand Job.

We all have a shallow level and a deep part. Job was experiencing God and life in his shallow parts until suffering came. Then he fell head-long into the deep well of grief. Before he realized how deep the well was he boldly spoke, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And again, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity?”

These words were spoken in Job’s shallow parts.

I too spoke boldly after my youngest son, Ezra’s death grasping desperately for comfort and understanding. Then I fell head-long into the well of grief, into my deep parts. Sometimes these days my words are like Job’s, “I long for the years gone by when God took care of me, when He lit up the way before me and I walked safely through the darkness (in that shallow place), when I was in my prime. God’s friendship was felt in my home. The Almighty was still with me and my children were around me. All who heard me praised me, all who saw me spoke well of me, for I assisted the poor in their need and the orphans who required help. I helped those without hope and they blessed me. And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.”

Job 29:1-5,11

Finding God in my deep parts, grief being a companion is difficult a times but I know He is there because He is always there, He is faithful and He knows grief personally. It is Him that makes me know that I will see Ezra again just like He saw His own son again.