First of all, Dena hon thank you from my heart for being so persistent in telling me about this book. Everybody has a thing they recommend and sometimes I feel a bit jaded about recommendations but your persistence was a gift straight from the heart of God. Thank you my persistent buddy!
My initial takeaways:
*profound comfort
*a deep knowing that everything will be alright
*knowing God and being known by God
*the simplicity and beauty of the Trinity
*which gave me the grace to embrace the relational aspect of my nature as a birthright from being made in the image of God instead of a weakness to be overcome through self-reliance
*I no longer treat my relational nature as a spiritually immature stepchild who will one day get it together and only need God and no other people
I first talked about this just a few days ago on Friday. I was really wrestling with the idea of...
| Quote: |
| The paradox between needing God and needing other people. I understand the bit about not putting your confidence in man. About not making idols out of people and expecting them to be your God. However, another truth is steadily attempting to grab my attention and that is: that not everybody is called to go live in the relational wilderness like Grizzly Adams saying "I can get whatever I need just me and God". |
Reading The Shack taught me that my desire for relationship is right as rain. It's part of my birthright for being made in the image of God. For God is in constant relationship in the Trinity.
I'm an offspring of the Trinity and the Trinity is in constant loving relationship with each other. So my desire to connect with and interact with other believers is not some weakness to be overcome it's my spiritual family resemblance showing! This truth alone will have huge ripple effect in my life. -SW
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2 comments:
I too read The Shack and cannot say enough good about it.
Except that my God dwells between the pages of that book.
When a Human makes or creates something he/she does so with inspiration.
Sometimes the inspiration comes from The Earth, or, as we might call it, 'Nature', sometimes it comes from our interaction with other humans, which we call, 'Relationships', or sometimes it's just pure imagination with only ourselves and our desire to make what we can imagine happen, like we did when we went to the Moon.
But whether we are writing stories, which are always, in one way or another, about humans and their relationships, or writing a poem about how we feel about whatever it is that is inspiring us or, likewise, creating a painting or a sculpture or capturing a moment on film or writing a song or creating music or even just sitting and dreaming and wondering, "What would it be like if..." We are imitating our Father.
For before there was anything, any thing at all, there was no thing except Elohim.
He dreamed of us and imagined us and created us in His image after His likeness and gave us sentience and a wondrous, inspiring place to enjoy it in, from the only source of inspiration available to Him, Himself.
And when He/She was done, it was all very good.
So, all that we can experience from our interactions with other humans, all that can inspire us in this exquisite Universe and all those incredible emotions that we can feel and all that we are able to taste and touch and smell and and see, all of it came from the Mind of Elohim.
Who drew His inspiration from among Himself.
Including that thrilling, messy, inspiring, beautiful, nessesary thing we call human relationships.
We need each other like Elohim needs Himself. He exists in relationship with Himself and gave us, from among Himself, all those incredible relationships we cannot live without; friendships, marriage and family.
So, yes, Sensuous Wife, I do beleive that you 'get' it. Jehovah is the God of relationships and we were created to need relationship, just like He does!
When we can stop creating God in our image, after our likeness, creating Him to be a God who desires independence from interdependence and allow Him to restore our souls, through His interaction with our conscience, to being and therefore, doing good, as He is good, then We will know Him as He is and finally be able to grasp why He created us, in His likeness, to both need and enjoy the good relationships that came to us from among Himself!
Let the party begin!
El-Yew-ther-ohs, that was beautiful man! Make that a post on your blog. I swear, you open your mouth and out comes poetry. Thank you for sending this one. -SW
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