Have you read "The Shack?"

May I recommend a book to you? If you have not read "The Shack" go beg/borrow/steal a copy (ok...no stealing, but you can beg or borrow!). I read the book literally sitting on the edge of my seat. This is a novel that time after time reveals who God is to us, but in ways that shakes the establishment.

Twenty two months ago Paul Young (no relation) wrote the best-selling novel, "The Shack." He wrote it for his children, based on his own 11-year journey to redemption. The book was never intended to be a treatise on the Holy Spirit, but is a passion-laced recount of how God desires a relationship with His children. He also emphasizes that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. This is not theology, it is an allegory.

If that is his emphasis, then he accomplished it. Through the use of allegories and imagery, he has created not only a terrific story of the grace and mercy of God, but he also helps introduce us to a God who is personal, a friend, someone who really knows us...yet loves us.

He graphically shows that Jesus did not come to set up a new religion, but to destroy religion by having a personal relationship with us. He shows how that Jesus will do anything to reach out to us and the depths He will go in pursuit of a relationship with us.

This author has successfully, though controversially, pictured a God who is willing to make Himself known to us so His children can see and hear Him. If this is controversial, count me in. I want to know God and I want Him to make Himself known to me, whatever that takes. I do not want to ever be so rigid, so "religious," that God can't shake me up and show me who He really is.

Before I quit, I have an observation. The more legalistic a person is, the harder time they have with this book. The author carefully, skillfully and blatantly cuts through the legalistic and moralistic panderings of the religious, and leaves them in shreds...unintentionally. I do not see that as one of his goals, but in his seeking to know God, this was the inevitable result of his story.

Go read it, and let me know how you did. Hopefully, there will come a deeper understanding of how much God really loves you. But don't be surprised if your pre-conceived ideas are tweaked...even a little, perhaps stretched more than you thought they could be. Go ahead...I dare you!