Saturday, August 30, 2008

the garden of your soul...

in reading the book "The Shack" I was reminded of this brilliant metaphor about the garden of our soul.....

I would be magnificent to actually see what each person's garden looked like. The brilliant array of colors and smells flooding your senses as you interact with people. It would be nice, too for those souls that are dying, of those that have pushed The Light from their hearts, to be engulfed by darkness, To be able to see their garden withering and perhaps we could know their intentions, or better know how to try and bring life to their soul.

------------------------------------------

These were some other beautiful insights from The Shack the following are some excerpts:

"Relationships are never about power and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself- to serve. Humans often do this - in touching the infirm and sick, in serving the ones whose minds have left to wander, in relating to the poor, in loving the very old and the very young, or even in caring for the other who has assumed a position of power over them."

The following was a passage that struck me really hard:
"Most birds were created to fly. being ground for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around. . . . You (meaning us) on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around."

Another passage that struck me was a dialog that occurred between the main character (Mack) and God. God chose to appear to Mack as an large beaming beautiful African American woman, whom Mack could call "Papa". Certainly not how most people would envision God. But from the moment I read the line where God was introduced in this manner....I thought it was brilliant, fitting, I loved it!!

Anyways, in this dialog, God was explaining to Mack why he had chosen to reveal himself to Mack in this form and God explains that:
The way God chooses to reveal or appear to us is because He loves us - it may not make sense, but it is to keep us from falling so easily back into our religious conditioning.

Which I must say I have fallen prey to: religious conditioning. But how beautiful, for God to neither be man nor woman to take the gender form of one, yet the gender name of another. For God to meet or deepest need for security in the depths of our hurt, by revealing himself to us in the way that makes us feel safest.....it's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

If God appeared, or has revealed Himself to you, how would he appear to you???

I will have to think on that for myself....and put it in my next post.

beautifully written....

I have been wanting to read the book "The Shack" for about 4 months now, since I first heard of it. I recently borrowed it from a friend and began reading it....

I haven't completed it yet, but it is a fabulous read so far. Let me give a quick preface to the book without really giving anything away. This man (names Mack), travels to a shack in the woods to meet with God, the significance of the Shack itself though is quite powerful, because it is the place where the last traces of his youngest daughter are found after she was kidnapped by a serial killer.

Now I know this doesn't sound like "ooooo that's a book I want to pick up", but I really don't think you'll be disappointed by this book.

So if you get a chance pick up a copy, give a read..... I will post some quotes from the book soon, probably right after this post, but for now, I just wanted to share how much I am loving this book and I hope you will too!

....love the least