Book Recommendation: The Shack

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I am reading The Shack by William P. Young. For those of you grieving the loss of a child, the questions that arise from that pain and the sometimes disjointed and disconnected feelings we have toward God in the aftermath of a such a loss... I would say, "Read The Shack."

This quote is from the back cover summary of the story:

"Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his beter judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he find there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!"

So, with that said, lay down all your preconcieved, religious notions about God, pain and the way tragedy occurs and read The Shack. A novel filled with thought provoking situations faced in the human realm everyday, and an offer to challenge those of us who would put God inside a box, framed only by the statement of faith in our denomination of choice without a relationship born of our faith and His Word. Is The Shack a book to base your doctrine and theology on? Not hardly. Nor would I venture to guess that its writer would want anyone to examine the book and base their faith solely on what he writes. I cannot even readily say that I agree 100% with the premise presented in the story - but it does make me think, search an ask of God what it is I have wrong about Him. And that makes the read much more worth it...

I believe the book presents the proposition of what would happen if we took our questions to God, and in the process stopped viewing Him in purely human terms. It is not for the faint of heart, and perhaps it is not for the unseasoned sojourner in the stream of this life we walk with God. In my heart, this book has provoked me to ask God what is a truth to take to heart, and to comparitively place this book against the Scriptures for evidence of truth. It is something I always do.

When reading the book, "Hinds Feet On High Places," I discovered that the writer later turned to New Age relativism and left the roots of her faith founded in her as a child on the mission field. Does this insight make her allegory less of a story?

There are those who argue that Lewis' "Narnia" fiction or Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" bear the same striking marks of fantasy and absurdism where God is concerned. But that makes them no less valuable to us in the Christian world because we are required to dig in and learn more about God as a result of our perusal. These again are not foundations of doctrine, but highlights and pointers that reveal to us a God worthy of being searched out, worshipped, respected and believed in. All of it must be submitted by standard to His Word and His Work to be marked as valid and pointing to God. Any student of God's Word must examine the claims and the truths as they are presented by anyone who would write about God.

There are a number of arguments that have been raised based on this book - which I do not have the time or the intention to entertain. I see a lot of merit in the story about Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, Redemption, Reconciliation and Relationship that makes it a worthwhile read.

Read it with the heart and the eyes of someone reading Fiction - just the way you would read John Grisham or Danielle Steele - then balance that with your study of God's Word, your involvement in the local church and by asking God through prayer to reveal Himself to you in more intimate and real ways as you make this journey.

I am sure that when we surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and His teaching through God's Word - we will find Him in a blade of grass, a secular or a worship song, any place where Creation exists - after all, Creation cries out that He exists. The truth is eternity and salvation come through a relationship with God through our faith and by His grace in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our faith is born and brought to maturity by the hearing and applying of God's Word on an individual basis. In light of that truth, I can still recommend this book as a fiction novel that will challenge us to ask God where we have put Him into a box. Read on.

A Strand of Three Cords...

My heart is so burdened as I weigh the Scripture for today's post. I want to go back and pull up the questions that I posted on Monday:

As you consider this verse of Scripture and how it reflects the season of grief you are in, please also consider the following questions:

1.) Do you feel entangled by your grief? If yes, please explain.

2.) Do you have nightmares surrounding your loss that haunt your sleep? If yes, please explain.

3.) Do you feel that grief has laid hold of you and you are consumed by thoughts of death?

4.) Does anything compare to the suffering you are experiencing in the aftermath of your child's death?

I asked do you feel entangled by your grief, and I want to say that at first I felt so alone and uncertain in my grief that I could barely think. I busied myself, frittered away my days.

I remember moments when driving where death so consumed me that I thought, "If I just hit that tree really fast and really hard I would die, too." Almost as quickly, I would see my beautiful daughters and my husband and know that this irrational thought would not be a solution - only create more problems and more pains for those I loved the most. But, that irrational thought came from a place deep inside of me that was hurting so badly I could not seem to find resolution even in my most ardent prayers. It was a desparate thought in desparate times. A place where I just needed to stop the hurting going on in my heart, my head and my life.

This Scripture helps me to know that God understands that I hurt this way, that sorrow often leads to thoughts of death. Not that it is okay to entertain those thoughts, but that we can take those thoughts as ugly and devestating as they are to our Lord God and entrust Him with the pain that brings us to them.

This is how sorrow and grief entangle us - becoming a snare rather than a journey. Being stuck in our grief is one of the worst places I have found myself. Unable to really function, unwilling to ask for help... Afraid that one more thing, one more loss, one more painful moment would send me teetering over the edge. But, God doesn't want us to go through grief alone. He wants us to find Him in our grief and find encouragement and support from others as we go along the way.

The enemy will tell us anything we are willing to believe: "It will never get better." "God doesn't care, He let your child die." "Even if God does care, how do you know He's there?" "You'd be better off dead, at least it wouldn't hurt so much." He will even tell you, "There is no God."

But we have to shake off the lies of the enemy and stop buying what he's been selling us. That's why even one Scripture can be such a benefit to the grieving because God can take that one Scripture and open your heart toward Him with it.

The lies of the enemy are like heavy ropes. The more he wraps you up in them, the harder it is for us to break free. Pretty soon, we cannot even see the light. We are so weary from carrying around the weight of our entanglements that we just want it to end. That is when a wave of grief will wash over us - and in our bound state we won't even be able to resist the way it washes deeper and deeper into the despair and agony of death. We are soon over our head in deep waters of grief, entangled with the lies and doubts planted in our hearts and we begin to sink. Call on Him. Cry out to Jesus, get involved in a group where the goal is seeking God in your grief, and remember that any entanglement that you are facing can be easily broken by the truth of God's Word.

Begin to replace the lies of the enemy with the truth of God's Word. When the enemy calls out "He doesn't care about your pain." Call that lie, what it is - A LIE. Rebuke it with the truth, "You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?" Psalm 56:8 (NKJV). God records the things that cause us pain in a remebrance book and stores our tears in a bottle, your suffering is important to God and He has a plan for it.

When the enemy tells you the Lord has abandoned you in your suffering, remind yourself of these beautiful words from in Deuteronomy "6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." - Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

And if you are inclined to claim a New Testament promise, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." - Hebrews 13:5 (NIV).

I found that God repeated this promise in this wording 8 times as translated in the NIV.

If you are lacking hope, look up Scriptures with the word hope. If you lack joy, look up and focus on Scriptures that talk about joy. Find a way to knit God's Word into your heart. There is more to this life than what we live. Ecclesiastes tells us God has created an intuitive nature in us that seeks out eternity (Ecclesiastes 3). Our lives are made up of seasons where emotions and circumstances play their part in pointing us straight to God. We were created for eternity and all of this life is but a breath compared to life in eternity. Do no grow weary in doing good, for you will reap a harvest in God's appointed time. (Galatians 6).

We cannot give up on one another either. This is why we must find a support environment that will help us work through our grief. Hebrews 10:25-26 tells us that we are not to give up in meeting together, but instead to meet together to encourage one another and all the more as we see the day of Christ approaching. Stand with one another - it is Life Support. When we find a common thread with which to allow God to weave our lives together - we will find hope in the hearts of those around us. We will pray together, unearth truth together, cry together and yes, we will even laugh together as we journey toward meaning and healing in grief.

Salve for our wounded soul:

"Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NKJV)

When we stand with another person in our grief we are a two strand cord, but when we add God to our relationship, we become a cord of three strands that cannot easily be broken. If you are entangled and snared in the depths of your grief - cry out to Jesus and let Him take you by the hand. Then, grab the hand of a grieving friend and you will find your way out of the valley of the shadow of death!

Listen to the following song and think of the power that raised Jesus from the dead, that power is available to you right now. We need Him, we need him to come to our rescue and to hold us when we cry. We need you Jesus!

Healing is a Choice

Our pastor, Robert Morris, taught an extensive series on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 recently at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. When he delivered his message on Matthew 5:4, he raised a question that begs asking in this context:

What if we all grieved over our sin and what it cost God the way we grieve over the death of those we love?

I think about that each time I consider God's sacrifice against my own son's death. Could I possibly view it in any other way? Placing my son's death against the backdrop of the cross leaves me with a heart that cries out to God, "There is no comparison, Lord. You paid the higher price."

I believe when my son died, God gave me a choice, just as He has done since He first created Adam and Eve in the garden. You may be asking yourself, What kind of choice is that?

It's the choice every one of us who suffer grief and loss must make, and I am so grateful that when August 23, 2005 came to my door - I had His perspective in my heart and not just my own. If I had been left only to my emotions, my responses and my devices... I might have just thrown myself against the machines, never asked for a test and be pining away in a hospital room watching my son's withering body - all dead except the life being pumped into it by medication and machine... and I might have yet to say goodbye to him.

I thank God every single day that I was able to see Justin's death in light of eternity and in light of His mercy and grace.

New Life Ministries has a book called, "Healing is a Choice." And, I believe that this applies broadly - we must be willing to submit what hurts to God and allow Him to minister to our pain and our suffering in His mercy and grace. We must choose the Healing and Grace of God - He gives it freely, but He is such a gentleman that He never forces His will or His way on anyone. Any person who comes to God comes to Him by their free will and their faith in who His Word declares Him to be and what His promises tell us He will do. He alone is the comforter, the healer and the lover of our souls.

In the depth of this kind of pain and despair we may find ourselves unable to even pray or read His Word. At times we may think the future is just as void and empty as our arms are without ouou loved one to hold. We may even think there is no longer a future to live for us. We are just destined to exist and survive without joy, without hope and without love because our hearts have been so broken in our loss.

God's Word tells us we are not just survivors, we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. There is life to be had and lived again, the death of those we love is not the end of life itself, just an opportunity to live it in a different light.

I believe that God's Word promises us something so different than just existence - Jesus said He came to bring us life, life to the full. I have seen that promise at work in my life and witnessed it in the grief of others.

Tony Dungy, head coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts who won the Super Bowl in recent years, lost his oldest child, James, to suicide in December, 2005. All the while Coach Dungy was leading one of the most celebrated teams in NFL history - he was suffering the worst agony one can imagine... He was missing his son.

Coach Dungy's loss came on the heels of my own loss. I remember barely being able to identify his loss because my own grief overwhelmed me. I could scarcely handle my own feelings much less process the tragedy in other people's lives - especially people I had no occasion to truly know.

At the 19th Annual Athletes in Action Super Bowl Breakfast on February 4, 2006, Tony Dungy delivered an emotional and inspiring speech to the crowd who gathered for breakfast that day leading up to the biggest football game of the year. He spoke of many things, but shared for the first time publicly what his son's death taught him.

Here are a few quotes from that speech:

Of his son, James, he said:

“He was a Christian and is today in heaven. He was struggling with the things of the world and took his own life. People ask how I could come back to work so soon. I’m not totally recovered, I don’t know if I ever will be, it’s still ever-painful...”

I can so relate to Coach Dungy's feelings and statement about his son's death, faith and desire to move forward with life. It still hurts the deepest places of my heart to think of Justin in a place where I can't hold him, talk to him, hear him laugh and see him live. But, at the same time it brings me great comfort and joy to know he is safely kept in the loving presence of our God for eternity and when my time comes to enter those pearly gates - my son will be among the cloud of witnesses who usher me in and welcome me home. A great reunion with our loved ones who have gone before and the ultimate reconciliation with our Heavenly Father who has been moving us toward that very day since time began.

Of His son's death Coach Dungy shared this:

“If God had talked to me before James’ death and said his death would have helped all these people, it would have saved them and healed their sins, but I would have to take your son, I would have said no, I can’t do that.

“But God had the same choice 2,000 years ago with his Son, Jesus Christ, and it paved the way for you and me to have eternal life. That’s the benefit I got, that’s the benefit James got, and that’s the benefit you can get if you accept Jesus into your heart today as your Savior.”

And Coach Dungy has so eloquently expressed the truth of our God in beautiful godly perspective. In our flesh, it is hard for us to fathom why children die before they have lived a full life, why murder, suicide and premature death are factors in our Christian life - why is the price so high? We just want our loved ones back, our hearts to mend and normal--or something like it-- to return to our lives.

Not one of us would do what God has done - willingly give up our child to save the lives of others. But, God loves us that much - can we not love Him in return in spite of our pain?

At a "life celebration" earlier this year for a 2 year old who drowned in her family's pool, the mother said, "To whom much is given, much is required." And, this to me is where the truth of God's comfort comes into our grief and our lives as the bereaved. We must view our losses in light of eternity, of Kingdom living and with the cross as the setting for our present sufferings.

To give us some perspective I have drawn on some verses of Scripture that I pray will not only give us hope, but give us a new desire - an opportunity to do more than just exist and survive the death of our loved one. I pray that this will give you the desire to live - truly live again in the comfort, peace and mercy of our God by extending that comfort, peace and mercy to others as He wipes the tears from your eyes.

Salve For Our Wounded Souls

Considering the following verses of Scripture:

"he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken." ~ Isaiah 25:8 (NIV)

"The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." ~
Isaiah 51:11 (NIV)

"and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." ~
Isaiah 35:10 (NIV)

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all." ~ 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 (NIV) [emphasis mine]

"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them Iby the cross." ~ Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV) [emphasis mine]

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." ~ Rev 21:4-5 (NIV) [emphasis mine]

That term in Colossians 2:14 for "canceled" and in Revelation 21:4 for "wipe" is the Greek Word

exaleipho. Colossians 2:14 is translated more literally in The Complete Word Study New Testament (by AMG Publishers, Spiro Zodhaiates, ed.) as "blotted out" or "wipe away" in Revelation 21:4. That word in the Greek is a combination of two Greek words:

Ek - which means "out," and aleipho - which means "to anoint." The New Spirit Filled Life Bible (NKJV) (Hayford, ed., Thomas Nelson Publishers) explains the definition this way: "...to wipe out, wipe off, wash. Used metaphorically, the word signifies a removal or obliteration, whether of sins (Acts 3:19), or writing (Colossians 2:14), of a name (Revelation 3:5), or of tears (Revelations 21:4).

Let that settle down on you a minute. As God cleans away our tears and washes our faces removing the marks of grief in its season, He anoints us with His Spirit. If the Scripture is true which is found in Luke 12:48, then we must weigh the true purpose in our suffering or else it is all for nothing.

I submit this passage to you in context:

"The Lord answered, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 "That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." ~Luke 12:42-48 (NIV)

I found this commentary on the passage Luke 12:42-48 at Word of Truth Radio:

"The main idea here is that we are accountable for the knowledge, resources, abilities, etc. that God has blessed us with. If we have been given much, then He expects that much more from us. The good news is that all of these blessings come from the Lord and He realizes that humans are not perfect and that we can't do anything right without His help (John 15:5), but we can do all things through Jesus Christ as He strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). So let's ask the Lord to give us His wisdom and Spirit so that we can be faithful stewards over what He has entrusted to us. "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."(1 John 2:28)"

If the truth is that when God wipes away our tears in His comfort that we are to receive that as an anointing to minister to others who are hurting as we do - then how should we respond? What will be held accountable for?

I often say that with great suffering comes a great anointing. King Saul of Israel (1 Samuel) received a great anointing to be the first King of all of Israel. Yet, he abused that anointing, even ran from it at first. He did not do as the Lord had bid him, He did not honor God with the anointing and God removed it from him. What will you do with the anointing God is giving you through the suffering of grief?

Mary, the mother of Christ, suffered much the way you or I have in our losses. She knew He was God's Son, but did that change her suffering as she watched her son tried and crucified as a criminal. Did it suffer her any less to know He was God's Son when He died there before her eyes? Did she have any less questions than you or I about why death came that day and why it had to hurt so bad to fulfill the call of God on her life? Mary was not divine, nor god. She was a woman of flesh and blood, limited and emotional just like you or I. Her son may have come back to assure those who loved Him He would indeed return again, but she still lived out the rest of her days in teh agony of separation from her firstborn child.

How did Mary live out those days?

We find her in Acts 1:13-14:

" When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." (NIV)

There she was among the apostles and the women who had traveled with and ministered to the needs of her son, even with her own sons she was among them praying and worshipping God. She chose life.

Mary did not give up when her life did not take shape the way she had planned, when it resembled more of a curse than a blessing. She made the choice to live on in her son's legacy, the Legacy of Christ. Mary chose to believe in the God whom she served, even in the death and pain of loss that came with surrendering her firstborn trusting more in the purposes of God than her own ability to understand.

Come, On... Sweet Friends... Let's live on in Christ, trusting our God. Our children's legacy did not have to die with them - they are carried forward in the lives of those who loved them, who tell their story and declare the praise of God so merciful that He meets us in our mourning, speaks to our grief and loves us through the most painful circumstances we could ever experience. He is God, our comfort, our strength and our ever present help in times of trouble. Trust Him, live on in His glory!

A Season of Grief

I posed these three questions with the Scripture on Monday:

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*How do you understand this verse of Scripture?

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* Do you realize that God appoints season of weeping and mourning in our lives?
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* Does it comfort you to realize that weeping brings laughter and mourning a time to dance?
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* What are we to do in our season's of grief?

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As I read and allow this Scripture speak to my grief, I hear God telling me grief is an appointed season of life. Just as the physical seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are the natural progression of a year - so mourning and weeping are natural seasons of the human existence.

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For me this allows me to hold onto the hope that just as the bitter cold and desolation of winter is relieved by the warm sunshine and new growth of Spring... so it is with grief, there will come a day with our weeping will turn to laughter and our mourning to joyful dancing!

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We can read it. We can process it with our minds. But, will that truth every make its way to our heart. Like to Narnians under the rule of the white witch will be stuck in a perpetual state of grief that we never recover from?

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Again, as New Life Ministries assures us, "healing is a choice." It requires soul searching, Scripture believing, hard, gut-wrenching work. The expectation for life and this journey to be easy is not the promise of Scripture - over and over again we see the righteous taking the harder, more narrow way and finding their reward may even elude them this side of heaven. But, does that make the promises of God less valid or true. Are the true promises of God that we will experience a "WOW" manifestation of His blessing and miracles in our lives - yes, that could be true... But, what of those quieter, more subtle appearances... The gentle whispers in the midst of our storms that quiet our hearts and sooth our souls.

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I think the truer realization is the moments when the storm calms around us while it rages outside of the protection of our relationship with God. Galatians 5:22-23 promises us Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control will be manifested all at the same time in our lives - no matter our circumstances when we surrender control and every circumstance of our lives to God.

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I've never know this to be more true than in that last year with Justin. Going to pick him up from the police on a cool October morning, having him arrested and hearing him beg me to get him out of jail, watching the slow stages of change and growth come over him in radical ways that summer - the uncertainty of the future mixed with the certainty of my faith... In all of those things I experience supernatural love, peace, patience, even kindness, even goodness, I found myself faithful to God's calling in my life, I found gentleness and compassion even when my son was out of control and violent, I found the ability to control my thoughts and emotions and my responses even when the circumstances were out of control. And more than all of that I found the Joy of the Lord. The joy does not come in such difficulty because I choose joy - it comes from the things I choose to submit to God in exchange for His joy. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 comes from my ongoing uninterupted relationship with God.

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I choose not to let my life circumstances and traumas steal the Joy of the Lord from me. To steal His Spirit and His influence in my life. Since that time, I have had to allow the Lord to lead me through the valley of the shadow of death - but I also have to understand that this is a season of despair and pain, but that pain will bring what God promises in Psalm 126:5 (NIV) "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy."

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We must choose to live on in the Joy of the Lord, surrendering what hurts to the Healing power of God and allowing Him to walk us through this season to a place of truth, light and new life beyond our loss.

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SALVE FOR OUR WOUNDED SOULS:

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Psalm 126
A song of ascents.

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1 When the LORD brought back

the captives to Zion,

we were like men who dreamed.

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2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,

our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations,

"The LORD has done great things for them."

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3 The LORD has done great things for us,

and we are filled with joy.

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4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD,

like streams in the Negev.

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5 Those who sow in tears

will reap with songs of joy.

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6 He who goes out weeping,

carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,

carrying sheaves with him.

Tuesday's In Other Words: His Comfort For Us

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“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own. ”

~Abraham Lincoln~

What does this look like in your life?
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Has someone been there for you? Stepped up and stood up in your hour of need. I have been on the receiving and the giving end of this noble pursuit. Today, one occasion stands out more clearly for me than any other.

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It was during our church's annual "First" Conference. A series of messages offered over the first four days of the first week of the new year. In 2008, I attended the conference with great expectation. Gospel Bill was closing out the services on Wednesday night. Though I had never heard him speak before, my friend, Mary, said he is a precious man of God with a heart to reach children with the Gospel of Christ.

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The message was wonderful. A time of prayer and ministry for healing was offered. I received on many levels. As I walked out into the hall with the handful of friends I had been sitting with, the women began to talk about a two year old girl who had fallen into her family's pool that afternoon. The family was among the members of Gateway Church. The story just grabbed hold of my heart.

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Here, I must confess that I often do not watch the news and miss many stories just like this one because I become overwhelmed and consumed by it. Perhaps that is why I overheard this information that evening.

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Over the next couple of days reports of the accident as well as the precious last hours of this little girl's life began to filter out. The memorial service plans were announced. I decided to attend. I did not want to be noticed or necessarily even to speak a word to this couple. All I wanted was to find a place in the back of the room to sit and pray through the service. My friend in grief, Mary, went with me to the service and shared a Scripture at the end when they asked for words of encouragement and prayer.

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I, as Mary later said, was uncharacteristically silent. Praying.

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During the service this precious couple worshipped before their beautiful daughter's casket and praised the Lord with arms lifted high. They stood and spoke, and for the first time I understood what that day in my own life must have looked like to those who attended my son's funeral.

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The mother, who had been home at the time of the drowning and pulled her child's lifeless body from the pool shared these words: "We believe to whom much is given, much is required. So it is with this. With great suffering comes a greater responsibility to minister to others." They also acknowledged that the day of the service was not a Funeral or a Memorial. The service was being held on the child's second birthday. It was a celebratioin of her life. So beautifully expressed in the hearts of this family.

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Over the next few months I sent a few cards to this family. I prayed for them often. We attended the same service at church. When I would catch sight of them I would always pray. As spring rolled in I realized that God really wanted me to lead a group for grief recovery specifically for grieving moms. I prayed ardently for the group. Met with leaders and opened His Word beginning to prepare a curriculum that would bring final healing and recovery to my own aching heart before ministering to others who hurt in similar ways. But, more assuredly, I began to pray for God to bring women who were hurting and desiring healing to the class.

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All of this preparation could not have given me a clue what God would do in the lives of the women who attended or my own life that fateful year. But, here is what I know has happened. On August 23, 2008, I received Isaiah 60:20 and God sealed the healing of my grief in my heart on the third anniversary of my son's death.

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The first to commit her attendance to the class has seen improvement in her grief, recovery and hope have been given to her immeasurably in her journey both through my class and before we got there. She has also begun to pursue starting a similar class in her own church. Healing and Equipping.

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The woman who spoke at her own daughter's funeral a little more than a year ago also came. I spoke to her shortly after the first of the year and she shared that she received confirmation of her own grief recovery the week of the anniversary of her child's death. She gave birth to her sixth child in February, and that little baby is such redemption. HOPE for the future.

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The third woman who came to our class saw her relationship with her husband being restored and left equipped to walk through her grief journey toward healing. I spoke to her this past week by phone and she shared she has been manning the prayer lines at a local Christian television station where many times she has prayed with couples who report they have recently experienced the loss of a child. She said on our last occasion to meet for the class that her greatest desire was to help those who are hurting after the loss of a child. Restoration and comfort.
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It has been an amazing journey of mercy, grace, beauty and healing. It blesses me so...

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I look forward to more semesters and future opportunities to walk with those who are traveling the road that I've been on for a little better than three years now. To speak hope to their pain, to cry with them in their agony and to hold fast to God in prayer when I know the suffering is more than they can bear. God is so faithful and He brings forth such beauty from such tragedy.

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Yesterday, my family and I learned of yet another family who is missing their beloved child. This post is dedicated to the memory of Michael Wayne Hogan II of Newark, TX who died in an automobile accident earlier this month. My eldest daughter was great friends with his sister during her middle and early high school years. This family has been special to us and their burden is now great. I pray the Lord will give us opportunity to share the journey with them as we have done with many others since Justin went home. Today, he has another friend in heaven and they are cheering for us from their places there. Glory, fall on us today.

Our Lord makes all things new. If you are hurting in any way today, please know that right this minute you are being prayed for by someone whose heart aches in tune with sorrow specifically for you. I'm praying for you as well. May His mercy, His comfort and His peace fall on you today. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 6 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7 And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NKJV)

Susan at Forever His is hosting IN OTHER WORDS this week. Stop on by and read more or what others are saying "IN OTHER WORDS" and be blessed. To learn more about this challenging and insightful writing meme click the picture link below and visit LONI and have a blessed week.

Book Review: The Shack

Click on the picture for more information about this book!

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I'm reading The Shack by William P. Young. For those of you grieving the loss of any sort, the questions that arise from that pain and the sometimes disjointed and disconnected feelings we have toward God in the aftermath of a such a loss... I would say, "Read The Shack."
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This quote is from the back cover summary of the story:
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"Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.Against his beter judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he find there will change Mack's world forever.In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!"

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So, with that said, lay down all your preconcieved, religious notions about God, pain and the way tragedy occurs and read The Shack. A novel filled with thought provoking situations faced in the human realm everyday, and an offer to challenge those of us who would put God inside a box, framed only by the statement of faith in our denomination of choice without a relationship born of our faith and His Word. Is The Shack a book to base your doctrine and theology on? Not hardly. Nor would I venture to guess that its writer would want anyone to examine the book and base their faith solely on what he writes. I cannot even readily say that I agree 100% with the premise presented in the story - but it does make me think, search an ask of God what it is I have wrong about Him. And that makes the read much more worth it...

I believe the book presents the proposition of what would happen if we took our questions to God, and in the process stopped viewing Him in purely human terms. It is not for the faint of heart, and perhaps it is not for the unseasoned sojourner in the stream of this life we walk with God. In my heart, this book has provoked me to ask God what is a truth to take to heart and to comparitively place this book against the Scriptures for evidence of truth. It is something I always do.

When reading the book, "Hinds Feet On High Places," I discovered that the writer later turned to New Age relativism and left the roots of her faith founded in her as a child on the mission field. Does this insight make her allegory less of a story?

There are those who argue that Lewis' "Narnia" fiction or Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" bear the same striking marks of fantasy and absurdism where God is concerned. But that makes them no less valuable to us in the Christian world because we are required to dig in and learn more about God as a result of our perusal. These again are not foundations of doctrine, but highlights and pointers that reveal to us a God worthy of being searched out, worshipped, respected and believed in. All of it must be submitted by standard to His Word and His Work to be marked as valid and pointing to God.

Any student of God's Word must examine the claims and the truths as they are presented by anyone - human teachings and writings about God are always subject to human interpretation and error. There are a number of arguments that have been raised based on this book - which I do not have the time or the intention to entertain. I see a lot of merit in the story about Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, Redemption, Reconciliation and Relationship that makes it a worthwhile read. Read it with the heart and the eyes of someone reading Fiction - just the way you would read John Grisham or Danielle Steele - then balance that with your study of God's Word, your involvement in the local church and by asking God through prayer to reveal Himself to you in more intimate and real ways as you make this journey.

I am sure that when we surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit and His teaching through God's Word - we will find Him in a blade of grass, a secular or a worship song, any place where Creation exists - after all, Creation cries out that He exists. The truth is eternity and salvation come through a relationship with God through our faith and by His grace in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our faith is born and brought to maturity by the hearing and applying of God's Word on an individual basis. In light of that truth, I can still recommend this book as a fiction novel that will challenge us to ask God where we have put Him into a box. Read on.