PTM WEEKLY UPDATE -- SEPTEMBER 15, 2008
How can I get closer to God and feel him -- like Mack did in The Shack?
Q. I was raised with Christianity as a distant backdrop in my life, but it was at least there. We didn't go to church all the time. I always believed in God, but wasn't sure about the whole "Jesus thing." I spent my teen years thinking there was no way God could love me, broken up by short-lived bouts of trying to prove to different Christians that I had been saved (meaning I went to an "approved" church and hung out with "the right" people). I spent my 20s exploring New Age religions and my 30s too busy to think about any of it.
Now in my mid-40s I am drawn back to those Christian roots and find I can't NOT believe in God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure when that happened, but I think at some level that belief was always there, just unacknowledged. I have very recently completed reading The Shack and felt that God brought me across it (by accident) for a reason, which is to understand that I am forgiven, he is particularly fond of me, and more than ever wants me to be in relationship with him. I have been asking God for some time now, and even more since that book, to remove whatever barriers exist between us (including the difficulty I have just sitting and reading my Bible or the cautiousness and nervousness I experience regarding going to a church). I have been asking God to open my heart to him fully.
I know God works in his own time, but I keep thinking I should experience some sort of mental or heartfelt shift or suddenly feel inspired to serve others or know what my life's calling is. In short, I want to hear God's voice in my life. So far, I'm not sure I'm hearing anything. I guess my question is, how will I know when I'm finally hearing God's voice and will for my life and how can I really have that "Papa" relationship with him like Mack learned about in The Shack? I'm asking you because you endorsed The Shack, so you know the book -- and more importantly I think you know God.
A. You are correct -- I endorsed The Shack -- and Plain Truth Ministries helped to promote it from the manuscript stage, before it was published. In that vein, I have answered many critical questions about The Shack -- from those who find it enlarges the boundaries of their religious stereotypes, troubling them with a relational God who is active and real, as opposed to a God who is passive and distant.
There is no teaching in the Bible that tells us that our hair will stand on end and goose bumps will appear on our skin when we finally "meet" God.
Your comment causes me to restate what I have often noted in those who have advanced negative opinions about The Shack (not that yours is a negative opinion -- but the same comment is important). Remember -- this book is fiction. This book is not an attempt to impart biblical, theological truth (though I believe it is based on a solid biblical foundation). Neither is The Shack a work of fiction that suggests, even covertly, that we must all have some breathtaking personal encounter with God.
There is a movement within Christendom that places such a high value on experience that many seek experience and feeling, and, having found those who will help them achieve such encounters, one way or the other, believe that they have had an encounter with God. There is no teaching in the Bible that tells us that our hair will stand on end and goose bumps will appear on our skin when we finally "meet" God. Put another way, simply because we have had a "hair-raising" experience is no proof that we have just met God.
When Elijah was running for his life, hiding in a cave, God appeared to him. Elijah was feeling abandoned and somewhat self righteous, thinking that he and he alone was faithful to God. So God told him to stand outside the cave, and that he would have an encounter with God. "Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper" (1 Kings 19:11-12).
God, it turns out, was in the gentle whisper. It wasn't the stupendous miracle and sign that Elijah was looking for -- but it was the way God decided to encourage and teach Elijah. You could say, "well, yes, but at least Elijah heard a whisper. I don't even hear a whisper."
And you probably won't -- for as Christians, men and women of God after the Cross of Christ, we live a different kind of relationship. When we accept him, trust in him and invite him into our lives, Jesus lives his life within us. No earthquakes, no fires, no hurricanes -- no dramatically audible or visual evidences. Just the calm, sure, rest of Christ, in us, a part of us. Life as a Christian is not a series of emotional highs that we feel as God gives us ever increasing, dramatic experiences -- but is a long journey of patience, as we follow Christ. As Christ-followers, we pick up our own cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). Jesus doesn't fill us with one amusement-park-like sensation after another, but instead he patiently works with us, so that he transforms us over time, incrementally, into his new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It is true that there is a moment in time when we are spiritually re-born -- when we are transformed -- when we are changed -- when we become new. That moment is not normally accompanied by physical sensations. Theologically, we can say that this is the time when we are saved, justified, redeemed -- sanctified. But there is another sense of our sanctification as well. The Bible speaks of it as spiritual growth (see 2 Peter 3:18). Again, as with physical growth, the process is gradual, over a period of time.
The experience that Mack has in The Shack is not normative for a Christian -- but a fictionalized account, a hyperbolic explanation of the relationship God offers to us -- real, profound, intimate -- but not filled with physical tingles, excitement and "vibrations." I hope this overview helps you to rest in the Lord, rather than
seeking feeling and physical sensation, to be content with the spiritual reality that God gives you. To paraphrase that old Christian cliché -- be patient with yourself -- God isn't finished with you yet!Finally, permit me to promote a new resource PTM is offering. If you found The Shack helpful, I believe that you will also find Unplugging From Religion -- Connecting With God helpful as well. Be sure and check out the details in this issue of PTM Weekly Update -- or click here.
In Christ
Greg AlbrechtRETURN TO PTM WEEKLY UPDATE CONTENTS PAGE
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