The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Once again, we are not referring to a reading. While Gail and I were traveling, the Holy Spirit brought to mind the Book The Shack by William Paul Young.
Very briefly, the story is about a Dad whose young daughter is beaten, raped and killed. The Dad gets a letter asking him to come to a shack where the crime was committed, and with a gun, sets out to meet the killer. To his surprise, he meets God, Father, a Black Woman, Jesus, a Carpenter, and the Holy Spirit, who is called Wisdom.
The book is not about getting even; it’s about forgiveness and mercy.
The section we want to write about is when Wisdom calls the Dad into a cave and asks the Dad some pointed questions.
REMEMBER HIS YOUNG DAUGHTER HAS BEEN BRUTALLY BEATEN, RAPED, AND MURDERED.
Please put yourself in the Dad’s shoes and answer the question as they are asked; don’t look ahead.
Wisdom: “Can you judge?”
The Dad: “Yes!”
Wisdom: “Since you said you can judge, should the man who killed your daughter go to hell?”
The Dad said, “Yes!”
Wisdom: “Should his Dad, who beat him daily, go to hell?”
The Dad said, “Yes.”
Wisdom, “Should his Dad’s Dad, who was an alcoholic and beat his son daily, go to hell?”
The Dad said, “Yes.”
Wisdom then said, “His family, all the way back to Adam and Eve, beat their children should they all go to hell?”
The Dad said, “Yes.”
Wisdom next said, “So you’re saying what God created was not good!”
Are you in agreement with the Dad?
Now Wisdom said, Get on the judgment seat!
The Dad said, “Wait, I thought I was on the Judgement seat.”
Wisdom next said, “Since you said,” and I believe at this point, a lot of you who are reading this have thought, you can judge; “I want you to judge which two of your children should go to hell and which one should go to Heaven.”
The Dad said, and if you are reeling from this question, you are thinking, “I can’t do this.”
Wisdom spoke again, “You said you could judge!”
The Dad replied, “I refuse!”
Wisdom said, “You have to.”
If right now you are in a bind as I was, you are now feeling the result of your living a life of judgment as I lived fully until I read this book.
Wisdom said, “Judge.”
The Dad said, “I will go in their place.”
The Dad became Jesus on the Cross, an act of Outrageous Love of the Father, Son. and Holy Spirit. It clearly demonstrates the Outrageous Love God has for you.
The story ends with the Dad meeting the killer, forgiving him, and, I believe, making friends with him when he fully understands the kind of person the killer is. We are asked to do no less. This was what happened to me in the Jail when Eric told me, “When I was fourteen, my Mother died, and my Dad threw me out into the street; where were you?” Because of this event, people I wanted to have no part with in my, yes my, life, now we , yes we, want to more fully involved with.
It’s fascinating how God, if you let Them, can work in your life.
What happened to the Dad in our story?
His children he knew and loved, the stranger was just that and was easy to judge. Don’t make the mistake of making an easy judgment on someone you don’t know. I, for one, have changed my prayer life, so we say one decade of the Rosary, the fourth Sorrowful Mystery, for all the people in the world; each group has a specific partition. What is interesting is that I received a book from the CFO of a very large drug trafficking group, and he left and turned his life over to Jesus. It was quite a story. I am sorry I forgot the name of the book.
People do change; how about you?
Never forget God loves them as much as God loves you.
Comment: When we were told we would write the Wednesday Blog, I asked Bill what the rules were. Bill basically said, “None, do what God wants you to do.” I knew I had the right person to work for.
Picture:
Mike sent two pictures—Dave standing on a ledge and the bridge—and I couldn’t stop thinking about what they meant to me, and we pray for you.
Mike and Dave had to Cross this bridge in the Swiss Alps to complete their trip. Mike reported that the bridge was a suspension bridge with four steel cables, metal flooring, and webbing going down the sides. It was one-third of a mile long and suspended three hundred feet in the air.
Everyone I have showed this picture to said, “I couldn’t walk across that bridge.”
Then you have a problem because you have no other option to complete the trip in the allotted time.
And,
This ties into what we wrote above. If you want to live in the “Spirit World,” which the Triune God created for us to live in now, then forgiving and showing mercy are the only options we have to get to the “Spirit World” that God created—a world filled with Love, Joy, and Peace.
Cross the bridge, don’t let satan hold you up, and enJoy and grow in this new life.
Please keep Snapping!
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
