I know I said I was going to write about CS Lewis in this blog but I just read The Shack and encountered a great deal of opposition. I'm just going to write out the quotes, with full context, that represent the major ideas and themes presented in the book. This is going to be raw but if you're curious about the book this will give you a good idea.
5.68 "There are times when you choose to believe something that would normally be considered absolutely irrational. It doesn't mean that it is actually irrational, but it surely is not rational. Perhaps there is suprarationality: reason beyond the normal definitions of fact or data-based logic; something that makes sense only if you can see a bigger picture of reality. Maybe that is where faith fits in."
6.95 "Mack, I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or woman, it's because I lov you. For me to appear to you as a woman and suggest that you call me 'Papa' is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning."
6.102-103 "Only as Jesus rested in his relationship with me, and in our communion, our co-union, could he express my heart and will into any given cifcumstance. That's how every human is designed to live-out of my life.We are not three gods, and we are not talking about one god with three attitudes, like a man who is a husband, father and worker. I am one God and I am three persons, and each of the three is fully and entrely the one. All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists with me, with God myself."
7.114 "It is quite simple really. Being alwas transcends appearance, that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surfaceappearances fade away until they simply no longer matter."
8.126 "As the crowning glory of creation you were made in our image unencumbered by structure and freee to simply be in relationship with me and one another. If you had truly learned to regard on another's concerns as significant as your own, ther would be no need for hierarchy."
9.135 "That is the wonder and adventure of exploration, a piece of what you call science, to discern and discover what we have hidden for you to find. Ask any person who has a passion to explore and discover and create. The choice to hide so many wonders from you is an act of love that is a gift inside the process of life."
9.137 " Then it is you who determines good and evil. You become the judge. And to make things more confusing, that which you determine to be good will change over time and circumstance. And then, beyond that and even worse, there are billions of you, each ddetermining what is good and what is evil. So when your good and evil clash with your neighbor's, fights ensue and even wars break out. And if there is no reality of good that is absolute, then you have lost any basis for judging. It is just language, and one might as well exchange the word good for evil."
10.144 "It is your desparate attempt to get some control over something you can't. It is impossible for you to take power over the future becase it isn't even real, nor will it ever be real. You try to play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try to make plans and contingenies to avoid what you fear."
12.184 'Those who love me have come from every system that exists. They were buddhists or mormons, baptists or muslims, some are democrats, some republicans and many don't vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have followers who were murderers and many who were self-righteous. Some are bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraquis, jews and palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to joing them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my bros and sisters, into my beloved. “‘Does that mean’, asked Mack, ‘that all roads will lead to you?’ ‘Not at all’, smiled Jesus as he reached for the door handle to the shop. ‘Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you."
14.197 "You can always talk to me and I will always be with you, whether you sense my presence or not. You will learn to hear my thoughtsin yours." _Holy spirit
14.199 "Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions. Most emotions are responses to perception, what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, then your emotional response to it will be false too. So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms, what ou believe. Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to reexamine what you believe. The more you live in truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. But even then, you don't want to trust them more than me.
14.200 "Of course yo migght see me in a piece of art, or music or silence or through people or in creation or in your joy and sorrow. My abilit o communicate is limitless, living and transforming, and it will always be turned to papa's goodness and love."
14.205 "Those who are afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in them. Trying to keep the Law is atually a declartion of independence, a way of keeping control. The law grants ou the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. It's a vague attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty."
17.237 "If anything matters then everything matters. because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes, every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes, with every kindness and service seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same."
