The Shack

I just watched the trailer for the new movie. I will probably watch it someday when it is on Netflix or something. I read the book years ago, when it was a very hot topic among my circles.

 I found it thought provoking, but also disturbing. It is primarily disturbing that the crime committed at the beginning of the book does happen in real life. But let’s face it. Nothing else about the book can be related to real life. It is fiction. It is art. Art is all about how it makes you feel, right? Who can criticize someone else’s art or feelings? Just because I do not share those feelings, does not make them invalid to the person who does feel them.

It is disturbing or even offending if this story is taken at all literally. It blasphemes God. So, if you don’t want to get angry, don’t take as word-for-word truth.

Books like this are only dangerous and harmful to one’s walk with Christ if we take it seriously, and try to apply it to our life too much. The overall impression I got at the end of reading the book and thinking on it for a while was that EVEN THOUGH BAD THINGS HAPPEN, GOD IS STILL GOOD. And HE will help us through when we choose to cling to Him, instead of blame Him or stay angry with Him. That is a very edifying concept.

So will you go see the movie?

Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien

This short story is completely fiction. It is art. It is like The Shack. If you don’t take it too far, it can not only be entertaining, but make you think. But, don’t take the allegory and relate it to truth. It can’t be done. We can’t work our way to heaven, for example. But I do appreciate how what Niggle did on earth affected heaven. There are no verses in the Bible that say that specifically, but the concept is one to ponder. On the one hand, it can be comforting to think that the relentlessness of the mundaneness of my life has some positive eternal meaning that I cannot see right now. But it is frightening to think that I will forever regret in the afterlife that I did not prepare more for it.

I love the transformation from pride to humility. I long to be the way on earth right now that Niggle got to be when he reached “heaven”.

The ending is so “feel-good” and satisfying. I love it. And who can read it without relating to it at least a little bit? Especially for me with the caring for a disabled person. Wow.

Little Dorrit

I have decided is my favorite Dicken’s long book. My favorite Dicken’s short story will always be A Christmas Carol.

 Cathryn and I just rewatched my favorite movie version of Little Dorrit (and yes, I have read the book, just not recently). I realized this morning after finishing it last night that I identify so much with the main character in a way that astounds me. Her prayers were answered when her father inherited a large fortune and got out of debtor’s prison after so many years. She had the hardest time adjusting to the new life of wealth, and hated it. I confess to you that I feel imprisoned often – and I know Cathryn does too, by her disability. But I realized how difficult it would be for both of us if Jesus answered our prayers and healed her after all these years. We would both have to go out and get jobs, and we don’t know how to do anything else. This is what we know best and what is most comfortable. Surprisingly, this gives me peace and more strength to carry on without complaint!

 PICTURE When we were in England this past summer we found in London the last remaining wall to the Marshalsea prison that Dicken’s writes about in this story. His father was imprisoned there when he was a child.