The Shack

So i just blogged about the song 'Behold (Then Sings My Soul)' in my previous post- and it appeared again in my life a few days later when I watched 'The Shack'- also a life-changing movie for me.

On Monday, I was sharing with a dear friend and accountability partner- let's call her M- about the recent happenings in my family, one specific incident being the highly antagonistic attitude of a family member- let's call him A- toward God, particularly since an incident.

While relating the story of how A called God a 'show-off' and asked questions like 'if God is all-knowing i.e. He knew that Adam and Eve would sin, why did He let them go into the garden anyway? If He knew it would cause all this trouble and in the end His Son would have to die?' (which are very valid questions by the way!), M suddenly exclaimed and said excitedly "Oh! You need to watch this movie, 'The Shack', showing now! And get B to watch it too!" To be honest, I was quite doubtful that any christian movie SG allowed to show in their cinemas would be any good, but I told M I would watch it anyway.

At home, I watched the trailer and shared it on Facebook. A friend (S) commented and said "You need to read the book!" and I thought to myself "now that wouldn't be a bad idea"- so I asked to borrow the book. In order to do that, we had to meet up- so we met up for dinner on Tuesday and it was a time of personal encouragement as I saw how S was pulling through a difficult time and trusting God to see her through life and its many unknowns. Also, S ended up passing me a BRAND NEW copy of the book because she said her old book had notes written inside.

I was very touched and skimmed through the synopsis of the book, which intrigued me even further to watch it. In this season, God has also been placing my extended family on my heart, and the HS prompted me to ask Faith to watch it with me, even though our previous attempts at meeting up always failed to happen due to schedule clashes. Lo and behold- she was free the next day to catch it! So we went on Thursday to watch it together and had a good time talking about life in general while getting lost finding Shaw Centre (the ONLY theatre that is still showing 'The Shack').

And... the movie was wonderful. It weaved the big questions people ask about God, into the conversations that the protagonist had with the 3 distinct Persons of the Holy Trinity, as well as his conversation with Wisdom, who showed the protagonist (and me) how humans so often play God by making snap judgements of who is good and who is bad, who deserves something and who doesn't deserve something, and acting accordingly to these judgements.

Fast forward to Saturday where I had the chance to chill with a friend- H- at my place and was just sharing life, when I realised that the book I was reading- 'The Meaning of Marriage'- tied in with 'The Shack' to teach me some important learning points:

1. I think I know what is best for me (aka previous post).

2. When I believe (1), I am actually 'playing God' because I make judgements of what I should do and not do based on my own feelings and desires rather than in obedience to God. What is that, if not me thinking that I am in charge of my own life i.e. playing God?

We left ruminating on that, and also had a fun time with me getting lost and H helping me to find my way to Hotel Fort Canning where i caught up with some long-lost colleagues from my preschool coaching days.

Sunday (today) was, once again, a continuation of this extended ‘conversation' with God as pastor preached on the earthly consequences of choosing carnality (i.e. doing what we please according to the desires of our own hearts, which would be alright- except that our hearts are deceitful above ALL THINGS !?).

Peace outttttt