I have been re-reading “The Shack.” Again. At this point, it has been a decade or so. And let me stop you right there. No, it’s not the same as the movie. The movie is good but the book it far, far better. There is a depth in the words the author selected that feels like heavenly revelation. There is a weight on them. A weight of glory, perhaps.
One passage likens our thirst for independence as being part of a worldly matrix. However, instead of being plugged into a monstrous robotics system of the sci-fi movie, independence is us walking away from the circle of love provided by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Picture this. A child encapsulated, surrounded by the purest love and desire, stands up and pushes through this divine embrace, walks several paces away, then turns and says, “I’ll do it myself.”
If you have been around toddlers at all, you have seen this play out in the natural. “My do it,” they yell. As earthly parents, we know how to observe them for their own protection. The same is true with our Heavenly Family.
But in the spiritual world, such independence creates its own misery. We think we need control. We want to dictate. We attempt to predict success. We want to determine our identities.
Yet what follows the “my do it” rant is the utter onslaught from the enemy:
You are alone.
It’s all on you.
You can’t do it.
You are abandoned.
You are unloved.
Independence isn’t an American idea. It is a demonic one.
It is the delusional quest for self-sufficiency. Self-reliance. We vacillate between self loathing or self worship. Constantly questioning and assessing our value and worth.
I will venture to an extreme line and say that independence from God is so counter creation that all our global hurts are demonstrations of humans demanding “my do it.”
Apart from Me, you can do nothing. (John 15)
Jesus said it because He was living proof of a new way. A better way.
That’s not a judgment. That’s an invitation. An instruction of how to break out of the matrix. How to be free of the damning existence of doing life own our own.
You know, it’s funny every time I find myself sitting in a pile of self-pity poop, the Lord always begins the with same basic truth.
I love you.
Running into His arms always unwinds me. It always frees me. Resets me.
Surrender maybe needs a new definition. Surrender could mean sitting in the Holy Embrace until I feel His truth wash away every worldly lie, evaluation, criticism.
God’s love is a white hot fire. It burns off the deceptions of independence.
I was made for Them. So were you. We were made to do life with Them. Through Them. All else is futility.
He woke me up yesterday with an old school Gaither song from my mom. It was sung at our wedding. And the 30th is her birthday. So I took it as a sweet, sweet kiss from Jesus.
I am Loved, by Bill and Gloria Gaither
I am loved, I am loved
I can risk loving you
For the One who knows me best
Loves me most
I am loved, you are loved
Won’t you please take my hand
We are free to love each other
We are loved