Off the Shelf (The Bookshelf That Is)

I recently finished reading The Shack and Messy Spirituality.  I really had no intention of reading these two books together, during the same week, at the same time, its just how it worked out.  I'm the kind of girl who likes to read one book at a time.  You could say I'm a monogamabilbiophile (I just made that word up, it means:  the practice of only loving one book at a time . . . I also just made that definition up).

As I was perusing the books at Costco, I noticed The Shack, but I was too hasty and judged the book by its front cover (isn't that a no-no?).  I honestly thought The Shack was a Dean Koontz/Stephen King-ish type book that involved a scary story line about a mysterious shack in the desolate woods, death incarnate, and some zombies or too.  I've got a pretty active imagination, hey?!

Here is the front cover of the book, what do you think the book is about?

Okay, on second glance, it looks like a remote shack at about Christmas time with some heavenly hosts singing in the sky. . . or something along those lines, definitely not zombies though.  

I had passed by this book, until I overheard a woman tell her friend that it was a good book, so I thought I'd give it a chance.

I am usually a voracious reader and can often finish a book in a weekend, or even a day.  These two books, however, caused me to slow down.  I read a bit every evening or so, and allowed the ideas to simmer somewhere in my head throughout the day.

Both of these authors are presenting a view of a relationship that challenges our traditional views.  The Shack challenges our assumptions of how we view God, while Messy Spirituality challenges our views of how we see ourselves in this relationship.  The Shack also shows how our pain, losses and tragedies in life can really trap us and keep us in bondage, and how by changing our perspective we can gain freedom from that bondage.  Similarly, Messy Spirituality frees us from striving for an image of who we think we need to be in order to obtain Gods love.  

It was interesting reading both books at the same time they both set out to challenge prevalent assumptions of how we see God or how we relate to Him and they both conveyed a God who just wants us in His love.  And really, who wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who will always love us more that we could ever love back?