Mobile
I know I haven’t bloged about The Shack in a long time. Honestly I was trying really hard to not blog the entire book. I know there are lots of thoughts out there on the book, the author, the writing style, and the message of what the book is about. But I’m not here to debate those points. I really just want to share something I read that jumped off the page at me.
Let me give a bit of back story first….
October 21st makes it 15 years since I first decided to give living like Jesus a try. 15 years of sitting under all kinds of teaching, going to various churches, reading various books, and trying to make sense of it all. 15 years of trying to love God and love others. Somedays 15 years seems like it has only been a few days and somedays 15 years seems just short of eternity. (Maybe I’ll write about what I have gone through in those 15 years here soon, but that is not the point of this entry.)
In 15 years I have heard at least 100 different descriptions on how our relationship with God should be…it’s like a pyramid, JOY (Jesus Others You), a marriage, a dance, like a bullseye, etc. All of them trying to convey the importance putting God/Jesus at the center of everything you do. All of them made sense at some point in time but yet at the same time they seemed empty, like they were missing the best part – the community of what your life is.
When I read the passage below, it was the first time I had heard a description of what our relationship with God/Jesus should be like where it incorported the community of what your life is. Where you were allowed, without guilt, to enjoy your friends, work, hobbies, etc. It is a description where they all connect.
So read below and be encouraged…let your relationship become like a mobile.
“But,” Mack wasn’t convinced. “But don’t you want us to set priorities? You know: God first, the whatever, followed by whatever?”
“The trouble with living with prorities,” Sarayu spoke, “is that it sees everything as a hierarchy, a pyramid, and you and I have already had that discussion. If you put God at the top, what does that really mean and how much is enough? How much time do you give me before you can go on about the rest of your day, the part that interests you so much more?”
Papa again interrupted. “You see, Mackenzie, I don’t just want a piece of you and a piece of your life. Even if you were able, which you are not, to give me the biggest piece, that is not what I want. I want all of you and all of every part of you and your day.”
Jesus now spoke again. “Mack, I don’t want to be first among a list of values; I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, the together we can live through everything that happens to you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile, where everything in your life – you friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities – is connected to me but moves with the wind, in and out and back in forth, in an incredible dance of being.”
“And I,” concluded Sarayu, “I am the wind.”