Some quotes from THE SHACK

Chapter 1, pg 15

There is something joyful about storms that interrupt routine… releases you from expectations, performance demands… appointments and schedules.

There will be no apologies needed for not showing up to some commitment or other.

Chapter 2, pg 29

He was a rich man, he thought to himself, in all the ways that mattered.

Chapter 3, pg 64-65

It is so easy to get sucked into the if-only game, and playing it is a short and slippery slide into despair.

Chapter 3, pg 68

Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy.

Chapter 6, pg 95

Truth has a name… Everything is about him. And freedom is a process that happens inside a relationship with him. Then all that stuff you feel churnin around inside will start to work its way out.

Chapter 6, pg 96

Love always leaves a significant mark… We were there together.

Chapter 6, pg 97

Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly… Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly... And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were created to fly in the first place.

Chapter 6, pg 101

Who wants to worship God who can be fully comprehended… Not much mystery in that.

Chapter 6, pg 101

All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists within Me, within God myself. Love is not the limitation; love is the flying. I am love.

Chapter 6, pg 101

The God who is – the I am who I am – cannot act apart from love!

Chapter 13, pg 188

Let her forgiveness heal you. Ask her to pray for you… Take the risks of honesty. When you mess up again, ask for forgiveness again. It’s a process… and life is real enough without having to be obscured by lies.

Chapter 13 pg 189

That is the risk of faith… Faith does not grow in the house of certainty… My life inside of you will appropriate risk and uncertainty to transform you by your own choices into a truth teller, and that will be a miracle greater than raising the dead.

Chapter 13, pg 189

I used your choices to work perfectly in my purposes…My purposes are always to work life out of death, to bring freedom out of brokenness and turn darkness into light. What you see as chaos, I see as a fractal. All things must unfold, even though it puts all those I love in the midst of a world of horrible tragedies – even the one closest to me.

Chapter 13, pg 192

Give the man an inch, and he thinks he’s a ruler.

Chapter 14, pg 197

Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions.

Chapter 14, pg 206

The idea behind expectations requires that someone does not know the future or outcome and is trying to control behaviour to get the desired result.

Chapter 14, pg 206

The trouble with living by priorities is that it sees everything as a hierarchy, a pyramid… If you put God at the top, what does that really mean and how much is enough?


By W. Paul Young