I saw The Shack last week. It changed my life. I can not stop thinking about it, and I am reminded of it everywhere I go.

This movie has something for everyone. It's overcoming depression and loss, then helping others through it too. It's finding God, forming a real relationship with Him, and having a good, loving relationship with the family and friends He has so graciously given you. It's understanding the bad things in the world, and where God is at in them. It's seeing God, feeling His presence ALL the time. It's the little things, like being there for others, being a good friend, and understanding what people need. It's forgivness in the absolute harshest and hardest of scenarios, when there is no apology from the harmful side, but God calls us to anyway. It's messy. It's so messy. It's real life.

So what are you looking for? What are you in need of? I found a lot more then I was looking for going in. I bet you will too.

I have never witnessed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represented and explained so well, so perfectly and simply before, each in their own way but yet the same, each relating to us differently but each so specially, with God as our father, Papa as they call Him in the movie, Jesus as our closest friend, as He deeply expresses that He longs to be in the movie, and the Holy Spirit as our guider and energy, but all in ways and forms that we need them to be in at that time, changing with us and for us, yet never leaving our side, always knowing what is needed, always being fruitful, always being calm.

I realized that I have no handle on how much God loves me. I have known this for awhile. Much of this is my fault, because I do not allow God to love me because I do not feel worthy. But this movie gave me a big push in the right direction. Because God, Papa, He is very fond of me. In fact, He has never known anyone He is not extremely fond of. That is huge and life changing. I accept more of God's love for me from seeing this movie, I understand it more, and I allow Him in more, and if that doesn't make something worthwhile then i'm not sure what does.

You see God in the calm and you see God in the storm but the point is that you learn to see God the entire time. He is always there. Whether you are in the kitchen making apple pie on a warm summer day or laying on the floor of the shack in the middle of winter. Any situation, any season, God is there. You see that in the movie, you truly see that and see how its true in your life. It is all so simple, we just lose trust.

When talking with my friends after the movie, one of them said, "I just want to run around telling everyone that God loves them! Oh gosh, you are going to see me on the news." But I could not have said it better myself. That is a feeling you get from this movie. That is how you know it is real, when God's love is filling you so much that it just overflows, it pours out of you and you have to tell people the good news.

I cried basically the entire movie, partially because I am a crier, and partially because this movie is so real. The emotion is raw, but the scenes are true. It's life. They go camping, they go to church, but they experience loss, and pain shakes a family I shed tears of joy and tears of sorrow. I laughed out loud and I ugly cried too. It was so good.

I drive down a road that cuts through a forest and I am reminded of The Shack. I see the sun shining or a child laughing and I am reminded of The Shack. When I struggle, stumble, doubt, praise, and laugh, I am am reminded of the Shack. It was everything that I needed to see and hear. God spoke directly to me, yet directly to each of my friends as each of us individually needed, as only God can.

And honestly, if that wasn't convincing enough, who doesn't enjoy eating popcorn, having a good cleansing cry, and watching Tim McGraw on the big screen?

Go see The Shack. It is beyond worth it. It will change your life for the better.