This past weekend, the much-anticipated movie, "The Shack" was released. This movie was based on a bestselling book of the same name written by William Paul Young and published in 2007. In anticipation of the movie, I reread the book the week before it premiered. To my delight, the movie was equally as good as the book (in my opinion). How often can you say that? Don't worry, this article will not have any spoilers because I'm not that mean. I highly encourage you to see it. You do not need to have read the book to understand. But I thought I would write about some of my major takeaways from the book and the film.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

This is in a major scene in the film (and in the book). How often to we get caught up in our own life drama that we stop looking at Jesus and instead focus our attention to the bad stuff around us? I feel like this happens so easily and sometimes I don't even notice I'm drowning in my own stuff until I'm deep in the pit. But truly, keeping your eyes on Jesus will keep you afloat, so to speak.

God does not orchestrate the "bad" or "evil" things in this life.

In the midst of trauma and tragedy, it is so easy to ask, "why does God allow this?" The main character in this particular story, Mack, experiences a tragedy hard to imagine and only a few people in this world understand. It effected his relationship with God in that Mack felt he could not trust God. Eventually, Papa (God) tells Mack that God does not orchestrate the negative things, but uses them for the greater good.

God will show up in the way you need it most.

**somewhat spoiler alert: For Mack, viewing God as a father figure was painful, so God revealed himself as a motherly, female figure (to find out why, you will have to read the book or see the movie). Growing up, I learned God is not any gender - God is God. But I had never thought about how God reveals God's self in a way you will be most perceptive. For some of us, a motherly and more nurturing figure is more comforting than the fatherly, protective one. The Church has been so frequent to prescribe male attributes to God that we easily call God pronouns like "Him".

Forgiveness.

Ahh, just when we think we understand what it means to forgive, we get triggered and realize we have not finished working through the process yet. I was deeply hurt by someone I should have been able to trust back in college. It was painful and difficult to deal with, so I repressed it for a long time. And for years I felt like I had forgiven this person - and I truly meant it in the way I understood it. But this book/movie gives a beautiful analogy for forgiveness. It changed how I look at it now.

There are so many other things to say, but it all pales in comparison to just reading the book and/or seeing the film. Once you do, let's connect and chat about it!