But you don't...

The Shack keeps getting flack. I read it last spring, but keep coming back to it because of the hoopla that continues to surround it. Yes, it has some theological problems. And yes, it has some redeeming qualities. Overall, it’s fiction. I take it as such.

I like this quote below from Papa...probably because it addresses a troubling paradox in my own heart that often plagues me—that while I KNOW that God is good both because he says so and because he has proven it to me a gazillion times, I continue to be amazed at my lack of trust in his future short-term goodness, evidenced by my worry. A seed of unbelief still remains somewhere in my soul; I want it weeded out so I can fully believe that God’s goodness is a trustworthy goodness. Even if he is “not a tame lion”, as C. S. Lewis so aptly describes him, he is always a good one.

The real underlying flaw in your life is that you don’t think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything—the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives—is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me. But you don’t.

~ WILLIAM P. YOUNG
The Shack

One of my favorite scriptures addresses my conundrum, that even amongst straight evil intent, even in that, God can and does bring about good. What, then, is there to worry about? I'll keep weeding...

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good...
~ Genesis 50:20