Once again Wille……thanks…..for many many things.

Kent

Hello, dear

I have been sick for two months. The last few days have been days where I have more energy than is required for the most basic of days. It’s lovely to return to the land of the living. One of those reasons is that I can return to joy and what you’re describing here (and you and Wayne and George MacDonald and CS Lewis have been the voices and minds that Papa has used most to show me what this reality looks like).

What amazes me as I grow into this Papa and this journey is how simple it is. How so often it really does come down to love versus fear, trust versus control. And yet the way that gets played out in black, white and grey life is wonderful in its nuances and intricacies

Thanks for this. It was a lovely way to start my sunny Saturday

Thank you Brother.. I am so thankful that you share this with others. Maybe some of us experience these things but we think we’re crazy! Thanks for letting us know we aren’t.. Joy isn’t my constant companion just yet, however, he’s around more..

Hope to talk some more soon…

I’m almost 71 years old and I’m learning so much from your writings. THE SHACK has changed my life - from insecurity and introspection to a wonderful relationship with Papa. Amazing! Such JOY.
Our Bible study group is reading and rereading the book and are having the best discussions ever. Lots of tears with ‘whole lot of changin’ goin on”!
Keep the letters and blogs coming.
With much gratitude, Lu

Willie, I never cease to be refreshed by Father speaking through you…it is soooo good to hear Him. Bless you brother. Curt

What a delightful amplification of these Words of life:

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Thank you for sharing this.

Willie, I came back to read this again and drop a comment. I have been so aware of Joy and Peace as you speak of them here, as being ever present traveling companions in my life for the past year or so also, and it was coming to understand and accept this reality about the future…all of them…just being imaginations, that seems to have been the turning point for me also. I can so relate to having lived my life up to that point as a good fictional writer. All of the scenarios you mentioned I have thought myself. The human experience for us all is pretty similar isn’t it?

I love what you said about them having always been there and that you had been the visitor. How true is that. I haven’t had many (if any) moments of feeling like I was alone for awhile now. But then again, I haven’t had many moments of living in any of those fictional stories I used to be well practiced at thinking up either. I’m convinced that is the connection.

I’m learning to live in the only thing I have. Love doesn’t exist tomorrow….nor does grace or mercy or forgiveness or peace or joy. I only have this moment to live in these and extend them to the one in front of me.

What Good News this has turned out to be.

Willie said: “Okay…I am nuts, that must be it! But I am not…so back to my question. What happened?”

You know what they say about people who are mad - they never think they are

Thank you for sharing this! I Love it… My mind can be like a psychotic-dread-machine and I keep kicking joy out, as you have so wonderfully/ allegorically explained. You’re right, though, Joy/ peace isn’t an allegory– Joy (peace), is Jesus himself, wanting to abide happily and permanently with us. Thank you for painting this beautiful picture of such a profound and important truth. Your list of dreads was hillarious (and all too familiar).I hope to keep kicking these “vain imaginations” out, by His grace. I have had some pretty dark moments recently, and it seems in these times my mind will reel into horror or tragedy mode all the more… but by God’s grace dispelling the darkness through a kind friend whispering some comforting words of truth. The darkness does lift, every time. Hope to see less of it. Thanks and love

Brother,
Your thoughts here (and in conversation) have been an inspiration for me to live in the present, to live with Joy and Jesus every minute. It’s a reminder I am consistently in need of…thank you for that. When a desire to determine my life’s work overcomes me, I will reflect upon your thoughts. Thanks for your love!

Willie,

It is so encouraging to read your blog. It is food for the soul. I look forward to it almost everyday, there is so much to read. It touches my heart to read your letters and to hear the responses of how Papa’s gentle work blesses brothers and sisters everywhere. Like me in Australia
Amada

I thought of this quote from C.S. Lewis while I read your Joy blog:

The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. - C.S Lewis Mere Christianity

As I write these words, loud Hindu prayers are being prayed over a loud speaker in our neighborhood in Asia. I don’t know how my son is sleeping through the noise! It is a reminder that my neighbors are seeking peace and joy, but not finding it in their many idols. They are imagining their joy, and imagining that their idols are real.

At first I thought your unrealities were real! I was hoping that was not all happening to you on the same day! They do seem real when we dwell on them for too long.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Sorrow has been my companion for the last 17 months since my sweet 17 hr old son, Isaac, entered into eternity and the land of the truly living. I read passages about heaven, eternity, and resurrection over and over. My sanity has depended on it. The Shack was a balm for the grief. I’m actually excited! I feel my heart opening up for healing and joy…

Hi Paul,
I just saw your interview over at shermanlive.com. Great interview. When you were talking about this article and how you imagined losing all your teeth, boy could I relate! Several years ago, I knew that I needed some dental work, but kept putting it off due to the cost. I started having dreams about my teeth all falling out. They were very unrealistic dreams but still disturbing; if you have ever seen an aminal skull that has been exposed to the elements for several years where the teeth come out easily and look green on the inside — that’s what my dream was like. Needless to say, when I finally got to the dentist, the problems weren’t nearly as bad as I had imagined. I just knew I was going to get 6 root canals (I got 3 fillings, no root canals). It was a big lesson for me in this area, and though Joy isn’t a constant companion yet. I look forward to the day when it is! Thanks for sharing.

Wow. I haven’t read the “Shack” book yet, but the blogs are getting through to me! Why is it that I think I’m the only child of God who has the problems you all experience also? The suffering ahead-of-time as well as preoccupation with current (often imagined?) failures!! The simple insights you all uphold are so encouraging.

I guess I’ll have to get the book too!
It’s true joy is a person. I know when i first put my (then 16-yr-old) live in God’s hands, the fruits of the Spirit came in exactly the sequence Paul wrote. I stumbled across the verse when I’d experienced love, joy, peace and longsuffering. I couldn’t work out how Paul knew it!

[…] My friend Tina shared a blog post with me about “future tripping.” Basically it’s about how our peace is stolen when we take trips into the future in our […]

I can completely relate to that. If I really think about it sorrow so quickly comes in and when it does it’s connected to something that is not true. To give up the “questions” and simply be in His presence and enjoying him is a wonderful thing.

Hi Paul,

Great wisdom in your thoughts on future tripping. What a practical, helpful antidote to the “grind.” Thank you for your faithfulness, we appreciate it.

I like this idea. You had me on the Joy-thing. I have been thinking lately that Joy is a rare visitor for me. I laugh a lot. I think I am even happy, but joyful? Well, no, not really. So I am going to see if I can catch myself future-tripping and STOP IT! Do you think these trips to the past are equally as de-railing as the future ones? If I am looking at the past in the context of how God has provided for me, it can be healthy. If I am “if only-ing” and “what if-fing,” then probably not.

Being in the moment is something that I have been working on for a while. For me I bounced from the future to the past and back again hardly pausing in the present. It is sad to think about all that I have not appreciated until it became the past. What I find overjoying is that God has already forgiven me for it.

I love it! I love your Today stuff. My heart goes flip-flop where I hear the word “Today” - I guess it is because -as you said - where God dwells. I always captialize Today when thinking about God. It is just right to do it.

Quoting from a teaching of Oswald Chambers about joy -
Happiness is for children. Joy is for the mature.
Happiness is based on the external. Joy is based on the eternal.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been challenged by the Lord to live in the moment and can honestly say that this discipline, perhaps only for me, but nevertheless has been the most difficult one I’ve ever been called to. Your article reinforces my resolve and further flames my desire to do so.( That all sounds very heavy and anguished yet actually I;m quite gentle to myself in the process, not to worry) It is a most excellence place to live, the present, rimor has it, at least on a bological level, that it’s the only place we’re goiven to. Thanks again, Mark

This is an interesting testimony. I’ve been praying for the constant inclusion of Joy in my life for some time now. I’m not sure if Future Tripping is the culprit, but it might be one of them.

I also have read the entire Ender’s Game series. What an awesome series by Card. He’s a genius. And, of course, I thoroughly enjoyed your book as well! I am disheartened to see such reviews out there now that compare your fictional story to that of the deception the Bible warns us of. Some of these people are pretty extreme. I also agree about your comment on Speaker for the Dead. What an awesome and unexpected book that was in the grand scheme of the whole story. Was it theology? No. Can it teach you something? Maybe. I hope that as people read books like the Shack, they have the discernment of the Spirit or are inspired to find out who Jesus is if they have not met him yet, whether they claim to be a Christian or not.

As I read some of the comments, I can’t help but think “what an amazing thing that your book has reached so many corners of the world, and now your thoughts as well.” My profession is designing websites, so I always love seeing the internet as another way of seeing the Body encourage one another.

Jon

Jon

Mercury - Can you trust your dentist?…

Mercury - Can You Trust Your Dentist? By Jean Shaw© -All Rights Reserved http://www.jeanshaw.com…

Dear Willie,

So much emotion in my soul right now. Thank you for your precious gift. Thank you for being the kind of father who wanted to give this kind of gift to his children. And thank you for being willing to share what was meant for your earthly children so that Pappa could share it with His children.

Your gift came to me at just the right time. (Of coarse our Papa is like that! I have had a long life of valleys. In my journey I came to a place in my heart about eight years ago that no matter what my circumstances I believe that God is always good. His love for me is intense and tender. Even though my circumstances shouted at me that that was not true, I chose to hold onto that truth with all my heart.

I have felt like one of those blow up puching toys. Every time I would bounce up from a painful circumstance anothe would come to pound me back down. I alway said that the one thing that couldn’t be taken from me was my joy. Because in the middle of the horrible event was the truth that I was loved beyond understanding and cared for immensely.

This past March I was in a car accident and had an injury to my head. I was recovering from a painful event and then the accident. A few days after the accident as I was realizing the loss of income, the struggle to parent my kids, let a lone take care of myself, I felt like I lost my joy.

I still said in my heart “God is good no matter how this feels.” But my joy was gone.

Then a friend recommended “The Shack”. With the brain injury it has taken me since Easter Sunday to finish the book. But I finished it today. I am glad I read it slowly. Your way with words brought me right into the presence of Papa and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Joy never left me, I left Joy for a moment.

I gave a copy of your book to each of my six children. I pray they will know just how “especially fond of them their Papa is.”

If I could try to explain what emotion is flooding over me and out of me it would be love. Knowing love and wanting to love.

Thank you so much!

Debjo

Paul:
Your blog on joy really spoke to me. It is so true that our imaginations do leave God out and let fear in. I never quite thought of it that way. I am looking forward to buying your book as soon as I can. These blogs have sparked my interest. (We go back a long ways to high school and CBC. I am a teacher in Ontario and mother of 5 boys…life has a way of taking us places) I am encouraged that you were able to translate your healing and your story into a form that can inspire us all. In the end it is our relationships that matter and God can use us with all of our brokenness to reflect His love. Looking forward to the book. God bless. Judy

i love this!!
it is that “where” you are living from.
a friend of mine told me that is when her life changed…when she changed the “where” she was living from…she was still the same messed up person that she always was but now her address had changed…now she was a daughter of Grace.
she could live from that place of intimate communion with her God and depend totally on Holy Spirit….and have Joy in the most unnatural moments.

i have lost so much “burden” by reading thru your blog here and especially by reading your book The Shack.

thank you!

Wow. my new acronym is F E A R … false events appearing real. I have gleaned much through the reading of your blogs. Thank you!

the part a/b getting your lights punched out is rather humorous, and living under a bridge (sounds a little the troll from the Billy Goats Gruff) but the real kicker is discovering “O’ Yes they call him the streak boogedy, boogedy”; I hope you found yourself to have arrived at the school after hours, in your imagination that is. Forgive me but these little tales are rather humorous. I understand your point. Much of the time i live in the moment and the rest of the time i’m busy planning. The part a/b vain imaginations. I’ve been spiritually connected with people who lead you to believe one thing and then dance off into the horizon as if you’re crazy when you know full well what took place in the spiritual realm. But as for my own imaginations, I don’t really struggle with this issue except when I’m dealing with someone in the spiritual realm who won’t actually have a quazi normal direct communication (ie. won’t even sit down and have lunch). Beyond that i don’t regularly struggle with this issue. But i do know ONE thing, certain things can not take place if you don’t formulate a plan. i’m not a huge planner. i can fly by the seat of my pants just as well as anyone else. BUT there is a time and a place for taking action and formulation of plans. And, I have decided that now is the time for formulation of a plan. So, unless God intervenes, I plan to move out to the Pacific NorthWest and lolly gag around the lighthouses and pacific coast line. Now, I would rather be back here in the south with a little fish named Moses but i’m sick and tired of wasting valuable moments that can’t be reclaimed. And, by the way, do you think it’s a sin to make a phone call, have a normal conversation and make a plan to do something? i guess that’s just not spirit led enough for some fine folks. i guess it’s not spontaneous nor mysterious nor ambiguous enough! SO, all that being said; It’s time for me to fly. Hope to see you in Oregon!

Thank you for your book and article. They both came at a right time. I tried once to help about your publishing your book in Portuguese/Brazilian, but lost connection with your publishers. I used to be an interpreter in Brazil for outside speakers. Well, please contact me, if you are still interested in Brazil. My cell phone is (952)905-9131. Keep up the good work.
In the Vine,
Haroldo

I’m thinking that I love each and every one of you and think too- that we ought to all go in together and buy us a big house and grow some corn and raise some chickens and have wonderful conversations about Papa in front of a fire with a cup of coffee. Yeah, I’m a sixties chick who met Jesus 10 years ago and long for a simpler life. What a joy you all are!! Willie, my pastor is trying to get you to come to Dalton, Ga. to discuss “The Shack.” Interested?

Joy and peace, what awesome blessings. Thank you for showing me have silly it is to live in the future. I want to embrace the joy you write about for each and every day. God’s special touch on you and your family. I loved The Shack,it made me fall in love with God all over again. How about writing another book?
Susie

[…] Besides the encouragement from Jesus in Matt 6:25-34. the BEST article I have ever read about the subject of fear (so far in my young life) is RIGHT HERE! […]

As I sit here with the lately ever-present tears in my eyes, I am blessed to be reminded that God is the one who never leaves me. The past 4 years of my life have been a run away train. I have ALWAYS BEEN TAKEN CARE OF! However, the unknown has definitely had me future trippin’ - mostly in the area of fear over my future. Reading this blog has brought me back to the reality that my hope is already established, my future secure. I truly desire to live in the now and watch the work He will do from minute to minute. Thanks for the reminder!