Greetings Friends,

Thank you for your interest in and support of what God is doing in our lives and the lives He brings us into contact with. He has invited us to participate in the Sacred Space of loving relationship with Him and one another. In that Sacred Space, we love, listen, ask questions, agree, disagree and sit with uncertainty. In Sacred Space, we do not have to be right or wield truth. “Truth has a name.” He is not just out in the shop behind The Shack but He meets me every morning and we talk. Many mornings He invites friends like, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the apostle Paul and Isaiah to our little meeting. Sometimes he invites C.S. Lewis and others including Paul Young to the conversation. We talk, we laugh, we cry… We… I grow as I know and am known by Truth. This is Sacred Space. It is sacred because Christ and I are face-to-face, heart-to-heart. If I turn from that face-to-face relationship with Truth, and unfortunately I still frequently do, and grab the fruit of my own knowledge of truth, my own understanding of good and evil apart from face-to-face relationship with Christ, then I fall into Scared Space. In Scared Space, I wield truth–sometimes using it to defend myself and others–sometimes using it to beat myself and others up.

The Shack raises a lot of questions but I think it does a great job of staying in the Sacred Space of face-to-face, heart-to-heart conversation. Paul Young has a new book, Lies We Believe About God, that just came out. Already, there has been a lot of truth-wielding over this book. Trusted friends have approached me with concerns because of reviews they have read. I must admit, at first, I slipped into some Scared Space fears and truth-wielding. However, Christ and I have had some long talks and we read through the book together. We listened to what Paul had to say and what I heard was friendly loving conversation. Lies We Believe About God, like The Shack raises a lot of questions. I do not expect Paul and I to agree on all of the answers. Also like The Shack, Paul, in Lies We Believe About God, does a great job of staying in the Sacred Space of face-to-face, heart-to-heart conversation.

Here, let me say, I do not feel it is my job to defend Paul. Neither is it my job to correct or rebuke Paul. It is certainly not my job to promote Paul or his books. Paul does not have a monopoly on truth, nor do I. Remember Truth has a name. Listen and respond to Him. He will not lead you astray. But, there is no telling who He will invite to join you in the Sacred Space of face-to-face, heart-to-heart conversation.