Your Healing Journey Fall Retreat Participant Perspective

She is going back to Thailand, back to her Shack, the place of her deepest pain, and finding the presence of God there, inviting her, weeping with her, and loving her.

In this blog, you will see the power of God’s invitation to a wounded, hurting, and confused heart. And, let’s be honest, we have all been there multiple times. We hide it though, don’t we? Sometimes very well. We hide it behind our busyness, our pride, our intellectualizing . . . , and many times, we hide it behind our religion. We paint an image of God based on our current understanding of Him, but in so doing, we hold Him off at a distance from the places of hurt and pain deep within us. Like Mack’s “great sadness” in The Shack, Anna found herself carrying a burden that was keeping her from soaring. But she, like Mack, found that God was not on the outside of that pain inviting her to get rid of it on her own or hide it before coming to Him. No! God, Papa, a God with tears in her eyes, was inside that place of pain inviting her back, back to weep together, walk in the places of pain together, to know one another more deeply, and to heal. I am so proud of you Anna. Thank you for giving us all a glimpse of God’s love and life transforming invitation to go back to our Thailand.

Read Anna’s story here.