William Paul Young: A Look Inside 'The Shack'

Paul Young didn't consider himself a writer but he wrote a story for his kids that has turned out to be a quick selling phenomenon known as the shack and it Paul shares a fictional story of a man whose daughter died under tragic circumstances and of how his world was changed forever during his greatest moment of sadness the Shack is filled with lessons about tragedy and triumph and it will challenge the way you view life please welcome to the 700 club William Paul Young Paul great to have you with us nice to be here thank you you said there were some things in that opening that she wanted to just say something about set the record straight from the beginning one is it was two friends of mine Wayne Jacobson and Brad Cummings as well as Bobby Downes who helped in the rewriting process they're the ones that created windblown media as a publishing company so it I did not know well why did you write the shack I wrote it out of obedience to my wife and Kim Kim had been after me for about four or five years at least to write something more for the kids I've always written as gifts and I've never published anything never tried to publish anything this was no different this was a gift to give to my children and what was the premise of what you wanted to give them in the writing of the show a couple things one is I looked at my life I was 50 years old I've been through and again the shack is a metaphor it's for the place we get hurt and stuck and for me it took 38 years to go back to my shock and then it took me 11 years to go through it so the main character Mackenzie Allen Phillips is really my process of coming to healing squeezed into a weekend and for my children part of it was and I think what Kim wanted was some way to help them understand their you know the big picture of how their dad thinks and for me it's like saying if I can save you 40 years worth of yeah and process I would love to do that and I'd love you to be in love with this god that I am well I think you know life is so glorious and wonderful as God intended it to but it is also filled with disappointments and hurts and loss and people sometimes lose that deep understanding of the goodness of God in the process of that and not only that I mean there is tremendous pain there's there's no question about it and there are many people with great sadness and the issue of the goodness of God becomes really central part of the problem is it unfortunately intentionally or unintentionally we've had a lot of bad theology that has created a god that is also not on our side is you know even as believers we get the idea that he's mad at us or at least based on our performance how well we're getting along with him and and I think part of that also comes down to the core that if there's if there's any place to run to in the middle of our pain or a disappointment or wondering what's going on in our lives it's not to God as God the Father you know we might be able to go to Jesus because at least he can understand how we feel but we always think there's an openness a separation and and that's the separation that I wanted to get past I wanted to bridge that gap and say you know what he's not like that he's on our side of the table you talked about going through pain for a long number of years in your life and then processing 4:11 what was the thing that caused you to crash and burn and come to the place where you realized he's not like that well you know I I always kind of sense in the back of my mind that he wasn't like that and for me it was all the secrets coming out you know my whole life as a religious person and I'm a missionary kid I'm a preacher's kid I went to Bible School went a couple years of seminary all of that and I served in the church all of that you know and I'm looking in my whole life all the way back to my childhood was full of secrets and full of shame and shame became the underlying motivation of my life what do you deal with that you either run to rebellion when you don't understand how much we're loved or you run to religion I ran to religion others in you know that I know run to rebellion and so the catalyst was Pandora's box you know I'm 38 years old everything blows apart and a huge personal failure but it's either you deal with it or you die well God's use you to shatter the preconceptions that a lot of us have about God I think everybody's got got some we seem to like to put him in a box and to be able to evaluate what he wants so easily you say some things in the book that that kind of well first of all your characters in the book what kind of bring people do a whoa what's that about moment but you also say some things that I think are startling for example I think people would find it startling on page 149 you say that Jesus says my life was not meant to be an example to copy and we wear bracelets that say what would Jesus do and we have all these little slogans and and things that we do that make us feel comfortable what did you mean by that if you ask my children if you had a bracelet that said well WWJD and you ask them what they would say that means they will tell you what will Jesus do rather than would when you use past tense you've created a model to me the centrality of the New Covenant is not that he has come to give us the Holy Spirit to help us be like him to me following Jesus being a Jesus followers not trying to be like him it's allowing him to be himself in the uniqueness of our own personhood and that to me is the new covenant that he has actually come to live inside of us you know Jesus is the only hope not only for us as individuals but for the he's the only hope for the world this is a fascinating and unique story and way of giving us a fresh broader picture of who God is maybe more specific not broader what do you want people to walk away from this with after they read The Shack boy that's a great question I want them to know or have a sense that God is so much bigger than they had thought that he is totally out the box that although his behavior is unpredictable you're dealing with an actual person in in terms of the three but the one even though his behavior is uncertain in a world full of uncertainty his character is not his character is absolutely certain and that's why the core question is is he good is he involved and if I can say yes to those I've got someplace to plant my feet that I didn't have otherwise well I loved it it's an awesome book thank you so much for writing it and just want people to get a hold of it and enjoy it as well thank you so much Paul very pleased to be here

Channel: The 700 Club

Views: 415,502

Rating: 4.4186287 out of 5

Keywords: cbn, the700club, 700, club, william, paul, young, shack, novel, terry, meeuwsen

Id: MYvjRiun3MA

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 10 2008