My Time In The Shack

I just finished an amazing journey this week. It was to a dilapidated shack deep in the heart of Oregon's backcountry. The journey was not taken by air or car, but via the book "The Shack" by William P. Young. I flew through this book and loved every moment of it.

When I first heard of the book, I had my guard up. Most fictional works regarding God contain gross distortions or incomplete pictures of Him, and no doubt any work describing God is going to be limited and incomplete. But I started reading with my shields and sensors up, looking to identify the "Aha! There it is!" moments of theological weakness.

I'm an idiot.

This work captured my heart, skirted my defenses and quickly started transforming my preconceptions about my spiritual life.  I very quickly switched from a critical mind to an open heart.

(Spoiler Alert)

It is the story of a mid-life dad, raising a family. During a family vacation in Oregon, his youngest daughter Missy goes missing (abducted). An all out search is undertaken which ends in the crushing discovery of her blood stained dress in a remote shack deep in the woods of Oregon's back country. The family is plunged into a deep despair, and "Mac", the dad, is haunted by guilt and regrets which never fade.

Years later, still emotionally a wreck, he receives a note in the mail which reads "Meet me at the shack this weekend. Papa.". Papa is the wife's "pet name" for God. After ruling out pranks and bad jokes, Mac secretly packs some gear and heads to the "ground zero" of his despair. The resulting spiritual journey will captivate your mind and release your own misconceptions about who God is and the relationship He desires with us.

I "read" this as an audiobook (iTunes $3.95), and I would highly recommend that, if you are not the reading type.  The embarrassing part was, I found myself (multiple times) wiping tears from my eyes on the bus or other public places I happened to be listening.  You've been warned!

It was a mistake to approach the book looking for theological flaws. Just join your heart to Mac's and share in the journey he goes through. If you have never read a "religious" book, this is the one to read.  It won't be long before you may be raving about the time you spent in "The Shack". It is time well spent, and it is no overstatement to say it could change your life and even your eternity.

Peace, Love and Good Books,

Rich

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Humble Pie

Hi Gang,

I haven't been blogging lately because the most major thing going on in my life right now is a personal failure.

I did not complete an assignment I had agreed to do for our church. It was a promotional video for our upcoming Flourish worship concert on Sept 27. Long story short, I did not do it.

My mind tries to give excuses but my heart knows the truth. I was selfish and irresponsible and did not give the project the attention and energy I promised and that it deserved. I flaked.

Lately, I have been struggling with ambitionlessness. A sort of life-boredom. This time last year I was all over this project! I wanted to make a splash, to make a difference. This year I am almost indifferent.

It disturbs me. I know I am feeling this way, but I don't understand why. Mid-life crisis? As a young man I imagined my life very differently. Nothing really turned out the way I dreamed it would. But my life is great! Great family, home, work I mostly enjoy, hobbies, friends and church. Nothing to complain about. Very safe and very stable. Very.

To admit to this failure was difficult. Very humbling. I tried to give no excuses, but be honest about what happened. Don't know if I did a good job at that, buy hey, I'm even confused about how and why it happened! There was never any deception. I fully expected to finish the video, up until the last week when it became obvious it was too late.

To not have discussed it here would have been dishonest. I am trying to live my life openly, and this happened, so I should discuss it, as embarrasing as it is. I've been keeping my head low lately and trying to not over-commit myself. I want my word to be my bond, and to be a trustworthy fellow. I want my yes to be yes, and my no to be no. It takes years to build a reputation, but it can be destroyed in an instant. My reputation is not just my own. I also represent Christ. I don't want to take anything away from Him. I'm just glad He can draw straight lines with a crooked stick like me.

Peace, love and a hard look inside,

Rich

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Photo: My Downtown Lair

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My KITV Workstation

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Testing A Mobile Blogging App

Aloha everyone,

I have found that since I got the iPhone I haven't been blogging much. In fact I haven't even been on the computer nearly as much! Now I know you are thinking, "Who are you and what have you done with the REAL Rich Fewell?" Well let me put your fears to rest and emphatically say I am me, and I am learning all sorts of new things I can do with this remarkable device.

The one I am trying now is called Life Cast, a blogging app made for the iPhone. (Free!) I found in the past that when I emailed a blog entry from my phone, the line breaks were all so screwy that it was driving me mad and I stopped sending them. Hopefully, when I check this out later, I'll have nice little sentences and paragraphs, rather than jumbled text with random line breaks.

Also, somehow, this entry is supposed to include my location. Not quite sure how it is going to appear, but if you're reading this, then you probably already have a better idea than I do at this moment as I write this.

This app is also supposed to be able to send pictures too, and I'll try that next. I'm told it can do one or the other but cannot combine them in one post.

Ok that's enough for now. Thanks for reading my test file. I hope to be back to real introspection and witty observations very soon.

Peace, love and new tools,

Rich


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