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Fair Oaks United Methodist Church
1480 Joyner Avenue
Marietta, GA 30060

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"Learning to lived loved."

I underlined Jesus’ quote in the book "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young. On Tuesday mornings a group of ladies meet in Mary Dunn’s kitchen to study this incredible novel. As we are drinking good coffee and sharing doughnuts, fruit and cheese, we wrestle with the deep theological issues set down in story form.

In the book, Mack has suffered a terrible loss and lives his life with what he refers to as the “Great Sadness”. After the murder of his daughter, he has distanced himself from God. After all, if God is all powerful, why doesn’t He do something about the evil in this world? Why didn’t He save Missy? Mack has the chance to confront God with this and other issues during a weekend at the shack where the crime took place. It’s a weekend where he not only gets to confront God, but ultimately is confronted with himself.

Today’s chapter has Mack talking with Jesus.

"Learning to lived loved." Jesus says that this is hard for us humans because it is so difficult to share who we are with each other, to let down our defenses. I agree. We humans have difficulty in receiving God’s love and sharing it with others.

"Living loved" affects who we are at the basic level of our needs. It affects how we view ourselves and the world. After all, so much of what we do and how we relate to others stems from the love that we’ve received. Knowing—really knowing—God’s love changes us. Knowing God’s love allows us to share that love with others.

As you are reading this, I want you to ask yourself: am I “living loved”? Do I know how much God loves me? Or is there something preventing you from receiving that love? I can assure you, as Papa would say in The Shack, God is "especially fond of you"!

I think of The Message version of Romans 8:35, 38-39:

Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.

I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.