Shack Book Quotes:

If anything matters, then everything matters.

- William P. Young

topic: Matter, Shack, Shack Book

Mackenzie, you cannot produce trust, just as you cannot 'do' humility. It either is or is not. Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. Because you do not know that I love you, you cannot trust me.

- William P. Young

topic: Love You, Humility, Fruit, Shack, Shack Book

So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it.

- William P. Young

topic: Relationship, Believe, Knowing, Shack, Shack Book

All I want from you is to trust me with what little you can, and grow in loving people around you with the same love I share with you. It's not your job to change them, or to convince them. You are free to love without an agenda.

- William P. Young

topic: Relationship, Jobs, People, Same Love, Shack

pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly, and if left unresolved you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.

- William P. Young

topic: Pain, Wings, Able, Shack, Shack Book

Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.

- William P. Young

source: "The Shack". Book by William P. Young, May, 2007.

topic: Color, Grace, Suffering, Facets, Shack

Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don't ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me. Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.

- William P. Young

topic: Mean, Color, Grace, Shack, Shack Book

Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship.

- William P. Young

topic: Relationship, Shack, Shack Book

You... were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around... Living unloved is like clipping a bird's wing and removing its ability to fly... A bird is not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly. Remember this, humans are defined not by their limitations, but by the intentions I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image. Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. I AM love.

- William P. Young

topic: Mean, Love Is, Wings, Unloved, Shack

You are free to love without an agenda

- William P. Young

topic: Agendas, Same Love, Shack, Shack Book

I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it.

- William P. Young

topic: Punishment, People, Joy, Shack, Shack Book

...if anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will be the same again.

- William P. Young

topic: Kindness, Heart, Forgiving, Shack, Shack Book

It is not the nature of love to force a relationship, but it is the nature of love to open the way.

- William P. Young

topic: Way, Shack, Force, Shack Book

"Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly"... "And if left unresolved you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."

- William P. Young

source: "The Shack". Book by William P. Young, May, 2007.

topic: Pain, Wings, Able, Shack, Shack Book

Does that mean," asked Mack, "that all roads will lead to you?" "Not at all," smiled Jesus..."Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.

- William P. Young

topic: Jesus, Mean, Doe, Mack, Shack Book

I am what some would say 'holy, and wholly other than you.' The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think.

- William P. Young

topic: Fall, Thinking, Who I Am, Shack, Factoring

You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for his wholeness and give him over to me so that my love will burn from his life every vestige of corruption.

- William P. Young

topic: Giving, One Day, Each Day, Shack Book

I don't just want a piece of you and a piece of your life. Even if you were able, which you are not, to give me the biggest piece, that is not what I want. I want all of you and all of every part of you and your day.

- William P. Young

source: "The Shack". Book by William P. Young, 2007.

topic: Giving, Want, Able, Shack, Shack Book

Emotions are the colors of the soul.

- William P. Young

topic: Color, Soul, Emotion, Shack, Shack Book

Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person's throat.

- William P. Young

topic: Letting Go, Forget, Throat, Forgive Forget, Shack Book

Each relationship between two persons is absolutely unique. That is why you cannot love two people the same. It simply is not possible. You love each person differently because of who they are and the uniqueness that they draw out of you.

- William P. Young

topic: Love, Unique, Two, Shack Book

In seminary he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerner's access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book.

- William P. Young

topic: Book, Communication, Voice, Direct Communication, Communication With God

You don't play a game or color a picture with a child to show your superiority. Rather, you choose to limit yourself so as to facilitate and honor that relationship.

- William P. Young

topic: Children, Color, Games, Shack, Shack Book

religion is about having the right answers, and some of their answers are right... but i am about the process that takes you to the living answer... it will change you from the inside. there are a lot of smart people who are able to say a lot of right things from their brain because they have been told what the right answers are, but they don't know me at all.

- William P. Young

topic: Smart, People, Brain, Shack Book

I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside.

- William P. Young

topic: Relationship, Hurt, Pain, Shack Book

Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself- to serve.

- William P. Young

topic: Way, Limits, Will Power, One Way, Shack

Perhaps there is supranatural: reason beyond the normal definitions of fact or data-based logic; something that only makes sense if you can see a bigger picture of reality. Maybe that is where faith fits in.

- William P. Young

topic: Reality, Data, Definitions, Shack Book

You cannot produce trust just like you cannot 'do' humility. It either is or is not.

- William P. Young

topic: Humility, Like You, Produce, Shack, Shack Book

No matter what God's power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself.

- Jacques Ellul

source: Jacques Ellul (2011). “Anarchy and Christianity”, p.34, Wipf and Stock Publishers

topic: Firsts, Levels, May, Shack Book

Love is not the limitation; love is the flying.

- William P. Young

topic: Love Is, Flying, Limitation, Shack Book

Forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established.

- William P. Young

topic: Real, People, Forgiving, Real Relationship, Shack Book

I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships, so will our healing.

- Paul Young

topic: Life, Hurt, Healing, Shack, Shack Book

Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around. You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly. Not something I want for you. Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.

- William P. Young

source: "The Shack". Book by William P. Young, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2008.

topic: Pain, Hands, Wings, Shack, Shack Book