I have been reading THE SHACK. I know, most of you are way ahead of me. You read it last year — right? Okay, two years ago. Well, I just want you to know that it has revolutionized my prayer life.
Here’s the deal: MacKenze, the central character, meets God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus in a shack. While sitting at meal with them, he proceeds to tell them all about his family — his wife and his children. Then he realizes that he is talking to God who already knows everything he is saying and is about to say. So he says, “Why am I telling you this? You already know it. You’re acting like this is the first time you have heard it.”
This is what God the Father says:
“We are limiting ourselves out of respect for you. We are not bringing to mind, as it were, our knowledge of your children. As we are listening to you, it is as if this is the first time we have known about them, and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes” (page 106).
Amazing!
Do you know what Mackenzie says, “I like that!” Who could not?
Then I understood the Psalms a little better. I used to wonder why God allowed David to spew out all his venom and hurt and doubt and pain — in the Bible, no less. (Okay, there was a time when I thought I knew better than God. I have confessed that sin many times before.) There is no indication that God chastised David at all. He just let him vent. By the end of his diatribe, David blesses the God of Israel.
Well, God allows him to do it — I believe — because he wants to hear about everything that affected David through David’s own lens. And everytime David spews out his hurt and questions, it is as if God hears it for the first time. Why? Because He loved David! He loves us! He cares for us! He sees his willful limitations and our incessant sharings as us taking advantage of the intimacy that He has provided.
Can you imagine — God limiting Himself just so he could hear — as if for the first time — my heart, my feelings! Prepare, Father, for me to talk your ears off! 🙂
Father, I love you! I believe all your children are echoing that same sentiment. How could we not love you — when we know you? Thanks for not being some distant god and thanks for not being turned off by our tirades! And thank you don’t get tired of hearing from us. Yea, “I like that!”
Juanita…I love your thoughts! Yep….read it a couple of years ago (couldn’t resist 8-D).
Anyway, as I was reading that passage from the book, “….and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes,” I couldn’t help thinking how much fun it is to listen to and watch our children and grandchildren share their experiences. It’s like experiencing the newness and joy of it all over again! I never thought of God listening to us that way before, but I will now.
It’s also a challenge to me to listen with new ears to a brother or sister as they tell me about something wonderful, or maybe not so much, that they have experienced. If I listen with the same wonder and/or passion, who knows what new revelations God will release?
Blessings! Pam
Wow, I had not extended that I idea to my brothers and sisters! I can sometimes get perturbed when people tell me the same story they have shared before. Even when you say, “I remember,” they proceed in telling the story — detail by detail. Maybe I need to start practicing the mind and the heart of God — and listen! 🙂 Oops, and listen with delight and freshness ! (I forgot that part!) Thank you, Abba, for listening to us over and over again!
Blessings Pam!
I think the question is not whether God knows everything that has happened. The real question is “If we have told him something for the 10th time, does he listen as if this is the first time He has heard it?” The answer is a resounding yes to each question. To the latter topic, we do this for our children. Some of us, with little patience, albeit, do it for our aging parents. Why, then, could God not do it for us?