Author of The Shack Reveals its Meaning, and Where Real Hope and Healing Come From

Craig Cable : Mar 24, 2011
LifeTree Café

"But [then] I knock at the door and God comes flying out, wraps me up and says, 'I've been here the whole time?' 'But I thought You hated me.' 'That was you that hated you, it wasn't Me.' And so, that's our hope."

(Loveland, CO)?Best-selling author of The Shack, William Paul Young, shares his struggles with abuse, infidelity, and a dysfunctional religious upbringing in an exclusive filmed interview for Lifetree Caf?.

The film will be screened across the country next week at Lifetree Caf?s, which are community forums.

Young experienced a number of personal crises before writing the controversial novel that has sold over 10 million copies. The son of missionaries, he was abused by a New Guinea tribe. He became a predator himself. And he later cheated on his wife.

He describes the shack as a symbol of the "house of the soul." In the interview he said the metaphorical shack is "the place you hide your secrets and you store your addictions."

He said he found healing through relationships?with people and with God. But he said his religion failed him. "Religion won't heal us. Religion can't."

Says Young about the "shack" in each of our own lives, "The setting of the darkest, deepest blackness creates a backdrop in which grace becomes most evident. If I went back to my shack and knocked at the door and no one answers; there's no hope. But when I knock at the door, God comes flying out, wraps me up and says, 'I've been here the whole time.' 'But I thought You hated me.' 'That was you that hated you, it wasn't Me.' And so, that's our hope."

The Lifetree program explores Young's spiritual breakthroughs that finally brought him peace.

The 60-minute program, titled "Can God Love a Mess Like Me?" combines the film with live conversation among attendees. It will be offered in venues across the country during the week of March 27. Admission to the event is free.

Watch a sample of the Lifetree Caf? interview with Young by CLICKING HERE.

For more information on the Lifetree Caf?, follow the source link provided.