Well I’m back from the Colorado/Michigan trip and finally digging out a bit from the email avalanche that welcomed me home. Still got a bunch more to do, but I thought you’d enjoy this. I got an actual letter in the mail a couple of weeks ago. Those are pretty rare these days. It was [...]
Yep, that’s me! Earlier this spring I was invited to a discussion about living loved with people in Anderson, Indiana who had been reading The Shack and some of my own books, He Loves Me, and So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. This conversation covers so much of my own journey. my [...]
I received the following letter yesterday after the author had read So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. As with many people it seemed to fill in some piecing pieces in his own journey. I’m really touched when I hear from people like this who began with a taste of goodness, got sidetracked [...]
Someone reminded me of this sign today posted on the way of Shishu Bhavan, a children’s home in Calcutta. I quoted it in the front of Authentic Relationships, a book I wrote with my brother, Clay a few years back. I really needed to hear these words again today. Maybe the will re-inspire some of [...]
Most depictions of God in art throughout church history have imagined a distant and exalted older man, often with a look of anger in his eye. Interestingly enough, most depictions of Jesus (except when he is clearing the temple), show him in softer and more compassionate moments. If Jesus was the exact representation of the [...]
I’m back from Indiana and had an awesome time with so many people, I can’t keep them all straight. The first two days I hung out with some folks who are living a bit outside the box. The last two I was interviewed about So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by a [...]
I love how God deals with people on the journey and the different experiences have in learning to Live Loved. I think you’ll enjoy this one. I met this man and his wife last month, and he was a relatively new believer, but incredibly passionate for the life of God. Here’s a bit of his [...]
You’d have to be fully off the grid, not to have heard of Susan Boyle, the 47 year-old woman who recently shocked the audience and judges of Britain’s Got Talent with the most incredible performance of The Dream I Dreamed from Les Miserables. It was featured on news shows throughout the U.S. and as of [...]
It’s fascinating to watch God open someone’s eyes to the Truth of the gospel when they have been schooled in religious performance all their lives. They want to believe in the reality of grace, but have so many questions about what they’ve been taught in the past. It’s as if they can’t move on in [...]
An article I wrote on the crucifixion for Easter week appeared today on the Crosswalk website. While I don’t like the title they put to it, I do think Christianity needs to re-think the cross. I think we’ve got the story wrong—viewing it from our shame-induced stupor from the fall wanting to appease an angry [...]
I couldn’t resist sharing part of an email I received last week, but only caught up enough with my email to read it today. It brought many a smile to my heart for lots of reasons. I love how broadly this book resonates with people and how this family travels: Our family was making a [...]
After my last blog posting I got this response from a woman who now pastors in Illinois It continues the conversation in a wonderful way: I just read the e-mail you posted on your blog. I also just recently read your book. Wow!! I realized that there are probably countless individuals who can relate to [...]
This email arrived in my inbox this morning and I wanted to share it here, not for the kudos it offers to me, but for the encouragement it might offer others who live where this woman has lived. I hope we all know by know that only God can win someone to his love and [...]
Sara and I are not much on watching the Oscars, but we did see a bit of it go by the other night, and appreciated the quote Jerry Lewis used in accepting his lifetime achievement award. “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness [...]
This is one of the hardest questions I get. At this stage I get to live full time in the midst of some of the creative dreams I had as a young man. I can appreciate others wanting to as well, though I will warn them that it is not all they think it is. [...]
After my most recent blog post, Kent Burgess, a good friend of mine who blogs at Faithfully Dangerous, sent the following quote. It was part of a longer quote published the same day. I love it, and tragically it is too often true of many people: Love is always about giving up control, and people [...]
“Living loved” has become quite the motto around here. It’s what allows us to live deeply in the life of Jesus. Recently a correspondent sent me some excerpts on that theme drawn from Thomas Merton’s book, No Man Is An Island. Since I have had time to write anything this week, I thought you’d enjoy [...]
I got a beautiful email last week and wanted to share it. I do so well aware that it could be easily misunderstood. This sister is in the early stages of moving from the stale emptiness of religion into a fresh and vibrant relationship with Jesus. God is revealing himself to her. Recently God began [...]
Sara and I made it home from Virginia, and we had an awesome time all around. We met some incredible people and connected with some dear, old friends. I took questions from about 300 folks in a Presbyterian Church about THE SHACK and met with all kinds of people on relational journeys who are learning [...]
Sara and I are off to Toledo and the Detroit area for the weekend. As I wind things up today I am overwhelmed with joy at the way Jesus changes people and how he opens their eyes. I got this from a twenty-year old sister this morning who hales from the Pacific Northwest. She gave [...]
Many of you know that I am in San Francisco at the moment helping with my 83-year old father who went through a critical surgery yesterday. This has been a two-week ordeal since a botched surgery two weeks ago. The second surgery was an arduous and tenuous procedure demanding a top-notch specialist, which is why [...]
A couple of items first. At the left is the cover to our newest edition of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. It has been printed in Russian. How fun is that? Also, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with some medical emergencies in our extended family over the past few days that [...]
We don’t often think like this, do we? I got this email from someone recently and I loved what they had discovered: We have been in this area for about 9 years now. I really felt strongly that the Lord had spoken to my heart about coming here back in 1998, and we made the [...]
A few weeks ago almost all of the extended family on my side of the family got together for a reunion in honor of my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. We gathered at Shaver Lake, California where my parents live. That’s the mob to the left. We had a great time together in the Sierras and [...]
Last Thursday I had just returned from a day of meetings in Los Angeles. Among others we’d met with one of the producers of the Spider-Man franchise, who is a passionate believer, was deeply impacted by THE SHACK and wants to help us bring the movie to screen. One of the things he said was, [...]
Yes, we did make it home from Europe, but have fallen into a firestorm of emails and business arrangements that need my attention NOW! Almost takes all the joy out of coming home! Almost! I leave for Orlando tomorrow, so things are a bit face-paced around here. But in the last week we’ve moved the [...]
First, an announcement. For those who want to listen to an interview I did on the The Drew Marshall Show on April 12, you can click here for the audio link. We mostly talked about So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore. And then I wanted to share this letter with you. For [...]
During my recent trip through the Carolinas I met hundreds of people hungering to live in the reality of Jesus. We had all kinds of conversations with people all over the spectrum of expressions of church life. As part of my time in Charlotte, I was asked if I could meet the family of a [...]
Well, Sara and I are off to the airport and an overnight flight to Washington, DC where we’ll attend the President’s Prayer Breakfast with the whole Shack team as well as hook up with other brothers and sisters in the area. It promises to be a lot of fun and all the more because Sara [...]
I received an email yesterday from a new reader of the Jake Colsen story, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. She read the German edition called The Cry of the Wild Geese. Here are excerpts from her note: I gave my life to Jesus when I was a Child. I can remember [...]
Sara and I are so graced by all the people God has brought across our life in the last year. We are blessed at every touch with others who are sorting out the life of Jesus in their own journeys. Many of you have inspired and encouraged us this year. We are so grateful for [...]
I’ll let Dan, a friend of mine from Kansas City do the heavy lifting today. Here’s what he sent me this morning and I loved his thoughts on freedom and Christmas letters! This time of year we receive many of the Christmas letters from friends and family recounting the year’s busyness and major accomplishments. It [...]
I hesitate to post this because I know just about everyone on the planet knows of a sure cure for cancer from eating tree bark, to drinking some kind of reconstituted seed, to visiting clinics in foreign countries. Every time I mention that someone I know is dealing with cancer I get a pile of [...]
I love those moments when God pulls back the curtain and I get to see what he has been shifting in my heart. I used to think most change came from hearing a new truth and applying it. I am increasingly discovering that real change comes from a relationship with him that changes the way [...]
My favorite restaurant around home is a barbecue joint! And like most good barbecue joints they slow cook the meat at a low temperature for a long time to make it nice and tender, only throwing it on the grill to sear in the flavor just before it is served. Man, that’s good stuff! I [...]
That’s our granddaughter Aimee (on the left) last night as we went over to help her celebrate her third birthday. It had been a tough day for her. Since her new baby sister arrived she has been missing the ‘mother time’ she had gotten used to as an only child. I’m not sure she thinks [...]
Sorry, I’ve been too busy here in Ireland with dozens and dozens of conversations with people I love and too involved in an unfolding crisis at home to keep up with the blog here. It’s amazing how our days here have touched everyone so differently and opened their eyes to things God was doing in [...]
“They are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.” (Romans 10:2) The most dangerous people you will meet on this journey are those who are zealous for God, but have no knowledge of the ways in which God works. They are the proverbial bulls in the china shop, demanding that people [...]
One of the things i like to read on the ‘Net is The Adventures of Clothman! I met Glen a number of years ago and appreciate his passion for Jesus and his humor as he writes about it. One of his best columns appeared this week and I hope you take the time to read [...]
I just had an awesome weekend near Palmer, Alaska with some wonderfully fun believers on a marvelous journey. I wish I had time to tell you about the North American Funsucker and those brothers and sisters going through their Pharisectomies. I wish I could show you the view out my window from the home I [...]