The Shack

Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired Podcast with John O'Leary.

Our guest today is a name you would recognize not only because I've had him on the podcast before, but also because he's sold almost 25 million copies of his incredible international successful book called The Shack.

That's right.

We're bringing back William Paul Young.

The Shack, as you may remember, is a story that brought hope to millions, probably including yourself worldwide.

First with us back in 2017 during episode 19.

Today, Paul joins us to share his new book.

It's called Return to the Shack.

So whether it's Aslan.

the lion, whether it's in the shack.

Like I remember that was a big culture war back in the day when William Paul Young depicted the Holy Spirit was an Asian woman.

Jesus was a Jewish carpenter and Papa was a black woman.

One of those moments happened – it must have been 10 or 15 years ago.

I'll have to look up the date of when The Shack was published.

But it's an oldie but goodie.

Yes, it is.

I've heard of quite a number of people that I know reading this.

It's called The Shack by William Young, a self-published book, an extremely popular book about suffering.

It talks about important themes and how to process difficult things in life.

It touches people's hearts.

Yeah.

And I remember, I don't know, like I'm a little bit older than you, Will, but I remember when The Shack first came out and, you know, that must have been the late 90s, early 2000s.

I can't quite remember.

And because in The Shack, William Paul Young images God as a black woman, that

was

wild.

So happy to have back on the show our good friend, Paul Young.

He is, of course, the author of The New York Times bestselling book, The Shack, and the bestselling book Crossroads, and the bestselling book Eve, and now he has returned to The Shack.

We have him on today, and we talk about grief, trauma, forgiveness, suffering, and the surprising places we find grace and redemption.

And he's been doing something really unique for the last 15 years.

Um, I, I've been learning for a long time- How to love both places, but my world is really outside the box.

Hmm.

And, um, and, and, you know, the Shack stuff started because Kim said, "You know, someday would you write something for the kids because you think outside the box?" And I had a couple dreams when I was in college.

Identical dreams, but ended differently.

yeah and also people who maybe i don't mean this in a condescending way although it feels like it's going to come out that way but like haven't thought very deeply about some of the sort of theological questions emotional questions that are being raised like you said like a gateway to be like oh maybe christianity isn't all people judging others and picketing you know

have you read the shack

yes long time ago

Doesn't this have kind of a similar, obviously Theo Golden is less religious, but I don't know.

But they kind of have a similar depth.

Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like from my pretty vague memory, the shack goes a little farther into the darkness and a little farther into pushing boundaries, you know, with like the female part of the Trinity and stuff like that.

So, you know, I think it makes people a little more uncomfortable than this one did, to go back to my statement about that.

We're so he continues to love us enough to keep coming back.

But he, his new book, Return to the Shack, and he said it's not so much a sequel as it is a continuation, as our lives are in our spiritual and just our life in general is a continuation, and it comes out October 6th.

So if you're listening to this later, then go check it out.

And but that's what this conversation is about, among many other things, as you would understand with Paul Young.

[laughs]

... was when Melinda and I were out in Oregon for the Open Table Conference, and we got invited to the luncheon after the conference was over.

And we were sitting at the picnic table with our friend Meg, and you were at the end of the table, and you pulled out your phone, and you read the first chapter of the sequel, Return to the Shack, at the picnic table.

I, that is one of my most...

But definitely check her out.

[page turns] And then another Christian fiction that I actually did not know we were getting a sequel to until I saw somebody else talk about it, but we are getting the second book to The Shack.

So The Shack was a really big book quite a while ago, but Return to the Shack: A Journey into Redemption by W.M. Paul Young is coming out on the 6th, and it's said that it is the long-awaited sequel to one of the world's most beloved and widely read books of the last 20 years, The Shack.

Unrivaled storyteller W.M. Paul Young leads us back to the great questions of human existence.

How does life go on in the face of inconceivable loss? How can the irredeemable find redemption? So I think that one's definitely going to be a thinker.