The Shack

Well, our closing was rescheduled to Wednesday because the banks processing departments comptuers were down all day today. So, here we sit and wait a little longer. AARRGG!


On another note, I have been reading "The Shack" by William P Young and I have to admit that it is one of the most unique christian novels I have ever read. To give a brief synopsis, the story revolves around one mans journey to understanding God after his daughter is abducted during a family vacation and presumed to have been murdered. The main character, Mack, struggles with a deep anger toward God for "allowing" this to happen to his daughter. Four years later, he receives a suspicious letter, apparantly from God, inviting him back to the scene of the assumed murder (a shack in the middle of the mountains) for a weekend.


Mack decides to go, despite his better judgement. That weekend turns into a journey that changes his life forever.



Although I am sure there are several "technical" issues with the accuracy of this novel (not that I read novels for the purpose of accuracy) I have thus far found it to be a insight into the love of God unlike any I have ever experienced. The author successfully portrays God (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit) as approachable and down to earth with a great sense of humor. He portrays God as such a loving person and really makes sense of the mystery of the trinity.


I'm about 3/4 thru this book and already I feel like I want to know God more. I think that is amazing. Many have compared this book to "The Pilgrims Progress". I would disagree. I have read "The Pilgrims Progress" and I did not get nearly the same results spirtually as I have with this book.


There are some things in this book I have had a hard time with though. Although I understand why God portrays himself to Mack as an African American Woman, it's still hard to swallow and just so against everything I have ever been taught or know. References to God as she instead of he, or her instead of him are just not what I have been accustomed to. I do find the idea of God revealing himself to Mack in the way that would best meet the needs of His child at that time to be a pretty awesome idea though.


One particularly enlightening moment in the novel is where Mack is talking to Jesus about "institutions". Jesus explains that he does not create institutions. That it is from the imagination of man. He says the 3 institutions that have terrorized human beings are religion, politics and economics. I won't spoil how he explains this by writing about it on here, but I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this novel. Even if you don't agree or believe everything in it, it is still just an overall enlightening, heartwarming and interesting story.

What's up with the Kille's

We are getting ready to close on our very first house on Monday. I am so excited I haven't been able to sleep very well. I lay in bed at night and imagine where I'm going to place my furniture, what it will be like to live in this new house and how easy it will be to do the laundry without having to go up and down stairs ("yeah!")

I have posted a few pics of our new home :)

We have rented for so many years, that I do have some fears as to how we will adjust to owning our own home. First of all there's the issue of maintenance. It's not something we've EVER had to worry about. When the dishwasher breaks or the pipes freeze, we simply call the management office and they send someone over to fix it. It is a know fact that Ian and I neither one are the best at taking care of things. My idea of fixing something is to duct tape it. I do hope that we don't wind up being in the Guiness book of world records for having the house with the most duct tape on it.

The second thing that causes anxiety is the idea that we have BOUGHT this house. We can't just decide that if we don't like our neighbors we can just move. In the 14 years we have been married we have lived in 9 different houses, apartments and townhomes. When we got tired of the "view" or the neighbors or just had a desire for a change of scenery, we just moved. I don't think that would be a good idea when buying, so I guess the best solution to this problem is to get a Lowe card and keep painting the walls when the boredom of the scenery gets too much to handle.

The third thing that causes anxiety is the financial commitment. I'm not sure where it comes from, but for some reason I feel a great deal of anxiety over any kind of financial commitments. I don't even like signing a contract for cell phone service. I've never had this issue with relationships, but for some reason I always have with money.

There are some woderful things that I am very excited about though, which greatly outweigh those little things listed above. We started looking for a church to attend as soon as our offer was accepted on this house and have found a wonderful church that we hope to continue going to. It is about 1 mile from the house and we have already met a family that will live about 4 doors away who also attend that church. They have a little girl about Morgan's age, so we are very happy about that.

Also, the schools are among some of the best in the whole state of Indiana. The school Morgan will be attending is a four star school with an excellent cirriculum and wonderful staff.

Probably the best thing about this house is the location. We will be right on Geist resevior which is a beautiful lake and there are actually some hills in the area and it gives it more of the look and feel of the scenery of Tennessee that we miss so much. No, there are no mountains, but there are hills and trees. It's not quite as flat as some of the other areas in Indiana. I love the are and the location.

Keep praying for us, especially on Monday. I just hope FHA doesn't decide to stop giving loans on Monday morning.

Greetings and Salutations

Welcome to the world of the Kille family. I hope to be able to keep up with this blog. Please feel free to send comments or suggestions for blogs.