Canadian author (1955- )
There is only one race ... and it is human!
WM. PAUL YOUNG
FaceBook post, Aug. 9, 2014
Every human being is a universe within themselves. Your mother and father participated with God to create a soul who would never cease to exist. Your parents, as co-creators, supplied the stuff, genetics and more, uniquely combined to form a masterpiece, not flawless but still astounding; and we took from their hands what they brought to us, submitting to their timing and history and added what only we could bring to them -- life. You were conceived, a living wonder who exploded into being.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
Cross Roads
Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others. But the fortress needs walls, so you build some. These are the justifications for your lies. You know, like you are doing this to protect someone you love, to keep them from feeling pain. Whatever works, just so you feel okay about the lies.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
Transformation without work and pain, without suffering, without a sense of loss is just an illusion of true change.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
Cross Roads
Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
And when you learn, over the course of your life, that it's not about pleasing God, it's about learning how to trust God. That's a huge watershed, because trust is a whole different ballgame than appeasement or pleasing.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
interview, "Your Daily Bread", Rare, Dec. 10, 2013
I think good creative writing opens up space for people to come into. Let God reach out and touch the human soul. That's not my job. I get to be present and create as much space as I can ... That frees me up just to be creative in the way I want to be.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
"Christian Mingle: Wm. Paul Young, Bestselling Author of The Shack, in New York", The New York Observer, Nov. 14, 2012
You are the root, and only God knows that the flower will be.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
Cross Roads
I often find that getting head issues out of the way first makes the heart stuff easier to work on later.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn't even real.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
Normal is a myth.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
Today's minor irritations may become tomorrow's treasured memories. We often don't know what we are missing, until it's missing.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
FaceBook post, Sep. 24, 2014
I grew up fundamentalist, evangelical, Protestant. Those are my roots, and they are good roots. But it means the Pharisees are my people. I grew up with an image of God that was not helpful -- largely the face of my father expanded.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
"The Love Shack", Christianity Today, Mar. 4, 2013
Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
It's always been you know, religion that has been the primary impediment to actual relationship with God, because it creates a mythology about performance -- that you can perform your way into the appeasement of the deity. And you know, when you're born inside the cultural framework that I was, and you're born inside the religious traditions that I was, that becomes your understanding of spirituality: That it's about trying to please God. So, it's really not about God at all; it's about our ability to perform according to whatever the expectations are.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
interview, "Your Daily Bread", Rare, Dec. 10, 2013
The arrival of the unforeseen reveals the depths of one's heart.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack
I don't see the Father pouring out his wrath on the Son. I see the human race pouring out their wrath on the Son. So I see the only hope for the entire cosmos is what the Son chooses to accept, crawling upon the instrument of our greatest wrath. He met us at the deepest, darkest place.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
"The Love Shack", Christianity Today, Mar. 4, 2013
Thank goodness there are women in our lives -- that's all I can say. We get saved by the women in our lives.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
interview, "Your Daily Bread", Rare, Dec. 10, 2013
Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect.
WM. PAUL YOUNG
The Shack