Is God involved?

I just finished reading a book that had been recommended to me by my pastor. It's made it to the New York Times #1 best seller list, and it's name? The Shack. The popularity of this book has been spread by word of mouth mostly, and many people have been touched by its message. The storyline goes something like this: a man with a history of being abused by his father looses his daughter in a brutal murder, which takes place in a shack deep in frontier country. He's never gotten over it and his relationship with God has suffered since. One day he receives a letter, and apparently it's from God who invites him to the shack. He eventually goes back to the shack where, amazingly, he meets God - face to face. The story from there on is about healing, redemption and learning to trust God even in the face of terrible loss.

However, the book does have its detractors. The author, William Paul Young, has been accused of being a universalist, a heretic, etc. which I find completely unfair. He's made his position clear in an interview with Servant Magazine (a publication of Prairie Bible College) that he believes that Jesus is the only way to God; how then does this make him a heretic is beyond me. While I think there are a couple of things in the book that I would question, overall I'd say it gives great insight into the heart of God. Basically it challenges our preconceived cultural notions of who God is (especially how we see Him as our Father) and what His nature is like. As well it challenges the reader by asking two questions: In the face of great loss and suffering, is God good, and is He involved?

For me I'd have to say that the answer to the first question is unequivocally yes. But then faced with the second question I honestly had to say "sometimes." My experience of God in this area has been sporadic, and I know that we cannot go by experience alone when learning about the heart of God. Yet, for instance, I've prayed for the healing of others and have seen results but I have yet to be healed of my infertility. I've asked the question, "Where is God?" when I've had troubles, and while I have sensed His presence I at times have not seen His intervention. This is important for me to reconcile, because as Paul Young said the two questions are like two legs we need to stand on. If one isn't there then it's pretty hard to stand, isn't it?

Recently Angel & I were at a Kinship group (a house church) and were asked to be prayed for. Without giving the specifics of what we are going through recently we said yes, and the man who prayed for us prayed a prayer that was right on the money. As we're at a time of change and transition we felt like we were pulled in many different directions, and the Holy Spirit directed him to pray specifically about this matter (we had never met this fellow before nor did he know anything about us, so his insight had to have been supernatural). What the Lord said to this man was that this was to be a time of rest, and that we eventually would know for certain where God wanted us to go. You would think that this would move my view of God's intervention more towards the yes side, but I still have a ways to go yet.

In my head the answer to the question of God's involvement is yes. I just wish I could see it a bit more often...