The Shack

I just finished reading the book The Shack by William P. Young.

There are so few books I've read that have had this kind of impact on me that I just had to blog about it.

I was warned by a lot of people before I started reading this that there were a lot of things that may challenge my theology or that I may just flat-out disagree with. However, I found that the challenges were relatively few and I was actually quite intrigued/excited by many of the ideas Young presented.

Here is the description of the book as found on Christianbook.com:

"Mack" Philips took his three children on a family camping trip while his wife visited her sister. Just as they were about to leave the campsite, the two older kids decided to take a last canoe ride before heading home. As their canoe overturned, and Mack went to help them, his back was turned and the unspeakable happened. Mack's youngest daughter, Missy, was abducted by a known child predator. After a massive search, evidence of Missy showed up at an abandoned cabin. Although they never found her body, everyone knew the worst had happened. For the next four years "a great sadness" fell over Mack and his family, until a note from God showed up in his mailbox. What happens next will move you to a greater understanding of God's unfailing love for us all.

Now, without giving too much away, Mack did go back to the Shack and had the encounter of his life with The Father (Papa), Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I absolutely love the way they were portrayed... so genuine, so loving, so completely UN-religious. I can see where these portrayals might be hard for some to get past at first (God was actually a woman) but for me, a fan of Joan of Arcadia, it was easy to imagine God in all forms.

The really amazing thing for me was that, although it doesn't supply you with a lot of answers, by the time you close the back cover you are left with the feeling that everything is okay. No matter how good, how bad, how disappointing and even tragic things can become... God is aware and He cares deeply. What I am left with is a deepened sense that I just want to live my life near God. I want to be more aware than I have been in the past that He is paying close attention to all that goes on, and that He will be sure everything is used for His purposes regardless of how impossible it may seem. This book brought something to life deep inside of my heart that is hard to even put in words. Somehow, it introduced me to the God I always hoped was real... the God of infinite patience (not just tolerance), the God who loves in a deeply personal way (not just a blanket love that covers all humanity), the God who laughs and jokes (no condescending looks of "Don't you have something more important to think about?"), and most importantly, the God who makes sense of a world that makes no sense.

If you haven't had the chance to pick this up yet, I highly recommend it. No matter where you're at in your walk with God, I think when you finish reading this everything will seem just a little more real.