My review of The Shack

I have heard many things about this book called The Shack. Mostly good, some not so good. Here is an introduction taken from The Christian Manifesto blog for those who are unfamiliar.

In The Shack, Mack Phillips’ world is torn apart when his little girl, Missy, is kidnapped during a family vacation. All the evidence points to a serial kidnapper that the police have been unable to apprehend. Heavy with despair, Mack and his family wait while the search for his daughter continues. The search finally culminates at an old shack deep in the Oregon wilderness where Missy’s bloodstained clothes are discovered. Her body is nowhere to be found, but everyone knows the truth. Missy is gone. Four years later, Mack opens his mail one day and discovers a strange note. It is an invitation from God asking Mack to return to the fateful shack. Outraged, Mack writes it off as a cruel prank. After stewing for a few days Mack reluctantly makes the trip, not sure what he will find. Mack is about to meet God face to face and he will never be the same.

I found this book to be....well...surprisingly really good. It wasn't the greatest fiction read, but it definitely makes you think about things, differently. A lot different. It really puts new perspective on God, a more personal view, at least for me anyway. Everything in the story is based on relationships and love and without God there is no love. Even though we hear this a lot, I know I tend to forget and we view God as an "honorable position" or like a high judge. Most people don't view Him as a friend or a dad.

I was raised in a Christian home my entire life and there are still things that don't make a ton of sense. I'm not saying this book clarified everything up--I will still have questions and those questions will probably never be answered until that one day--but until then I have a new angle to ponder. For instance, I understand the Trinity, the 3 in 1-however, explaining it to someone who isn't a Christian. Well--that's super hard. And this book...it helps, and sometimes people (even me) just need a visual image.

I hope people don't follow this book religiously like the Bible, even though I know they have based on various news stories and the controversies that have risen from this. It is a fiction story. But I give it two thumbs up and I think everyone should read it with an open mind.