The Shack; Spending A Weekend With God

The Christian based book The Shack has been a phenomenon on many Best Seller lists. It was in the #1 spot in Borders Books when I purchased it last week.

The Shack by William P Young

The Shack by William P Young is the story of Mackenzie Allen Phillips who has experienced an unthinkable family tragedy. In this book it is known as his Great Sadness. 

Years later he is mysteriously invited by letter to visit God (Papa as his wife refers to God) in "the shack" where the terrible tragedy took place. As a Christian he believes that God, the Holy Trinity, is three persons in one but each is independent and whole on their own. It is a mystery of the Christian church.

During Mack's weekend journey of greater understanding he meets with each one. They are in human form that he can relate to. (Each form could be surprising and perhaps eyebrow raising to the reader.)

The author uses these three persons (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit)  to help Mack get through his Great Sadness. 

Mack is angry, unforgiving and non-trusting of God due to the hurt he holds inside himself. The wounds are deep. During this weekend he is witness to many unbelievable situations that are all arranged to help him realise that relationships are opened through love and trust. Each take him into confidence, dicussing his personal experiences and how they have affected him and those around him.

Pops Take

The crux of the book as I read it delves into man's free will and also gives answer to the questions, "Why does God allow bad things happen to people" and "Why, if God is good, does He allow pain and suffering in this world. That's not an easy subject to explore but author  William P Young does an admiral job of explaining, through easy to follow conversation, the ways of God's world particularly shining a light on Mack's personal Great Sadness. As a Catholic we term such trials as The Cross we bear.

Mack's intimate conversations with each of the Trinity were powerful. The answers were loving and yet straight forward and though the dialogue does slip to "huh?" a time or two, overall I was enraptured by the communion and connection between Mack, and each of the Trinity. The book was but 252 pages, and though I thought I was going to breeze through it in a day, I found myself rereading much of the deeply felt dialogue. The book took a lot longer to finish than I expected. I found some answers had me thinking deeply.

I did find some fault in the reactions of Mack during that weekend. His accepting that he was talking to God seemed too matter of fact at times I didn't see the total awe I expected him to demonstrate.

To be perfectly open and honest, as a practicing Roman Catholic, I was keeping an eye open for teachings that do not fit into my beliefs and/or the dogma of the Catholic Church.

Outward statements like Religion must use law to empower itself and control the people...There's no need for the Ten Commandments, and rules only give the power to accuse along with God doesn't punish sin did have me wondering how that relates to my own faith journey.  Also, when the last pages started talking about persons being lost in a wash of ruby and vermillion, magenta, and violet, as the light and color whirled around and embraced him, I immediately thought here we go with aura and New Age stuff. 

The fact is when these statements are looked at in full context and compared to biblical interpretations and Jesus teachings, they do fall into proper Christian and Catholic place. I'm sure there could be some interpretations that differ but on the whole, I personally no major problems.

All said, I look at this book as a thought provoking read and certainly a fine alternative to so many negative genres and the piles of poor pulp that are pushed in book stores and libraries.

...and a couple of final thoughts

Interesting to me was the author's choice to have his fictional character Mack ask a friend, who also has a part in the book, to ghost-write his, that is Mack's, experience of the Great Sadness. We find out about this in the foreword, something rare in such novels. I liked the method and how it came across. It was not heady or preachy. It was a story simply told and easily absorbed by the less biblical  and religious educated, this writer included. 

The book flows well giving background to the Great Sadness and then onto the weekend and beyond. There were some unexpected "surprises" in the book and that certainly kept the story from becoming predictable. The book continued to a satisfying end that was different than what I first expected.

I can recommend this book to Catholics and Christians of all denominations along with non-believers understanding it is fiction yet delivers some well thought out answers to extremely difficult questions.

Personally, I do hope to one day have the same kind of one on one conversations with my creator that Mack does. Some of the experiences viewed in this book were extraordinarily beautiful expressions of love.