The Shack ....by William Young

Have you ever wanted to meet God? Given the chance, what would you want to ask, say, know?

Coming from a childhood where I was constantly contesting religion, I’ve somewhat resigned myself to ignorance when it comes to God, Jesus, heaven, hell, Satan. All evoke confusing, uncomfortable, and battling feelings within me. However, there are those moments when I let myself ponder religion.

So a few months ago, I found myself in a conversation concerning religion and decided to dust off some cobwebs from my memory. And I started battling, as I do, and realized I’d really forgotten a lot of what I thought I knew about my belief or misbelief or nonbelief. Really I guess it’s my memories, about what I used to battle, that I’ve forgotten. During the conversation (or debate), the subject of redemption came up. So I thought about this subject for a few days afterwards and decided to call my sister.

Incidentally, my sister, who is actively religious, isn’t following the religion we grew up knowing. Until then, I hadn’t spoken to her much about religion. But I knew she must have felt some conflicting feelings as she converted to her new faith. So I wanted to know what her thoughts were about redemption, now, as an adult - and in a new faith. One of the questions I had on my mind was her belief concerning Hell. You see.....the definition of Hell was different when we were Jehovah’s Witnesses than when we were Catholics. We talked about Hell, as well as other topics, and the differences in the two religions. And then in conclusion of our conversation, she said something that made me melancholy. She said, “I just like having a relationship with God.”

I can’t say that I’ve ever felt like I’ve had “a relationship” with God. I can’t say that I’ve ever believed that a “higher power” is there…for me….or for anyone? Of course, sometimes, when a vehicle nearly collides with mine, I think, “thank God!” But is that really just a phrase in my mind? Don’t misunderstand me – I’d love to feel a presence. But I don’t.........thus, emerges my Ignorance.

So I'd been thinking about religion and came across this book, The Shack, which gets me back to the subject. In reading this book, I found some comfort in how the author, Young, portrayed the Creator.

Briefly the story is about Mack, a father of six, who during a family vacation suffers the most terrifying experience any parent could. His youngest daughter, Missy, was abducted. And in an abandoned shack, evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found. Four years later, Mack receives a suspicious note in his mailbox apparently from God, inviting him back to the shack for the weekend. So Mack meets the Creator.

This book isn’t an action packed, spell-binding read. In fact, there were a few areas where I felt it was a little preachy and dragged a bit – but I liked the concepts that the author, Young, evoked. So I definitely think the book is worth reading. In the remainder of my blog, I’ve included different pieces I’ve taken from the book with my thoughts included. My reflections won’t give the read justice or excite you to pick up the book. They are noted only because I pondered Young’s narration.

First of all in the book when meeting God, Mack’s daughter, Missy, is presumably dead. So of course, we can assume that he has some great resentment. Why would God allow such a horrible ordeal to happen to an innocent child? Don’t you find yourself asking, too, if there’s a God, why would He allow such horribly devastating things to happen in this world? Like Mack, I often play myself as a judge. In the book, here’s an explanation given to Mack:

“God doesn’t stop a lot of things that cause Him pain. Your world is severely broken. You (mankind) demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the one who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as God desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost in darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those that He is especially fond of. God has never needed evil to accomplish His good purposes. It is humans who have embraced evil and God has responded with goodness. No one in the human world is immune from the work of evil.”

Good enough… that explains evil, right? And, I guess it could also explain that there is A PURPOSE.

If you had four children and God told you that you must choose two to spend eternity in His new heaven and earth AND you must choose two to spend eternity in hell. How would you feel? Could you make that choice? We can only assume that as the Creator of all, God knows EVERY person ever conceived, and He knows them so much deeper and clearer than we know our own children. So imagine, how difficult it would be for Him to choose which of His children will be condemned to eternity in hell….even if those children committed some heinous crime.

Good enough….so I get some semblance for God’s dilemma.

Can you imagine how it would feel to have your child abducted from you? The guilt, pain, sorrow, hate, unresolve, etc. Have you ever thought to yourself “is God punishing me for something I’ve done?” In the book, Mack talks with Jesus about his pent up feelings about Missy in which Mack tells Jesus that he hadn’t talked with anyone about Missy because it felt so huge and terrifying. And the response Jesus gave was interesting to me.

“The darkness hides the true size of fears and lies and regrets. The truth is they are more shadow than reality, so they seem bigger in the dark. When the light shines into the places they live inside you, you start to see them for what they are. Humans keep things inside because we believe it’s safer there.”

Good enough–simply put, this explains the importance of my ignorance.

For me, there was comfort to me in the following guidance Jesus gave Mack:

“Learn to live loved. It’s not an easy concept for humans. You have a hard time sharing anything. What God desires is for you to ‘re-turn’, and then He’ll come and make His home inside you. We’re meant to experience this life, your life, together, in a dialogue, sharing the journey. You get to share in His wisdom and learn to love with His love. If you try to live life without Him, without the ongoing dialogue of sharing this journey together, it will be like trying to walk on water by yourself. You can’t! And when you try, you’re going to sink. All God wants from you is to trust Him with what little you can, and grow in loving people around you with the same love He shares with you.”

I’ve never skipped to the end of a book before but this time I really wanted to know some detail of the conclusion before completing the book so I cheated. This book struck some personal thought and emotion for me about religion. I felt justified in some of the feelings I have about the subject. The book instilled sensible explanation for many of the buzz words that come to mind when I think about religion – evil; love; relationship; trust; reconciliation; judgment; perception; rules; religion; priorities; forgiveness; hell.

Mainly, this read gave me a simple optimism towards the idea of a relationship with God.