The Shack

Today I finished reading The Shack which is written by William P. Young. This was one of the hardest books to read, but after finishing it and looking on theshackbook.com I have come to some conclusions about this book.

For those of you who don't know, The Shack is about this guy named Mack whose daughter was kidnapped by serial killer. Years later, he receives a note from God asking him to come visit Him at the shack where they found Mack's daughter Missy's dress. The book is about Mack's time at the shack and his encounter with God. In the forward, Young explains that Mack was his friend, that Mack claimed it all to be true, and that it wasn't his place to judge whether the story was true, but just to tell it. The afterward gives you an update on what has been going on since the story.

The book had a lot of good qualities about it. I definitely could resonate with some of the feelings and experiences of Mack, but there was something about it that just didn't sit well with me. It for sure made me excited about being with God, but I wonder how healthy that is. As I read the book, I wondered why this book was even published in the first place? Everything that was mentioned within it has been given to those who love Christ through the Bible, creation, and our own experience in the Holy Spirit.

So after reading it, I immediately looked up the website and was pretty saddened. One, Mack is not a real person. The whole story really is made up, but there is not one place in the book where it actually mentions that. I know that I am not the only one who thought that Mack was a real person. Part of me feels like a complete idiot for trying to have an open mind about it, but there are plenty of other people who have not looked online and are still giving Mack the benefit of the doubt. It's also super dangerous because people are saying their lives are being changed because of this book. I think a large part of that is because people think it's real. Two, there are forums where people are talking about how The Shack changed their life. I casually looked through them and saw that there was very little talk about what the Bible, which by the way, is nonfiction, has done to change them. The Shack is nonfiction made by a guy writing to his kids. Why is this seeming to have more of an effect than God's Word? Three, they have set up this thing called "The Missy Project" in which they are sending this book out all over the world in like 30 or 40 different languages. I can't help but feeling critical about this. Again, where is the Bible in all of this? Sure there are themes in The Shack that I can learn from, but it is not a substitute for the real thing.

These are the thoughts I had after I finished the book, but one main one started from the beginning of the read and really blew up by the end. My dad has been preaching a series on the Holy Spirit. On Sunday, he talked about how the Holy Spirit's main job, goal, delight was to bring glory to Jesus Christ- to show through illumination of our sin, the glories of God's Son. I kept that in the back of my head. Did this book glorify God? Or did it glorify a man's redemption process? Just reading the book, I think that it did glorify God and the majesty of who He is. Nothing within the book itself seems to go against the character of God that I see in the Bible or that I know from my time with Him. But, I do think that people have put too much emphasis on this book and that does not reflect the Holy Spirit. Fans and readers are becoming awed by this work and it's author, and I don't even think that is what Young intended for it.

I want to end letting everyone know that the book itself was a good read and that there is a lot to grasp from it. Andrew and I talked last night about how there have been other books written that shed light into some aspect of being in relationship with God that are fiction that we can learn from and shift our paradigm, but we understand that it goes along with God's Word. From this book, I have a different outlook at what it means to be in relationship with people that I didn't have before. This book has also gotten me excited about the new heavens and new earth. I really hope though that people keep in mind that this story came out of Young's imagination and is not a substitute for what we can find in the Bible.