I started this book thinking it was going to be a crime drama and finished wondering how I ever made it through life without reading it. Seriously! This book is one of those life changing books that you just didn’t know you needed. Now, let me qualify myself by saying that this book is really only meaningful if you are a Christ believer or someone looking to believe in Christ. I can honestly say that after years and years of attending different types of Christian churches from Catholic to Baptist to Pentecostal and finally a non-denominational Christian church I learned so much from this one book.
The Shack is the story of Mack Phillips. Mack was busily happy living life. He had a rough childhood and so he was bound and determined to make a better life for his wife and kids. He was a church going man but he just never took it too far. His wife Nan was a church going woman who had a special relationship with God. So much so that she chooses to call him Papa instead of God. They are friends and family in her eyes. Mack just didn’t have that with God and he had so many doubts and questions about God.
Mack’s life is terribly turned upside down when his youngest child is kidnapped and presumably murdered never to be found again. Mack becomes angry, hurt and bitter. He begins to live in what he calls "The Great Sadness". He is merely getting by and his relationship with his other children is suffering because of it. While his wife searches for answers to help her children understand Mack searches for ways to prove it is all God’s fault his Missy is gone.
One day Mack gets a personal note in his mailbox from "Papa" and his life is forever changed. He struggles with the decision to go and meet the note writer at the shack where Missy’s blood stained clothing were found. He is concerned it is the murderer but confident this person wouldn’t know of Nan’s special name for God. In the end he goes and spend three days in the shack with God.
His exchanges with the three embodiments of God over those three days answer questions we all seek the answers to. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit care for him, teach him and show him that his idea of what and who they are is no where near the reality of them. I have to say that the exchanges in this book made me reconsider my own ideas about who they are. Papa is a large black woman who cooks non-stop and tells Mack like it is in no uncertain terms. He comes in that form because of Mack’s father issues from his childhood. Jesus is a carpenter who works in his shed most of the time and is the easiest for Mack to relate to. He is human like. He laughs and jokes and plays. He shows his great love. Finally the Holy Spirit is a female who is ethereal. She floats around in her garden. She tends her garden which appears to be a mess of flowers strewn everywhere. I love how she says that the mess is organized to her. She tells Mack that the mess is his heart. She sees the mess but can see where the order is. She is one who Mack feels comforted by.
Slowly this trio of people help teach Mack about their love, his pain and the real cause of the evil and ugliness in the world. They help him understand that God doesn’t create the evil things that happen. He also doesn’t want to allow us to have to go through those horrible things. He does it because he loves us enough to allow us to make our own choices. Those choices are what bring about the horrible evil and pain that we have to live with. Papa also shows Mack how he takes every horrible experience and creates a situation that fits his purpose.
There are some parts that go in the face of traditional religious ideas. This book is NOT about religion. It is about relationships with God as the Holy Trinity. It is not about rules…I love how Papa says that rules give people an out. Even the 10 Commandments are turned in to just a mirror to judge ourselves by. God never really intended us to follow those rules to the letter. Who could ever do that? Who has ever done that with the exception of Jesus? He says that once we were redeemed the idea was to get rid of rules and begin relationships. If we are in relationship with God and the other people around us then we will want to do things that are pleasing to him and the others around us.
I love the ideas that are taught in this book. I realize it is fiction but truly it makes so much more sense than some of the stuff I was taught coming up. It is so much easier to wake up each day and pray for a closer relationship with God and others than it is to wake up each day and pray that you don’t break a commandment or sin in any way. Jesus covered our sins. It is our responsibility to establish a relationship with him so that we can live the life he wants us to live. Wonderful concept. Like my pastor said this weekend "Stop worrying about things God never intended you to worry about!"
In the end Mack gains closure for Missy’s death. Not only does he get to mentally close it but he physically closes it to. I recommend this book to anyone with even a glimmer of hope in the reality of God. Enjoy!
