King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Shack


author: William P. Young

published: 2007

pages: 252

genre: christian fiction


first line: Who wouldn't be skeptical when a man claims to have spent an entire weekend with God, in a shack no less?

rated: 4 out of 5

Don't ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.

The Shack isn't a book I'd normally pick up, not because it doesn't sound good, but because I don't typically read Christian fiction. I need to remedy this, because the small amount of Christian fiction I have read, I have enjoyed. The reason I read this one is because my father told me was going to send me a copy of his favorite book, and this book arrived at my doorstep later that week.




Husband and father of five, Mackenzie Phillips, lives a good life with his wife Nannette. The two have a strong faith in God and pass this on to their children.
Nan is a registered nurse working with cancer patients. She is religious and refers to God as 'Papa'.


One day tragedy strikes and the unthinkable happens. They all suffer an immense loss, and Mack blames himself.


He finds something in an old abandoned shack that breaks his heart and nearly breaks his spirit. Mack goes through what he refers to as The Great Sadness.
He begins to question his relationship with God. Nans heart is also broken, but she finds a way to remain faithful and does not lose her hope in God.







About four years after the tragic incident that shakes Macks' world to the core and makes him question his faith, a note arrives in his mailbox in the middle of an ice storm. The note has no return addressed and is typed:

Mackenzie,

It's been a while. I've missed you.

I'll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together.

-Papa

Mack thinks this is a joke, and is angry that anyone would send such a note to him, especially after what occurred in the shack four years ago.
After much debating about whether he should go to the shack or not, Mack decides to go. Once he arrives there, he begins to have an emotional breakdown before he awakens to find God waiting for him.



The Shack was a powerful and moving read. I cried at parts, laughed at others and this book really tugged at my heartstrings. I liked Mack and Nan and it felt as though I was reading someones life story. The writing was great, and there is some food for thought in this book. Especially when Mack has conversations with God. I enjoyed the talks they had about forgiveness. There was inspiration within these pages, and I recommend this one to anyone looking for an uplifting read.







Here's a few favorite tidbits:

I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships, so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside.

God's voice has been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects.
It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners' access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia.


Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?

Forgiveness if first for you, the forgiver....to release you from something that will eat you alive, that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly. Do you think this man cares about the pain and torment you have gone through? If anything, he feeds on that knowledge. Don't you want to cut that off? And in doing so, you'll release him from a burden that he carries whether he knows it or not-acknowledges it or not. When you choose to forgive another, you love him well.