Most struggle with its storyline, love or hate its message, or like me, ponder its effect for years to come. However you process this book, one thing is for sure, you will confront something deep within that requires you to encounter God in ways you never before imagined.
The Shack, released in 2007, stays with me, and lately, it has been on my mind more than usual. The first time I read The Shack I was deeply troubled by many things in the storyline. In fact, I almost didn’t finish it, but my husband suggested I push my way through with an open mind and a cautious spirit. I finished it, and then I read it again.
The second time through I was able to skim over the horrors that troubled my humanity while concentrating on the message my soul sought to understand. Let’s get the obvious stumbling block out of the way. Yes, God appears to the main character Mac as a large African American woman called, “Papa?” Seriously, how does one get past that? Creatively speaking, it’s brilliant, but spiritually speaking it seems off. It goes against everything most of us have been taught about God.
He is not a She, He is a He,
And we don’t know what color He is, do we?
And He does not appear in person in the kitchen baking bread or listening to pop music, or does He…
Oh yes, I just went there, because honestly, how can we truly know all the ways God involves Himself in our lives? He just does. And who told us how to envision God anyway? These questions make up the theme that continues throughout.
What I love about the book and the 2017 movie is the idea that God in any form is full of love, mercy, grace, and foresight. It’s simply to be accepted and believed about Him.
Who do we know that could have imagined speaking the good and beautiful world into existence, only to have its inhabitants rebel against them in arrogant disobedience? Then that same person sends their only begotten son to knowingly suffer, and die so that Eden and Earth might one day be restored to its original intent. You already know there’s no one like this, except for God, and so we’re left to conclude that the purpose of life and death is a much bigger picture than our minds can actually grasp.
The Shack is intense; it leaves the reader to wrestle the unthinkable out with God and conclude what they truly believe about Him. The reader is confronted with the fact that good and bad things happen to all people. God’s ways are not man’s ways. His thoughts are not man’s thoughts, but His word says He does work all things together for good to them who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes.
It also requires the reader to dive deepest when it boldly poses the question, “Who can reconcile utter discouragement, disappointment, and despair as a means of drawing one to God?” Only God can do that.
So here I am all these years later, thinking about the impact this book and movie left on me. All I can say is good job Wm. Paul Young, you’ve made us think, and think, and think… about God.
Lord, thank you for a book like The Shack which has served to make us consider you in ways we wouldn’t have otherwise.