Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Why I Like The Shack

Recently I was asked to explain why I liked the book The Shack - written by William P. Young.

Jesus often used Parables as his preferred teaching method during his earthly ministry. I believe the Shack is a modern day parable. It’s a story that can be used to teach important ideas about God. Here are three ideas from this parable that stand out for me.

1. The book presents an image of God that is extremely attractive. God is depicted as being loving, kind, patient and forgiving. God is not presented as being mean, judgmental, and harsh. I believe these characterizations of God are accurate. I believe that they are consistent with the character of God described in the Bible.

A vast number of people are turning away from the Christian church today. Many are turned off by Christians and Christianity. They say that Christians are unloving, mean-spirited, judgmental, rigid and un-thinking. They believe that becoming a Christian will make them a worse person not a better person. In far too many cases, I’m afraid that their assessment is accurate.

As followers of Jesus we are living representatives of God in the world. Many Christians are misrepresenting God. Our character doesn’t match His. We have convinced ourselves that it is more important to believe rightly than it is to behave rightly. We have forgotten the Great Commandment. As a result, many people don’t think that God is good.

In the book, God lovingly and gently helps Mack confront his own brokenness and then He woos Mack toward wholeness. Again, I believe this accurately describes how God works in all of our lives. Because God is presented in such a loving way, many people who normally wouldn’t read anything about God are reading and enjoying this book. I love when God says “I’m especially fond of you.”

2. The book depicts God in ways that are different from our typical stereotypes about him. God the father is depicted as a woman for example. I love this! It seems to me that far too many people think that they have God all figured out. They seem to think that God can’t possibly be any different than their image of Him. I think we need to be reminded that in the Bible God revealed himself in a variety of ways. We need to be reminded that the word “Holy” carries the idea of being completely “other.” God leaves us with much mystery about himself. Even the great apostle Paul acknowledged his limited understanding in 1 Corinthians 13:9-12. Paul said “We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.” And here is a quote from The Shack “faith does not grow in the house of certainty.” I believe we will be in a much better place when we embrace the mystery of God and when we remember that whatever we say is only a portion of the truth.

3. I really like the way the book depicts the personal relationship between the Trinity and Mack. The book described a personal relationship that was deep and intimate. I want to relate to God in that way. Often we talk about God, read about God, sing about God, and form beliefs about God, but we don’t really relate to God. We don’t engage him in a daily relationship.

Here are two quotes from the book that stood out for me:

“Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. Because you do not know that I love you, you cannot trust me.”

“Mack, I don’t want to be the first among a list of values; I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything that happens to you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile, where everything in your life – your friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities – is connected to me but moves with the wind, in and out and back and forth, in an incredible dance of being.”

What are your thought?

3 comments:

  1. I loved the Shack for many of the same reasons that you've written about here. Thinking of it as a parable is really helpful. For me the biggest impact was the chapter when Mac went to see Sophia. The whole conversation about judgment had me in tears from start to finish - and then I did a lot of repenting.

    Thanks for posting this.

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  2. Yes, that scene touched me deeply, also. The one that has stayed with me, though, is the scene where all the people are worshipping Jesus. Really touched something in me both times I read it.

    I understand the concerns about theology that people have, but since I believe that believing right is trumped by loving well, I think that The Shack is an orthodox book because it has helped so many to love God in ways they never imagined possible. And of course, the idea that God could be a woman doesn't offend me : )

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  3. Many of my friends did not like the book. Some due to the expression of a part of the Trinity being female and others couldn't seem to accept the simple, intimate, even fun-loving nature of the relationship between God and Mack. That was precisely what attracted me to it. I think we as individuals and as Christian communities have taken something very simple -- following Christ and being in relationship with Him -- and analyzed it, strategized it, five-year planned it into something very different from what it was meant to be. I was speaking with my spiritual director about this yesterday and we talked about how every "movement" has a tendency to do this with each new generation. even the latter-written books of the NT appear to be revealing/addressing some of the problems related to this drift away from a simple, intimate relationship.

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