The Shack

Excellent book. I read this book in a day and a half...I could not put it down. The characters were so real, and the message is very thought-provoking. If anyone wants to take a look at themselves, read this book!

This book has been instrumental in causing me to reconsider the baggage I carry with me when I look at God. There are subtle ways that I tend to put God in a box and make Him someone much less than He actually is. I have had great discussion with friends of mine who have also read this book about God's character, being, personality and mostly the depth of His personal love for each of us. I hope this discussion is going on more and more throughout the world because of this book.

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I kept on reading until the end...hoping it would get good. Or amaze me. Or let me in on some secret or something. Nothing. Nada. Just drivel.

A coworker loaned "The Shack" to me, telling me, "You gotta read this book. It changed my life." I told him I'd read it with an open mind. When I gave the book back, after having read it, I told him, "It was good, but it didn't change my life." He seemed genuinely disappointed, and perhaps a little bitter, when he replied, "I guess it just wasn't the right time for you to read it, then." Frankly, his level of attachment to the book was surprising, considering that I thought he was a sort of hard-line "by the book" Christian.

As a story involving love, loss, family, forgiveness, and spirituality, "The Shack" would go in my top 10% of inspirational books, despite its tendency to be New Age-y. Of course there are major differences in interpretation of the Bible (just look at the sheer number of Christian church denominations), but author Young seems to want to completely dismiss the Bible in favor of a feel-good universal spirituality in which everyone who "loves God"--religious persuasion notwithstanding--goes to Heaven. I can see the appeal, because who wouldn't want to be free to indulge in earthly pleasures, secure in the knowledge that you're going to Heaven because God is so awesome that He wouldn't send his beloved children (of whom He is "especially fond") to eternal damnation?

I'd like to believe that we are all saved because God is good, but if all you have to do to go to Heaven is "love God" (whatever that means), then why did Jesus and the Apostles leave some fairly specific instructions in the New Testament?

It was an entertaining story, but I wouldn't stake my salvation on it.

When I was given this book to read I thought, "I hope it is entertaining." Was I surprised to find that it went far beyond my expectations and entered the realm of "life-changing". This book took the central premise of Christianity, God's sacrificial and accommodating love for us, and made it real to me in a way that touched me profoundly. I felt God's presence throughout the pages of this book and I have experienced a paradigm shift in my thinking about God. I only hope that you will be touched in a similarly powerful way so that you also will know the power, the purpose, the transformational touch and the complete freedom of His love.