Mar 04
The Shack by William P Young
In the 4th quarter of 2008, my mom and i agreed to do a mini book club. I recommended a book, The Host by Stephanie Meyer, and she recommended a book, The Shack.
I have finally gotten around to reading The Shack. Soon after our deal, my mom read it and told me i wouldn’t like it and that i was off the hook for having to read it. But, a deal is a deal, and after all, it was the best selling book of 2008.
While camping with his children, a father’s youngest daughter is kidnapped by a serial killer. The book takes us through the horrifying events of the search and finding the place where she was killed: a shack in the middle of the woods.
Three years later, the family is still having a hard time, and especially the father, who is angry at God. One day he receives a note in his mailbox from God that they should meet, at the shack. The father decides, what the hell, and goes alone one weekend when the rest of the family is away. He finds that God is actually there: God the Father (showing himself as a big black woman named Papa), God the Son (Jesus, who is in typical carpenter form) and God the Holy Spirit (presenting as a flower child type young woman). Our dear dad gets to talk to them, ask questions, walk on water, see his daughter, and basically has a weekend of rediscovering himself and God.
Mom was right, i didn’t really care for the book. It did however remind me of the attraction of christianity. Papa just loves all her children, even if they’ve lost their way. In one of my letters from grandma, she told me that she wasn’t worried about me going to hell, because that isn’t how i works: if people have not accepted christ, then they are judged by the kind of life they have lived. And those are nice thoughts. Does anyone know if or where that is written in the bible?
Personally, i already know i will be judged by the kind of life i have lived - by me, while i’m still alive and living it, and by others, who interact with me now and who will remember me when i’m dead.