Shackin' Up, Part Two

I finished The Shack this weekend, and man, I'm totally blown away by the power of this book! If I could force people to read books, this would definitely be at the near top of the list of ones that I would make them read. It's that good. Again, the theology of it never got any better. (Although, in fairness I should say that there are Christians who believe in the innerancy and authority of Scripture, who would find nothing at all wrong with the theology of the book.) But, man, the journey that the main character, Mack, goes on with the Trinity over the course of a weekend, is just too incredible. I have rarely seen anyone capture the love that the Bible talks about God having towards his children in such a clear and expressive way as the author, Paul Young, does. Here's the thing: if you're a believer in Christ, and you've ever doubted God's love for you, or if you have been through things in your life that you felt weren't fair, and there have ever been moments when you've wanted to blame God for those, you need to read this book.

Again, where the book shines is in its language and quotes, so here are some of my favorites from the second half of the book:

• God speaking: "The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you don't think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything -- the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives -- is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me. But you don't."
• "He (Mack) looked again at their garden -- his garden -- and it really was a mess, but incredible and wonderful at the same time. And beyond that, Papa (God the Father) was here, and Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) loved the mess. It was almost too much to comprehend. . ."
• Jesus speaking to Mack: "But now tell me, where do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination, in the present, in the past, or in the future?"
• The Holy Spirit speaking to Mack: "To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. you sing about it; you talk about it, but you don't know it."
• "It's absence felt odd, perhaps even uncomfortable. For the past years it had defined for him what was normal, but now unexpectedly it had vanished. 'Normal is a myth,' he thought to himself. The Great Sadness would not be a part of his identity any longer."

I'm not sure that all of us have a great sadness like the main character in The Shack does, but I know a lot of people who do, and I pray, wrestle, and plead with the Trinity that someway, somehow, at some time, it would no longer be a part of their identity either.