The Shack
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Religion & Spirituality
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Religion & Spirituality
Book Type: Paperback
Helpful Score: 1
This was lent to me by a friend at church. I've been attending church off and on since I was a child... well, okay, more off than on. Coming from a seriously dysfunctional upbringing, I always WANTED to be a "good Christian," but I had trouble keeping Jesus at the front of my mind. I'd pray when I was desperate, but not again for months. I was not walking *with* Christ, I was simply wishing I was when I happened to think about it. It was a life long pattern until I read The Shack.
There were so many HUGE points in this book, it literally took me 3 weeks to read. I would hit on an idea and have to pause for days to fully absorb it. What I walked away with was that everyone, every single one of us, is a child of God. NO MATTER how good, how bad, how even horrible we are or believe ourselves to be, He loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Our Heavenly Father has no interest in controlling us or our free will, but instead wants the same position in our lives as we have with our friends. He wants to be remembered and talked to and treated with loving respect. In addition, forgiving and forgetting make a whole lot more sense to me now - no matter WHAT was done to me, the person who did it is still a child of God, and I can forgive them to heal myself without having to forget what was done.
Anyway, the book was a full transformation for me. Instead of feeling like I was not good enough to be a Christian, rather than viewing each back sliding into old habits as a massive failure from which I might as well not bother trying to recover, I realized that God loves me despite it all. No matter how much I 'mess up' or 'fail', God loves and supports me unconditionally. Somehow, that's a message that no Sunday in church or week in VBS ever got through. The Shack did, though.
I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but I am eternally grateful to Mr. Young for this book. It brought God home to me, so to speak. It made my relationship with the Lord something tangible and real and to be cherished and nurtured.
There were so many HUGE points in this book, it literally took me 3 weeks to read. I would hit on an idea and have to pause for days to fully absorb it. What I walked away with was that everyone, every single one of us, is a child of God. NO MATTER how good, how bad, how even horrible we are or believe ourselves to be, He loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Our Heavenly Father has no interest in controlling us or our free will, but instead wants the same position in our lives as we have with our friends. He wants to be remembered and talked to and treated with loving respect. In addition, forgiving and forgetting make a whole lot more sense to me now - no matter WHAT was done to me, the person who did it is still a child of God, and I can forgive them to heal myself without having to forget what was done.
Anyway, the book was a full transformation for me. Instead of feeling like I was not good enough to be a Christian, rather than viewing each back sliding into old habits as a massive failure from which I might as well not bother trying to recover, I realized that God loves me despite it all. No matter how much I 'mess up' or 'fail', God loves and supports me unconditionally. Somehow, that's a message that no Sunday in church or week in VBS ever got through. The Shack did, though.
I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but I am eternally grateful to Mr. Young for this book. It brought God home to me, so to speak. It made my relationship with the Lord something tangible and real and to be cherished and nurtured.
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