"It's That Good!"
If you haven't already read it I'm sure you'll read it in the near future. The Shack by William Young is taking the world by storm. Published this past summer, the book is already in its third printing. And I can see why.
About three months ago I walked past a bullitin board at Multnomah's library and saw a little flier with a bold endorsement, "this book has the potential to do for this generation what Pilgram's Progress did for its." "WOW!" I thought, "that's a big statement." Between the seventeenth and eighteenth century Pilgrams Progress was the only book that ever came close to outselling the Bible.
I told a co-worker about it. He bought a copy, read it, and then immediatly bought five copies to give to his friends and family. He then loaned his copy to another co-worker and she in turn bought a copy for a friend. When I finally got the book I brought it home and had my wife read it. She so fell in love with it that she emailed the author just to say thank you. Friends and blogs alike, I have heard so many independent endorsments for this book I don't know how it couldn't help but sell. And if that wasn't enough, this past Thursday I heard the greatest endorsment of all.
I work as custody officer in Clark County's Jail. I see a lot that's evil in this world. I see lives destroyed and people who destroy them. It's sad to say my fellow jailers don't see much that's good. Christianity dosen't appear to change much. Christian chaplins come in and all too often are manipulated by the inmates. Inmates who say they are Christians are all to often rearrested. Where I work a real Christ oriented transformation is often hard to find.
But this past Thursday this darkness was broken for at least one officer. Last year two girls in their late teens were killed on Highway 14 when a drunk driver, driving the wrong way on the freeway, slammed into their car headon. The drunk driver, however, lived. At her sentencing, this past week, the father of one of those girls, a VPD officer, stood up and spoke for an hour. He forgave the woman for killing his daughter. And he asked the judge if he could give the woman a gift. With the judges approval, the father handed her the Shake. My co-worker who saw this gesture was so moved that she told another officer, "I have to read that book."
posted by Matthew Miller at 9:31 AM
6 Comments:
I am so suprised to see you endorse this book. Yes there are parts that are amazing and it's great to find a way to forgive people and not think badly of God when bad things happen (the book did have some good points) but WOW there was SO much in this book that was spoken as fact, that to me, cannot be backed up biblically. To me this book took a God who has told us to fear and respect him and turned him into someone almost New Age like, who appeals to everyone and makes them feel good. I had a check in my spirit the entire time I read this and had to force myself to finish it. There are MANY other things that I thought were unbiblical, but it would take forever to go through them and the book is upstairs LOL... maybe sometime we can chat about it.
Here is a review that captures a lot of what I thought about the book-
http://www.challies.com/archives/book-reviews/the-shack-by-william-p-young.php
I'm sorry that I gave you the impression that I fully indorse this book. I do not. There are more posts to come. I don't want people to think, however, that I'm just nit-picking a nice story before first recognizing why it is good.
By the way thanks for the comment.
No I am sorry if I jumped the gun on this... In the past 3 weeks, I have had about 6 different people tell me that this is the best book on the planet and that it would change my life.. so it was a little shocking to read it and notice that nobody was mentioning anything wrong with the book.
So I just had to post LOL!
Anyways, I look forward to reading more reviews from you!
First of all let me start this by saying I completely respect all opinion’s of this book and what I want to say has to do with how I was personally affected by The Shack.
When I read the negative reviews on this book the thought that popped into my mind was this: IS it possible to be right and yet miss the point entirely? Like in marriage, what if we were concerned only with being right and discounted the value of maintaining the preciousness of the marital relationship?
I don’t doubt that there are some theological errors within the pages of this book. I challenge all of us to look at the theological errors within the framework of our own minds. We all have them. My experience with this book has resulted in this little fire being lit in my soul. It sent me running to my Bible, seeking a God who I have allowed to remain at a distance when what he wants to be in my life is my “Papa.” Maybe the theological inconsistencies in this book keep it from being an ideal book for non-believers but I think it is a challenging book for those of us Christians who may have faith that’s kind of like day old bread. J It’s not stale…but definitely not as fresh and satisfying as it could be.
As Christians I think we have perfected the art of passing judgment. Yet none of us are worthy. I think that it is wonderful a book can stimulate discussion and I enjoy reading others opinions. What it seems though, after reading some negative reviews is that people are so caught up in the theology that they neglect the key point in this book, as least what I saw as the key point. Relationships. What exactly is our relationship with God? Have we found contentment with a one-dimensional God? Because what I have learned recently is that God is so amazing, so powerful and so capable of shaking our very world to the core. Do most of us let him? It seems to me we do not.
I loved how Young stated that God wants to be in the center of everything. That means he wants to be there when you check out at the grocery store and get frustrated because the gal ahead of you has a million coupons. He wants to be glorified when you are cut off in traffic and when talk with your girlfriends.
Recently, I have been convicted about the extent to which God is in the center of our parenting. That as Christians we have failed miserably with equipping our children with Christ’s overwhelming love and kindness so that they can show that to the world what Christians are all about.
Why is it that the bulk of my Christians friends are trying to figure out how to have a more meaningful relationship with Christ DESPITE being raised in a Christian home? I think that today’s Christianity is very good in some places but very, very broken in others. Maybe it is because we are just as broken as the world, but somehow it seems that so many of us are bound and determined to keep the world at a distance, yet forgetting that without strengthening our own relationship with God we accomplish nothing for God’s kingdom.
I highly recommend the book UnChristian…maybe it will be less controversial because it describes hard facts like statistics and not one man’s vision of a literary work that focuses on God and our relationship with him. Maybe just start small. Ask ourselves, apart from the fact that we are busy on Sunday mornings…exactly HOW does our life differ from our non-Christian neighbor next door?
Do we gossip less, lie less, have issues with pride and jealousy less, are we less sarcastic, less likely to laugh at an unkind joke? Do we love more? Do we share more? Do we give more? Do we make sincere attempts every single day to show Christ’s love to others?
These are questions that The Shack provoked in my heart. As a Christian, I no longer want to be known for my consistent ability to find fault in matters outside of my own self, but rather in my ability to show love. Genuine, Christ-like love. I trust that God can do quite a bit with that.
Thanks for listening…I’m excited to hear what others who’ve read it have to say.
Great comment Willow. Thank's for sharing.
Matt
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