2 ratings (4.50 avg)
8 reviews

Clare

Add friend

Clare’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)
currently-reading‎ (1)

read‎ (30)
q1-2008‎ (6)

q3-2009‎ (4)
q4-2009‎ (3)

q2-2008‎ (2)

Stats | More…

Clare is Currently Reading

Clare is currently reading

The Shack

by William Paul Young

bookshelves: currently-reading, q2-2008

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Clare said: " November 21, 2008

This might possibly be the best religious book I've ever read. I still have about a fifth of the book to read, but so far it has been amazing.

The book starts out explaining Mack's dreadful story- the abduction of his young daughter, November 21, 2008

This might possibly be the best religious book I've ever read. I still have about a fifth of the book to read, but so far it has been amazing.

The book starts out explaining Mack's dreadful story- the abduction of his young daughter, Missy, by a serial killer that targets young girls. Mack finds a strange note (from God) in his mailbox instructing him to visit "The Shack"- the location that the authorities found evidence of Missy's death. At the Shack, Mack meets each part of the Trinity of God, who all hope to pull Mack out of The Great Sadness caused by his daughters death. Mack has deep discussions with all parts of the Trinity as he spends a weekend with this crew- who is much different than he expected them to be. It is amazing to see how different each part of the Trinity is and what they think. Mack deeply changes as he forgives God for taking his daughter and as he better understands God’s purposes in many confusing human problems.

This book reminds me of "A Dinner with a Perfect Stranger"- a book in which a businessman, who is too caught up in his work, spends an evening with God discussing many humanly concerns, especially his anger with God. The Shack has been an excellent read, and I highly recommend it.

December 12, 2008

I’ve finally finished the book. I momentarily set it aside with less than 50 pages left due to another reading assignment. Surprisingly, these two books slightly tie together. The other book, which also has my comments in its review, was Slaughterhouse Five. In Slaughterhouse Five, one of the overall themes is that humans have no free will- everything has always been planned to happen and always will happen because every moment in time is always happening. In this book, there is one theme that presents the idea that God takes away His free will so that humans can have theirs. At one point he says “If you want to do your thing, have at it.” Though God has the chance to change how things are- such as changing the fact that Mack’s daughter was murdered- He chooses not to because He always makes good things result from what humans see as bad things. Though no Bible references come to mind for this idea, it is quite neat to see all of the different ideas behind Christianity.

There are two quotes that I thought were worth typing out. Sometimes I struggle with figuring out when I hear God and when I’m just making stuff up in my head. In one part of the story, Mack discusses this problem with Sarayu (the Holy Spirit), and she responds that he will begin to “recognize [her:] voice as [they:] continue to grow in [their:] relationship.” I thought this was an interesting concept. I know that I can recognize my parents’ voices and even their coughs in a crowd of people, so it makes sense that God’s voice would become more recognizable. Another quote comes from a part of the book where Mack gets the choice to go back to the world as he was used to or to stay with God. Mack questions God if he is important enough to stay in the world, and Sarayu responds “Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again.”

Like I’ve mentioned before, many of the ideas presented in the book I have never heard of and even doubt at times, but it was extremely interesting to see these totally unique ideas. ...more "

Dec 12, 2008 04:18PM · see review