Book Review - The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity

The Shack
Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity

by William P. Young

A Review, by Beth Dial

An elderly gentleman jostled to maintain his balance on the MARTA train. Behind him was a sign, “Who Is God, Really?” It advertised the New York Times best seller, The Shack, Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity, by William P. Young.

The Shack is a paperback novel whose main character, Mack(enzie) wrestles with his anger toward God for allowing his 4-year-old girl to be abducted and murdered. Three years afterward, Mack is angry, resisting relationship with God, finding no help in the church, and hopelessly experiencing what he calls “The Great Sadness.” A note in his mailbox invites him to come to the shack where his daughter’s blood-stained little red dress was found. He suspects the note is from God, which proves to be true. Mack spends a weekend eating scones, walking in an overgrown garden, gazing at the stars, walking on water, gazing into heaven, with each of the members of the trinity. He asks direct questions. He listens. He observes the relationship between the Father (who reveals Himself in this case as an African American woman), the Son (a Middle Eastern male clad in blue jeans, plaid shirt, and a tool belt), and the Holy Spirit (a “distinctively Asian woman” who swishes mystically from here to there).

Mr. Young’s wife asked him to write his spiritual journey for his children, so this is his own story. He is to be considered with compassion, as he was sexually molested in his youth in two different settings. One was from the tribal people among whom his parents were ministering, and the other was at a boarding school.

Some of the author’s observations are insightful. Mack’s encounter with Sophia who offers her chair as Judge of the earth is powerful. He is given some helpful, thought-provoking answers.

Life hurts you…Lies are one of the easiest places for survivors to run…Lies are little fortresses; inside them you try to run your life and manipulate others…Whatever works, just so you feel okay about the lies. p. 187.
God to Mack: Have you noticed in your pain you assume the worst of me? p. 176.

You see pain and death as ultimate evils and God as the ultimate betrayer, or perhaps, at best, as fundamentally untrustworthy. You dictate the terms and judge my actions and find me guilty. The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you don’t think that I am good.

Childhood sexual abuse triggers multi-faceted questions of God’s goodness and omnipotence, His justice, His mercy, His compassion, His purposes. We are told how to read the book, “a tale of tragedy redeemed, not a theological treatise.” It is, however, impossible to “redeem tragedy” without theology firmly rooted in the inspired, unchanging, eternal, authoritative Word of God.

In attempting to determine the source of the note in his mailbox, Mack expresses disappointment with the written word of God. He disdains the idea that he learned in seminary that prophetic revelation had ceased for moderns. Complicating that even further for him was the boundary of proper interpretation. “God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects.” In another place, he questions the love of God if sixty-six books were all He may be willing to say to us. “I guess part of me would like to believe that God would care enough about me to send a note.” God was not obligated to speak to man at all, but in His mercy has given us all we need (I Peter 1:3).

In extensive conversations Mr. Young presumes to put far too many words into God’s mouth, the quicksand of constructing casual conversations with Almighty God. God’s answers at times diminish His character, bowing to the god of humanity’s “Why?” Compare the following with the way God spoke to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” Exodus 3:14). Or Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth!? (Job 38:4). Or Jesus in His humanity, when He was asked why misfortune occurred, gave no explanation, but rather, “…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5). Or to all mankind, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Romans 1:18.

Comfort: God the Father is speaking: “Honey, there’s no easy answer that will take your pain away. Believe me, if I had one, I’d use it now. I have no magic wand to wave over you and make it all better.”

Punishment: “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.”

Purpose of Pain: Mack asks God why Missy had to die. “She didn’t have to, Mackenzie. This was no plan of (God’s). He has never needed evil to accomplish his good purposes. It is you humans who have embraced evil and (God) has responded in goodness.”

In his quest for answers, the author elevates comfort over truth. We should, instead, follow the lead of the psalmist’s self-counseling in his “bout with doubt”. He refused to vent his anger publicly in consideration of those around him. “If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ Behold, I should have betrayed the generation of Thy children.” Psalm 73:15. Our anger with God is wrong. It is an accusation that He has been unfair. Could He, with my advice, have done things more wisely? We should follow the psalmist as he prayed, quietly made his way to the “sanctuary of God”, reminded himself of the things of which he was certain, and contented himself with not understanding everything now.

As we are jostling for balance in life’s perplexities and ask, “Who Is God, Really?” we find answers from His own breath. We would do well to remember His query to Israel in Isaiah 10:15, “Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?” That boasting demonstrates itself in thinking we deserve better than this. The chopping hurts, why doesn’t He stop it? We run to what we know for sure and exercise the faith to “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Beth Dial