The Shack by William P Young (2007, Paperback)

I could NOT read this in a single day or just a few sittings-I found myself having to 'come up for air' to process what I was reading!
What I read did not hurt my religious pride,but rather,confirmed an evergrowing suspicion that we are not looking at life's disappointments from God's point of view,but from man's well-intentioned,but manipulative view.
It is fact that the more we are hurt,the more we want to control situations surrounding us so that we won't have to suffer hurt again. Man has been walking this earth with deep emotional wounds for so long that we have,for the most part,evolved into a mass of manipulators-all in an effort to fend off pain.
Man has grown to believe that power protects from pain. This is the real reason behind our power hunger. We don't trust God because sometimes,He lets us hurt.In not trusting Him, we trust the next best thing,ourselves.
This story is about TRUSTING GOD to take us through even the very deepest of despair & pain. Pain so dark, we cannot possibly see through it-get throuth it, alone.
It's about letting go of who we've decided He is & the limitations we've come to believe He has.
It's about letting go of lies.
It's about seeing His love, more from HIS end of it,and understanding-KNOWING that He loves us.
It doesn't try too hard to teach us how MUCH we're loved-how useless such an attempt would be! For if HE loves us at all,(and He does, but in our heart of hearts we don't really KNOW or BELIEVE it),then the 'how much' isn't the point. There are no levels of love in God, He's GOD, and what we would consider to be a mere ounce of His love is enough to gain our trust through Eternity. The point is in the KNOWING He means His Love for ME. It comes in understanding that I, yes I, am ESPECIALLY dear to Him. It comes from understanding that those I may consider to be the 'worst of the worst' are ESPECIALLY dear to Him. Really and truly and ESPECIALLY dear to Him!
A life-changing exchange takes place in a cave in this story. You don't want to miss this part. You will understand that where you unconsciously thought you want to be God, to make decisions the way you see fit...Well, you will come out on the other side knowing you really do NOT want to be God-not even in the smallest things.
I think you will understand and want more of forgiveness. Not so much for yourself, although that's certainly covered...but for others.
You will see Heaven differently and if you're anything at all like me, your heart and spirit will vibrate with the rightness of what is proposed...and perhaps more than ever, you will look ever so forward to Heaven!
This book, it's brilliant style, brilliant descriptions and bold statements...it is NOT an offense to Christianity! Rather, it is a joy and offers profound hope that we can truly do all things, forgive all things, and happily obey all things He asks of us.
We can, because we KNOW He loves us-I can because I understand 'us' to be 'me'.
Did I know this before? I did. I am not a stranger to God's Word. It was His Word that first convinced me.But this book with its simple language & heart-rending story line-It can bring the Non-Believer to a place where he will want to believe & create a bridge to God's Word & God's World.
As well, it reminds the long-standing Believer of why he believed in the first place, renews the freshness of those first moments of giving over heart & trust, and for some of us,challenges rigid, man-made, religious thinking.