I LOVED it!
It is the most important book I've ever read in my life.
Okay- now a few comments to the religious who hate the book and find it and everything else that Calvin or Luther or Spurgeon or {Insert Favorite Dead Guy Here} here didn't write to be heretical.
I get it- you hate it. It violates your well thought out safely filtered view of God.
I understand that by liking the book, in your opinion, I put my very eternity at risk.
I realize that I'll probably never ‘look like you’ in my relationship with Christ.
I'm okay with that. I never wanted to look like you anyway. Oh, and by the way God is bigger than your theology.
You can stop reading now- you know I like the book and the rest will just irritate you.
Now- to the people who will dare to let God be God in their lives.
Who can find truth that resonates the nature of God in everyday occurrences.
Who struggle with a God who doesn't respond the way we've been conditioned to believe he will.
Who find wonder in the fact that the living God will communicate in a personal and meaningful way with you as an individual.
Who have felt anger at God, or questioned God,
Who try to offer grace to others because you realize how much you need it yourself
Who's theology is big enough for seemingly conflicting, seemingly unresolved facets of God's nature
Who can laugh at themselves as they try to become more Christ-like- while remembering how important and serious a task it is.
To you, I say, READ THE BOOK!
It changed my heart.
In fact I still consider myself firmly in the Calvinist camp.
That said, I read The Shack about a year and a half ago and I loved it. My wife read it first and she told me I had to read it. You see, a few years before that I had been under a lot of stress and was very depressed and I had a dream that I told my wife about. The only thing I remember of the dream is that in it I was very sad and needed consoling. In my dream a very large black woman appeared and as soon as I saw her I knew she was God and she just took me into her arms and hugged me until I had cried myself out. I woke up with tears on my pillow and a serene peace in my heart.
So when my wife read this book she remembered my dream and told me I had to read it. I realize there are some unorthodox ideas presented in the book. But the established church thought Luther and Calvin published unorthodoxy back in their day as well. That's not to say Young is the next incarnation of Luther or Calvin. All I'm saying is that "unorthodox" does not necessarily mean "wrong."
Anyway, that's my take on the book. I'm sure I'll read it a few more times.