Thursday, April 8, 2010

I read The Shack. gggrrrr

Spoiler alert- if you have not read this book but plan to, I am going to talk about some details that you might want to read WHILE reading the book. But if you are like me and would have appreciated fair warning, continue.

I have a friend that is always letting me borrow the books she has to read for class since she knows I am weird like that. The latest was The Shack. I had heard about this book from several places and my impressions of it was that it was a spiritually based story that would refresh my faith and lead me on a journey closer to God. Okay. cool. I did not, however read the back cover.

The book starts talking about a "great sadness" in a mans life and how God helped him through it. I am still good here.

Then about 46 pages in I am no longer ok with this book. SOMEONE should have told me that his 7 year old daughter gets kidnapped and 3 days later they find the place she was murdered, no body, just her bloody dress. I can't read stories about little girls being kidnapped and murdered! I have not seen the movie Taken for exactly this reason! Carrie had babies and lost her ability to enjoy this form of entertainment.

The message of the book is of course wonderful, forgiveness, acceptance, unconditional love. I think that if someone had actually lost a child this would be a great gift to help them work through it. There is a LOT, a lot, a lot of dialogue which forces you to FOCUS on the words and it can drag a bit. But overall... I am not completely mad that I read it. I would have liked to mentally prepare myself though.

Next person that hands me a book about babies dying is going to be very sorry. :)