"The Shack" by William Young

WOW. OK, so I finished this one over a week ago, but still wanted to write about it. Sorry, you guys get to read another spiritual-type message. Ha.

It is really good! Read this if you really want to think about God in an unexpected way. It helps to answer the question, ‘Where is God in a world where there is so much pain and suffering?’

Main concepts I took away:
Why does God still let evil happen in the world?
God takes that evil and turns it into something that is good. We have no way of knowing much evil God stops from happening.
God is right there with us through our suffering, whether we realize it at the time or not.
We have free will to make our own choices. We don’t want God to choose everything for us and control our lives, but then when something bad happens, we want him there to fix it instantly.

Even though God knows everything that is going to happen, He still lets us make our own choices. When we make the wrong choices, He still loves us unconditionally and tries to help us learn from those wrong choices. It’s similar to how we as human-beings love our children…not that I would know, but you get the general idea. Parents love their kids no matter what mistakes they make (at least in most cases).

God isn’t big on the word religion and all the rituals we perform. He is all about the relationship we have with him and developing that relationship into something that is close. God is with us constantly.

A lot of times Christians think they need to be just like Christ. This is an unattainable standard we have set for ourselves. God is a spiritual, holy and righteous being, not of this world. We are human-beings who are far from perfect. God sent His Son to Earth to walk among us and see what it’s like to be human, but He is still perfect and not human.

Forgiveness
We must forgive those who have caused us pain.
God loves the people who hurt us too and has already forgiven those people.
We are allowed to be angry at the people who wronged us and about the evil things that happen. The most important step in releasing that anger is forgiveness. With the help of God, we can forgive just like He has.