Book Club

Last week was the 1st meeting of the Odd Ball Book Club (OBBC) that I joined with some of my friends. We discussed our first book, "The Shack" by William P. Young. It was a pretty good read. The beginning was VERY slow and too detailed about unimportant and uninteresting things, but it picked up a few chapters into the book. After that I found my self thinking "OK, I'll just read one more chapter". That is a pretty big deal for me considering I am not a big reader at all.

I won't post any spoilers on the off chance you would like to read it someday, but its basically about one man's journey to know God. Like I said before its a pretty good book. The author is very talented at telling a compelling, wanna keep reading story. But that is just what it is...a story. The book is full of biblical truths about God, who he is, who we are, etc. But is is also full of un-biblical things for the sake of a good story.

The book portrays God as a warm, gentle, and kind character...all biblical. But in doing so the reader misses out on seeing God's other qualities: Holy, awesome, BIG! The pastor at the church I go to talked about this book a while ago, and he pointed out something that really stuck with me, even though at the time I had never read the book.  When we don't see God as Holy, awesome, and so much more amazing than we are...we cheat ourselves. It is MORE amazing to see that Holy and awesome God, humbling coming down to our level to love and care for us. That is how I felt about this book. The author does a great job of showing God as kind, but because the author doesn't show us God's greatness, I feel as a reader I was missing out! Anyway, that is my quasi book review.

So what about you? Have you read the Shack? What did you think?