Wednesday, August 20, 2008

My Shack Review!

Ok, so it took me a little longer than I said, but I am now finished reading the Shack!! So here is my personal review on it. And again, I would love to hear how it spoke, or didn't speak to you!!!!

So, first of all, I have to say that I didn't have the reaction that I know a lot of people did. I didnt cry or it didn't change my view on God. Its not that I didn't agree with the way they depicted God, I guess I just came to a lot of the conclusions on my own.
I understand though becasue I was talking to someone who read it and loved it. but that person also said they struggled with the idea of grace and unconditional love. So why this book would hit them so hard makes perfect sense.

Here is what I did get out of it! first of all, I really found that this book didn't help to me to much understand my relationship with God, but with my husband. I am on this journey right now of understanding what the role of God in my life is and the role of my husband. I do believe that sometimes we expect too much of our husbands, we almost make them into our Gods and expect them to be comforting at all times, fix things, understand all things, but that's not their role. God is suppose to be our ultimate provider and caretaker.
I also really found it made me understand the idea's of submission, and how my husband didnt have "power" sort to say over me. I always knew this but sometimes I felt pressure from other people to comform to this. Its the same way people view the trinity, almost like a pyramid with God the father on top..thats not correct. The three work together as one and submit to eachother, their roles are just different. And I see it as the same as with a husband and wife. we are suppose to submit to eachother and work as one as a team.

The other cool concept that i loved in this book was the idea that love does not grow, or knowledge grows. love is like the skin of knowledge, so as our knowledge grows/increases or love expands. I thought this was cool!

the third and final thing that I love about this book that i have been struggling with lately is the idea of forgiveness. I have encountered a couple of situations recently where i have been frustrated of other peoples views of forgiveness and their expectations on me about it. What I love about this book is that it shows their is a difference in forgiving and forgetting. This book describes forgiveness as releasing the hold around someones kneck. But that God doesn't expect us to forget or reenter a relationship. If someone hurts you deeply, we are expected to forgive so that they are released and God can redeem them. But God doesn't expect us to keep a relationship with that person, boundries are exceptable! I loved this!!

Anyways, thats my review:) Can't wait to hear yours! And again, these are just my opinions...If yours differ thats great, I still want to hear them!!

1 comment:

Laura said...

Good review! I love how everyone gets something different out of the same book. When I read it I wasn't thinking about how it applied to my marriage so much, but maybe now I will go back and read it again with that mindset. I do feel that I learned more about the Trinity and how they function and relate - perfect union, full of love and grace. The whole concept of judgment really hit me hard - the way we, as humans, judge others so easily, as if we were God and have the right to do that! Overall when I think of the story I think of LOVE and how it covers all and is so powerful. I really enjoyed the book and didn't want it to end!