Welcome!  I hope we can all grow from sharing our thoughts and feelings about “The Shack.”  I do want to warn you.  If you have not finished the book, you might want to do so prior to participating in this forum.  I say this because I am going to writing assuming you know the rest of the story so for two reasons you might want to finish the book.  First, I don’t want to spoil your future discoveries as you read on and second, it might be helpful if all of us have a working knowledge of the book so we can pull from sections that are further on.

So what is our purpose?  It is to enter into conversation.  I don’t know where this will lead and I don’t intend to control it.  Needless to say, we are not sharing right or wrong answers.  Rather, we hope to offer insights to each other or simply ask leading questions that will cause us all to reexamine our preconceptions.  But we don’t know where this will go.  We do know this – we wont get anywhere if we don’t start!

Let’s begin then, with the Foreword.

Opening thoughts from Pastor Jeff:

Here are some questions I had:

1. Why do you think it is important for the reader to know that Mac was an abused child?
2. Young (the actual author) starts off with the theme of guilt Mac had to live with for his having left his mother and siblings in an abusive situation.
   1. What role does guilt play in Mac’s life?
   2. What role does it play in Mac’s religious understanding?
3. Do you think Mac’s background of having had an abusive father makes it difficult for him to accept the idea of God being called ‘Papa?”  Why or why not?

It may be interesting to note that Paul Young (the author) is the son of a missionary and that his father was abusive to him.  In a lecture, he shares his disturbing childhood background.

11-08-11 Nancy D wrote: I think that it is important to know about Mack's past and how he feels. Everything happens for a reason (good and bad) and it makes us who we are today. Some of us feel guilty for decisions we've made in the past but I believe it is important to learn from all of it instead of live with regret or guilt.

Mack's religious beliefs (and each of ours) I think help us deal with everything that happens in life. When something happens, some of us lash out and blame God, some of us embrace God and some of us lose our faith all together. I personally hope for all is to find their way back to God.

11-08-11 Pastor Jeff wrote:  I agree and would pray that everyone would find their way back to God, which got me to thinking about how that might be accomplished. Any insights?

11-12-11 Ruth T wrote: Knowing that Mac was an abused child, we can too clearly understand why Mac is able to clearly imagine what Missy endured at the hands of her abductor. He can feel the abandonment that Missy must have endured.

11-12-11 Carol P wrote: Thinking about Mac being an abused child gave me a great deal of respect for his life and his accomplishments. He was a good Father and husband very loving and caring. To me it showed that he had done some work on himself in order to be a much better person than his father. Children of alcoholics often try to make up for what has been missing in their childhood and work hard to achieve it. His guilt may be a motivator to make things better in his own life.

The residual feelings whether guilt, remorse or anger probably kept him from truly trusting in God and believing that any Father by any name could be good so why call God Papa.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of the West Acton Baptist Church or its staff.