The Shack: It's a Work of Fiction

I now know why this book has been considered "controversial." There are many things that would offend readers: swear words, strange portrayals of God, and weak writing.

I know also what attracts readers and prompted the celebrity endorsements on the book's jacket: the brutal authenticity of the main character's pain, the truths about man's relationship to God, and . . . well, the controversial reputation of the book.

The basic plot is given on the back of the book: Mack Phillips, a father of five, is devastated by the abduction and murder of his six year old daughter, Missy. In the months that followed her death, he has withdrawn from his relationship with God and is living in a depression he calls The Great Sadness. The book opens with a letter in the mailbox--from God--requesting that Mack meet him in the shack where his daughter was murdered.

From that point, the book can be divided into two halves. The first half reveals the background of Mack Phillips, from his childhood to his marriage and family, leading up to the story of his daughter's abduction from their family camping trip. The second half is Mack's confrontation with God the Father, Jesus, and "Sarayu" (the Spirit). Over a weekend spent in the shack with God, Mack reveals the extent of his anger against God, while God reveals the extent of His love for His Creation.

The second half is the better half, in my opinion. I only made it that far, because I felt obligated to finish the book, having mentioned it on the blog already. Otherwise, I would have given up about three chapters in. Once Mack starts venting his spleen about God allowing evil to happen to his daughter, the book gets better. In fact, the tragedy of Missy's death was so realistic, so painfully true to life, I cried when God described how His Spirit was with her the whole time.

There are some great truths in the conversations that God has with Mack; for example, Jesus tells Mack that humans were made to live in the present, but because of our memories and our imagination, most of us get trapped living in the past or the future. We worry so much about what might happen (what if?) that we stop living in the presence of God in the moment. The writer asserts that sin, in its basest form, is being independent of God, and once we've become independent of Him, we no longer have the ability to evaluate anything,whether good or bad, right or wrong. We have no wisdom or Truth on our own. These may not be new thoughts to the reader; after all, thousands of books on God's character and Man's sinful nature contain these facts. Those books just aren't as entertaining as a novel.

In spite of some intriguing theological paragraphs and some emotional pages, I didn't like the book. The editing was its biggest fault; over-detailed, didactic, and sometimes trite, I wanted to mark it up with a red pen and send it back to the author. Everyone--even brilliant writers--writes garbage at times, and a good editor will prune it and polish it until genius is all that's left.

I personally didn't care for the personification of God in the book. Without giving away the whole plot, I can only say that I understand why the author chose to give God certain human forms and personalities, but it didn't endear me to those characters. At times it was just weird.

If I could sum up my thoughts in one sentence: this book is a work of fiction, not a theological treatise, not The Pilgrim's Progress of our generation(sorry, Eugene Petersen), and it's certainly not the Gospel. It's just a novel, and you have to take it for what it's worth.

StrengthsFinder 2.0

Last week on the premiere of House, MD (one of my favorite shows) two characters interacted in a conversation about their careers. The deathly ill patient, who is the assistant to a world-renown feminist, is content being a "flunkie," accepting that her fate is always to be the assistant to someone more brilliant. The young female doctor is outraged by that type of complacency; she shouts, "What kind of feminist [are you?] We can have anything we want!"

The patient calmly replies, "No, we can't. We can aspire to anything, but we don't get it just because we want it."

The conversation stuck out in my mind, because it is the clarification of the American Dream that people actually need to hear. People are told from childhood that they can do anything, be anything, or achieve anything. The problem is that we are already hard-wired with certain amounts of intelligence, talent, ability, and ambition. Rather than thinking of this as a limitation, it should be considered an asset. By focusing on our strengths, we can find a place in society that brings us greater fulfillment and satisfaction, based on our natural abilities. If we spend the majority of our time and energy in fixing our shortcomings, it is the path of "most resistance."

I am not talking about sin or changing bad habits; obviously we have a responsibility to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. I am speaking of personality traits and abilities.

Some of my happiest moments were working in a job that I was good at -no, I was fantastic! And it showed in my enthusiasm and my performance. I have also worked in jobs where I was awful; I didn't have the natural ability to do what was required, so I burned out quickly, using all my energy to make up the difference of my natural lack. I was unhappy and again, it showed in my performance.

Strengthsfinder 2.0 is not just a book, it's a personality analysis. When you purchase the book, you get an access code (inserted on a card in the book) that enables you to take your personality test online here. You cannot use a library copy or borrow the book from a friend; the test is free, but the book with the access code will cost you about $12.

There are 34 personality traits in their research, and you receive a list of your top five, based on your test. These traits are unique to their program, and very different from any test I'd ever taken. It does not identify "extrovert" or "melancholy" but it identifies traits like "communication" or "vision." The online test is lengthy, but since it's timed, it doesn't take more than 20 minutes from start to finish. The questions are always two choices and you rate them on a scale of "most like me" to "least like me." (An example: "I want people to like me" vs. "I want people to respect me"--you pick the one that is most like yourself.) Once you have the top five traits, you can refer to them in the book to see not only what that trait entails, but examples of how they look in the business world, as well as practical applications for future situations. With the website, you can access their resources to design future action plans for your work or other benefits.

Here's my personal opinion: I loved the strengthsfinder program overall. I found that my top five traits were absolutely correct, and I appreciated the examples of how I could make those strengths work for me in my job. This is extremely practical and I felt empowered by the information I received. If nothing else, it's a confidence boost to know that if you can maximize your traits in your career, you can perform even better. There are also other books in the series, such as Teaching With Your Strengths, that apply to specific careers.

My only real complaint is that the website contains all the information that the book has. Once you get the access code, you really don't need the book. You can't share the book with anyone, so it just sits on the shelf as reference. It contains information for 34 traits, of which you will have five. While you may have bits and pieces of other traits, what are the chances that you'll want to sit around and read about them all? The few I looked at always made me realizewhat my personality is NOT. So, I have a $12 book for only about 10 pages that matter to me personally.