The Shack 2

Chapter 8 and 9 were by far my favorite chapters in this book. There were some pretty powerful quotes found here. My favorite part of the whole book is when the main character is talking to God about bad things happening. The age old question is, "Why do bad things happen?" That question is quickly followed by, "Why does God allow those bad things to happen?" "Why does he not stop them?"

Mack: "You may not cause those things, but you certainly don't stop them."

God: "There are millions of reasons to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to eradicate them, but most of those reasons can only be understood within each person's story. I am not evil. You are the ones who embrace fear and pain and power and rights so readily in your relationships. But your choices are also not stronger than my purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good."

Holy Spirit: "Broken humans center their lives around things that seem good to them, but that will neither fill them nor free them. They are addicted to power, or the illusion of security that power offers. When a disaster happens, those same people will turn against the false powers they trusted."

Mack: "It all seems like the end justifies the means."

God: "You really don't understand yet. You try to make sense of the world in which you life based on the very small and incomplete picture of reality. It is like looking at a parade through the tiny knothole of hurt, pain, self-centeredness, and power, and believing you are on your own and insignificant. All of those contain powerful lies. You see pain and death as ultimate evils and God as the ultimate betrayer, or perhaps, at best, as fundamentally untrustworthy. You dictate the terms and judge my actions and find me guilty...I'm not a bully, not some self-centered demanding little deity insisting on my own way. I am good, and I desire only what is best for you. You cannot find that through guilt or condemnation or coercion, only through a relationship of love. And I do love you."

Mack: "I just can't imagine any final outcome that would justify all this."

God: "We're not justifying it. We are redeeming it."


I can only imagine what a conversation between me and God would look like when I am hurt like Mack. I think it would kind of be like the lyrics of "You Found Me" by the Fray, especially in the wake of Katrina when my whole life was turned upside down like a snowglobe.

I found God
On the corner of first and Amistad
Where the west was all but won
All alone, smoking his last cigarette
I said where you been, he said ask anything
Where were you?
When everything was falling apart
All my days were spent by the telephone
It never rang
And all I needed was a call
That never came
To the corner of first and Amistad

Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lying on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Whyd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me

In the end everyone ends up alone
Losing her, the only one whos ever known
Who I am, who Im not, who I want to be
No way to know how long she will be next to me


Early morning, City breaks
Ive been calling for years and years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
You never send me no letters
You got some kind of nerve, taking all I want


But I like how The Shack takes the point of view that there is no justification or cause for the pain. There is redemption. And everybody wants redemption. I know I do.

"Humans have a great capacity for declaring something good or evil without truly knowing."

That's true. We want to place things in categories and separate them. Things must be good or evil. However, the older I get, the less I see things in clear black and white and more of shades of gray. We do not know what is truly good for us. Out of the deep hurts in my life, I have learned more about myself, more about the world at large, and I have grown. And growth hurts. But it is better in the end. It may take years to see it, though.