Wm. P. Young wrote a book, “The Shack”, in 2007 and this year it was made into a movie. I read the book twice in that ten year span and just watched the movie this week.

What a test for the faith concept and the depiction of God himself…not only God but his  counterparts, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They all come together in “the shack” to show the protagonist Mackenzie Phillips that the pain he is suffering over the loss of his five-year-old daughter, Missy, is mostly of his own making.

Mack relives his own painful childhood, including the murder of his father which he himself committed. He dwells on the guilt he feels about leaving Missy alone while he ran to rescue his two other children from a capsized boat. He blames God for it all.

The unfolding tale shows Mack coming to grips with his beliefs, his doubts, and most of all his faith.

This story has a way of opening the mind to new concepts of how we perceive the triune and how we can relate Mack’s pain to the pain in our own lives and how we deal with it. This story is a real eye opener, but it is the way God is portrayed that stretches the imagination.