I first heard of "The Shack" during my vacation at the province during Holy Week this year. One of my cousins was recommending we watch this movie to be aired on local TV. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join them. Fast forward to a few weeks and I was back at work, I randomly mentioned this movie with my seatmate Jean. Then she happily exclaimed she actually have a copy of the book where the movie is based, and she can lend it to me. After a few days, I finally got hand of the book.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

For the first part of the book, I truly felt the joy of what it's like to have children in the point of view of Mackenzie, the father and protagonist of the book. The next part was a long downfall of emotion, from the heights of happiness to the deep drowning pain of losing one of those little angels. I guess I'll have to commend the author for that. I got really intertwined with the different arrays of Mackenzie's emotions.

I was as curious and confused as Mackenzie upon arriving at the shack and meeting these people of whom introduced themselves as God. I actually went through the same exact journey as Mackenzie while interacting with these three entities. You know what, I am really really happy that I got to read this book. Recently I went through this experience of others challenging my faith, and asking me -- what do I believe in? I always knew the answer, but I had difficulty explaining the concept to others. In that blog post, I did my best to put that into words. And then this book came, and I read the words that I was looking for. Mackenzie struggled a lot to understand Papa, one of the three entities that personify God in the story, because He was saying a lot of things that contradict to what Mackenzie has been taught. Papa said, "I am what I am" and that Mackenzie should break away from his religious preconditioning. I was especially delighted to read that, aligning to my belief, that God transcends religion. This book also allowed me to understand Jesus' point of view of sacrificing himself for the sake of all human kind. If you read the book, this part was during the cave with Sophia.

After reading the book, there are still a lot of things that I don't understand. But I know that am in a better position in terms of my relationship with God. Although I am still struggling in the part of forgiving, like Mackenzie, I will whisper "I forgive you... I forgive you..." until it hurts no more.

I am keen to watch the movie adaptation, but I guess that won't happen soon. I want to cherish the effect of the book first. I think when I'm ready, I'll watch the movie to experience being elightened again.