Knock your socks off.........great!!

We have been away for several months and not in the general stream of information, so when a friend said "you have to read The Shack, it's very controversial." I said "ok" and wrote the name down on a napkin along with some other information we talked about. Several weeks later another friend said she had read The Shack and did I want to borrow her copy?

I had no idea what the book was about until I read a little from the cover. I must admit "controversial" peaked my interest. Now I'm wondering how controversial can it be after reading Eugene Peterson's comment on the cover of the book? I finished the book last night and while reading it I experienced all kinds of thoughts and emotions....tears, sadness, laughter, the WOW factor, what would John think? never thought of that......and a lot more. When ever I put the book down John asked what it was about. I told him, "you have to read it." And I said please don't read any reviews etc. I want to know what you think.
I was with a pastor friend the other day and asked if he had read the book. He got this big grin on his face and said 'Oh yes...it was great'. He said he was the first in his family to read it and when he passed it on to his wife....she would read and stop and then huff and puff (my terms) and he would say...'just read it please' As we talked I ventured out and said I really couldn't see anything blatently wrong about the theology....did he? His comment was not really but as you're reading remember it's fiction. He indicated he needed to reread it more carefully in regard to theology but at first read he thought it was fine. He also said what courage and imagination the author exibited in how he portrayed the characters. It was eye opening.
Well....I'm not going to 'spill the beans' and tell you anymore. I hope if you haven't read it you will and if you have read it I'd love to hear your comments. I've downloaded it from ITunes for about $6.00.....Now if I can talk John into a little getaway this weekend/road trip to Kansas City....-) I will be able to see his reaction first hand and we can have some lively conversation.

A short post script...after downloading I did read some of the comments. A majority were positive but to be fair there were negatives also...someone thought it was a psycological thriller that was misrepresented, particurlarly for those like him who were agnostics, glad he didn't spend any more money on it. Others said heresy and teaches false doctrine, terrible fiction, whiny and self indulgant....I hope you'll read it and judge for your self .