Although there is much in this book about the nature and character of God, much of the book is about God's healing of Mack's Great Sadness as well as the healing of the relationship between Mack and his father. I have had, as many of you have had, the privilege of seeing the kind of healing Mack experienced with similar kinds of great sadness. Paul Young (the author) experienced this kind of deep healing over a number of years. But, in Paul's case, it took many years and God's intervention was probably much more obtuse than experienced in this allegory.
My question is: "Does a story of this kind give people a wrong kind of expectation about how God heals?"
Let me elaborate just a little. A dear couple I know lost their daughter very tragically. God visited the wife shortly after the daughter's death in an amazing and intimate way - and gave her strength and hope to carry on. The husband, for many years, longed for God to visit him in that way. From my very limited perspective, I felt that he was looking for God to come in a particular way. (I am reminded of Oswald Chambers: "Do not look for God to come in a particular way, but do look for Him"). Does the book set up a kind of false expectation? "My hurt is so deep - If you came to me the way you came to Mack - I'd be healed. But Lord - you are silent."
There is another book that sounds almost as hoaky as The Shack entitled Dinner with a Perfect Stranger. In spite of a kind of hoaky premise (Jesus invites a busy father to dinner at a fancy restaurant and presents the gospel to him) it presents an apologetic for the gospel that is as good as I have every heard. In this book, the busy father (Nick) turns his life over to Jesus. But the same question applies. If Jesus manifested himself like that to me, even I would have become a Christian.
In the real world - real and fallible people are instruments of God's healing and God manifests himself through the vale of tears. In the real world - real and very fallible people share the gospel with us.
I hope you get the gist. Let the dialog continue
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4 comments:
Any person's particular experience of the grace of God can create false expectations about future experiences. The person who had the experience may be tempted to judge other people by whether they've had a similar experience. Others may doubt their own experience of God because it isn't the same as the first person. Or perhaps the person's experience was intended by God as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and years later that person doubts God's ongoing activity because that experience hasn't been repeated.
It seems to me that a lot of that is just sinful human nature at work (pride, envy, etc.). Yet there is some experience that is common to all Christians. And I'll just defer to Jonathan Edwards on that one. I hope to read this book someday:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/affections.html
Thanks, Bob, for starting this forum. This is fun, and I have missed this sort of conversation since seminary.
I agree with what has already been said in the previous comment. In addition, it doesn't seem to me that The Shack intends to present a realistic account of how God heals. Instead, it is an intentionally fantastic story that is supposed to give a glimpse into realities that are normally not seen so clearly. I don't think most people would read this and expect to have the experience that Mack had.
I think the theology of the book may create false expectations, but that is another question.
I also agree with Nate. Using the example of the couple that lost a daughter, does it create a false expectation for the mother to share the testimony of her healing? Only if the listener doesn't realize that it's just one story and can't be taken as normative.
The book is just one story and a fantastic one at that as Dan points out.
I've been blessed by Bill Johnson's teaching on healing lately. I'll attempt to paraphrase. We spend a lot of effort analyzing when healing prayer doesn't work. Instead we should increase faith by sharing testimonies of when God heals.
Doesn't that present reality with an imbalance? Yes. So what?
God is amazing and he responds to us in some many different ways. My own intellect continues to try and find patterns or paths that can be followed to help others or myself with life's issues and problems. I don't believe that God wants us to even think that we have that kind of power and so he does not deal with us or others in the same ways. We are simply called to be a vessel.
I can think of ways that God has touched me over the years. Some times the answers and healings were dramatic and other times they were slow and happened over a period of years.
When reading someone else's experience there is always a danger of believing that the path represented is the right one. The reader should realize that God does not reveal himself in the same way to each person or even in the same way to the same person. Discussing our experiences with God, however, does open doors for other people. They get to see and experience God in a different light. Many of need to see how others see God.
I personally enjoy reading other people's encounters with God. I am also careful when I read to discern that which is scriptural and what is not.
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