The Shack - the Likes and the Dislikes

In retrospect I feel like I definitely should've treated The Shack like Case for Faith and done more or less a chapter by chapter response.  Could, woulda, shoulda... :-/  But now we're at a point that all three of us have read it so hopefully one of the topic I remember to touch on will spark some good conversation and it will all just snowball from there...

I guess I'll start with the bad...

• pretty poor writing- to the point that it made it difficult to read at times
• wish there would've been more follow-through on how his life was transformed afterwards

and now the good :-)

• Liked that it tackles the difference between forgiveness and forgetting.  Even though I got the message, I'm still struggling with it - I know that there's forgiving I need to do, but it's hard to let go.  I think I'll do a lot of re-reading of the message that forgiving does not condone or forget what was done, but releases you from the power the hurt holds over you.
• LOVED the play on gender of God - calling him Papa while being portrayed in a very feminine way :-)  This was definitely an issue I've struggled with, for a lot of the same reasons that the book discussed - it's hard to understand/interpret God as a father figure (as is the "norm") when you didn't grow up with the best of father figures...
• I liked that there were some "jabs" at overly ritualized religion/spirituality - that has been such a huge hurdle for me personally.  The message that God can be interpreted uniquely jives with me a lot more than the idea that God is a concrete idea that can be experienced in only structured/uniformed ways
• I liked that it addresses the issue of why such horrible things can happen despite the existence of a loving God

We'll leave it there for now - jump in :-)