THE SHACK

Summary of the Shack

The story begins with Mack getting a letter in the mail from Papa, perceived as God, by Nan.
The letter encloses a message that tells Mack to meet God at the shack next weekend. Next
Mack has a dream, for the a reader a flashback to introduce information, four years back the
reader finds out Missy, who is the daughter of Mackenzie or nicknamed Mack is kidnapped and
brutally murdered during a family vacation. This all started when Mack wanted to take the kids
for a camping trip on the Labor Day weekend before they go to school. During the camping trip
Missy asks her father to tell her the story of the princess and the Multnomah Indians. She
enjoyed listening to the story from her Father. This was the only long time Mack got to spend
with Missy before she was kidnapped. Josh and Kate go canoeing and their canoe flips over.
While Mack is rushing to save them he leaves Missy alone coloring. While he is saving them
from drowning, Missy is kidnapped and taken away. Mack comes back to find Missy but she is
not there anymore. In a panic he tells everyone, including the police and his campsite
neighbors. At this point all Mack finds out from the police is that there was a green military truck
that left the parking lot that seemed to look like there was a little girl inside. After Mack comes
back to her table where she was seen last they notice a lady bug pin, and later find out that it is
the "Little Lady Killer" who kidnapped Missy and four other girls and they have not found him.
Mack goes back home to tell Nan about what happened. Mack refers to this incident as "The
Great Sadness".

Reflection of the Shack

My response to the movie is pretty much what it was to the book. It’s a very affective movie. It’s
emotionally moving. But how it affects us emotionally isn’t the measure of whether it’s a good
movie. And too often Christians use that measurement—for instance, in worship songs that
make us feel close to God but actually are about us rather than God. We believe God is good
and therefore trust that He’s at work even when we don’t understand it. The movie makes that
point really well. When we begin to apprehend how good God is and how much He loves us, we
can trust Him like a child trusts a good and loving parent. We rest in that. The movie makes an
effective point about how we place ourselves in the judgment seat over God and others, and we
have no place there. We’re playing God, and that’s not our place. That really spoke to me
because I can be judgmental person. In the conclusion, the narrator says that after this healing
experience of grace, Mack was quick to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. When we’ve really
experienced grace and remember how much grace and mercy God gives us—how humbling,
but comforting, grace is—that is how we become.