Open Your Mind To The Message
I recently watched the movie "The Shack" for the third time. I have read the book as well and am quite impressed with how the movie was able to capture the imagery that was depicted in the book. While reading the book, I envisioned a good portion of the scenes just as they were presented in the movie. This rarely happens. As well, the movie was able to relay all of the key messages that were presented in the book. Quite often when moving to the big screen, a lot of the underlying messages are lost. Not this time.
There is a reason that a self-published book was able to sell well over 20 million copies and reappears in the top 50 of New York Times best seller list even 10 years after the book's release. The reason is simple, it has a great message. I find it interesting that we can all find something controversial and argumentative about a fictional book simply because of the religious connotations. It is unfortunate that people let themselves become distracted from the true message of healing and forgiveness simply because of their biases and narrow mindedness. Some people cannot get past the fact that the book / movie contains God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and as such is complete rubbish and unrealistic. Well guess what people, it is a fiction book. Whether you are Christian or not, this book is a fiction novel with a strong moral message. Just as a Disney film is fictional and full of moral messages, so it this. These same people that shut down simply because they don't believe in God will sit there and watch Aladdin. Does that mean that they believe in genies? It does not surprise me though as biases are everything that is wrong with the world today and they dominate perspectives and opinions. People today live in fear and cannot even open their mind for a fictional book or movie. We live in a society of followers that are too afraid to open up for 2 hours out of fear of judgment from other closed minded people. It is too bad because the messages contained in book and movie are anything but religious and everything about living life to it's fullest and not stuck in the past. It is unfortunate because the people that closed themselves to the messages contained were likely the ones that needed to hear the message the most.
I did up a info-graphic of the top nine non-religious messages I found in the book and therefore movie. The list is quite similar to the messages or life rules of many famous philosophers, scholars, and leaders. This list is as follows;
If you are able to open your mind, allow yourself to feel some empathy and set aside your prejudices for a couple of hours this movie is worth a watch. If you cannot do these, that is fine as well. Unfortunate for you, but fine. I got the message I needed to hear, perhaps this is not a message that you need to here...yet. God bless you.
