Running with The Shack

It's very early on a Sunday morning-5:45 am. The neighborhood streets of my small, south Georgia town are deserted, but for the erratic, abstracted driver delivering the Sunday newspaper. There is a dense fog that hangs in the air, limiting visibility to 20 or so feet. I carefully watch the small car erratically move from mailbox to mailbox, hoping my reflective clothing will catch his attention. A dog barks as my feet land on the damp pavement with a constant rhythm, beneath the mossy oak trees that line the neighborhood.

As if this morning isn't eerie enough, I have a heightened sense of anxiety and anticipation because of what is playing on my iPod. It's an audiobook, chosen at random from the "most popular" selection of iTunes, titled The Shack.

The Shack is about a man, Mackenzie Philips, who feels extremely blessed with his life until his youngest daughter, Missy, is abducted during a family vacation and evidence suggests that she was brutally murdered in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, Mack receives a suspicious note, signed by "God" inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Since my Sunday morning run I've read that there is controversy surrounding this book, that it slams "legalistic" religions, denominations and doctrines. There is nothing like a little Theological controversy to get the juices moving for those early morning runs.

Last Sunday morning's run afforded me two hours of listening pleasure. With nearly seven hours of this intriguing novel left (or about 50 miles) I look forward to the journey!