I recently just watched "The Shack" for the second time the other night. The movie is based on the book of the same name by William P. Young. If you haven’t watched or read this, I highly recommend that you do. "The Shack" is the most moving movie I have ever seen, and it will truly open your eyes. If only you let it, that is.

The movie follows a man named Mackenzie whose youngest daughter is kidnapped and murdered. He then gets a letter from God telling him to meet Him in the same shack that his daughter was murdered in. From that Mackenzie learns about God, forgiveness, judgment, and evil. Most importantly, he learns that bad things happen, and those things hurt God just as much as they hurt us.

There is one scene that I find so applicable to our society today. Mackenzie is in a garden speaking with God about good and evil. Mackenzie describes good as something that benefits him or those he loves and evil as something that doesn’t.

However, there sparks the problem. God tells Mackenzie that everyone has different views of what is bad and what is good. This is how conflict starts. When you and your neighbor have different ideas of good and bad conflict and judgment is practically impossible to avoid.

That scene is so important, and people need to listen and understand its significance. We are so focused on judging other’s beliefs and what they view as right and wrong that we create unnecessary conflict repeatedly. Nowadays, people care so much about being right that they’ll go to any lengths to prove that other person wrong. This is especially evident in politics. Liberals and conservatives are constantly at each other’s throats.

We judge each other, and each thinks their opinion is the right or “good” one. If only we tried to understand the other side. Then, maybe we wouldn’t encounter so much conflict in our lives. Maybe it could teach us to understand first before judging. To become more kind and thoughtful. To become better God serving people.