Monthly Archives: October 2008

Does the book Eat, Pray, Love preach Christ?

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Comments are still coming in on this post about Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert, so that means it’s time to Educate the Masses.

Are you ready masses?

Class is in session. Here we go -

This is a comment from Adam. First of all, I love, love, LOVE it when normal folks leave a comment here. By normal, I mean the nonbloggers in the world. Bloggers, do you know there are people in the world that have no idea what a blog is?? I’m serious! Isn’t it shocking? I thought everyone and her mother has a blog.

No, my mom does not have a blog. The woman doesn’t even have a computer, we must remember to pray for her.

Monica… the point!

Oops, sorry. Had too much fun poking fun at myself.

Adam, nonblogger, wrote:

Seriously anyone who thinks Gilbert is trying to lead people away from Christianity has not discovered God themselves. I think deep prayer and mediation is how one connects to God and builds a relationship with him and it’s how God can change peoples lives. Just because someone doesn’t say that you have to accept Christ doesn’t make it bad.

Hold on there, mister. How does a person connect to God? You say it’s through prayer and mediation. What do you say class? Hold that thought because Adam is going to correct himself in a minute…

Adam then says:

She is teaching people how to connect to God that may not have normally discovered him and I in no way see how that is not Christlike, it is very Christ like and her book has done a world of good in showing me how I can connect to God on a deeper level.

Really? You’re a Bible-believing, born-again Christian and you think Eat, Pray, Love helps people connect to God?  It’s comments like these that amaze me. (Sorry for picking on you, Adam, but if you disagree, you can start your own blog to refute me.) Gilbert is into Eastern Mediation and Yoga, dude, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember off the top of my head. But I’m willing to bet it’s got nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

Christ allows me to return to God and prayer and mediation allow me to connect to God and build a relationship with him. It makes me mad when people attack stuff that can help improve people’s lives just because it doesn’t fit there narrow point of view of how things are.

Look, class! The answer to my first question. Way to go, Adam, you win a star for answering correctly. It’s Jesus Christ who allows us to return to God.

You can pray and meditate, and do all sorts of goofy tricks to try and win the Lord’s favor, but it’s only through repentance and faith in His son, Jesus, that we are connected to God.

By the way, I happen to know that because I read it in my Bible. Don’t bother looking for that bit of info in Eat, Pray, Love, because it’s not there.

And as for that narrow point of view stuff – it’s not my opinion, it’s what Jesus says himself in Matthew 7:13:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

It’s a narrow way. Sorry to disappoint, but there you have it. Either a book points to Christ or it doesn’t. Eat, Pray, Love does not. It’s a well-written, interesting, personal memoir of a non-Christ-following woman. Does Gilbert point to Christ as the way to God? No. Read it to learn about what she believes; use it as a road map to God at your own peril.

Sigh. It’s uninformed comments like Adam’s that concern me. Christians, we don’t have time to misinformed. We must know what we believe and why, and then when we encounter false teaching, we can answer correctly.

People are still looking for information about Gilbert and her book, so I think I’m going to re-read it, and post my thoughts here; that way if anyone is interested, we can learn together and have the answers we need to have.

Okay. I think I’m done now. Questions? Comments? Smacks to the side of my head for too much sarcasm?

***

Hmmmm. I just read the next part of the chapter in Matthew. Do you know who Jesus warns us about in verse 15?

Cut me? I bleed coffee (No, I don’t know what monkey pee tastes like, just work with me here.)

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We are serious coffee drinkers in this house. We buy green beans via the Internet, roasting them in this space-age looking contraption that sits on my kitchen counter, filling the house with an unmistakable smell that says, “Coffee lovers snobs live here.”

I grew up on English breakfast tea with milk and sugar. My siblings and I had tea contests – I’m not kidding! How geeky were we? One of the last times we had a competition, when we hadn’t left home for universities yet, it turned into a serious battle for the title of Ultimate Tea Maker. Oh, the seriousness! Oh, the drama! Russia vs. United States. My brother doctored his mug on one side of the room, my sister took hers to her own spot, to prevent spying or cheating. Me -  judge and jury. The winner gloated, the loser sulked. That’s power, baby.

Needless to say, we loved our tea. Mom and Dad drank coffee, but never offered us any and we never asked. Somewhere along the way of my formative years, I decided coffee wasn’t for me.

So, by the time I met Doc, I was still a loyal tea drinker with no interest in coffee. He would offer me a cup and each time I turned it down. Time passed. We spent more time together. My buddy Doc started looking less like a chum and more like a… yummy piece of pie. And what do you have with pie? Coffee, naturally.

I’m making coffee. Want some?

Sure.

From that first sip, my loyalties were to coffee. Maybe my willingness to abandon tea had something to do with new love. Doc loved coffee. I loved Doc. Therefore, I should love coffee too. A subconscious decision to leave behind my love of tea, trade it for a more mature, mysterious drink because I wanted to let go of the past? Perhaps. Or am I over-thinking too much?

Yeah, thought so.

I still drink tea, but only occasionally. Coffee is my first choice; and not just any coffee, mind you. Not that monkey pee, that black, inky nonsense they try to pass off as coffee at the Little White Chapel on the Hill. It’s sinful what they do to coffee at my church.

Hey, maybe that could be my new ministry! Official Coffee Critic or Coffee Perfecter Person. The idea has merit, don’t you think? How can we expect to attract new members if we can’t serve a decent cup of coffee? (Pastor, you lurking out there?  We can talk Sunday, okay?)

Coffee must be freshly brewed for it to taste descent. You can’t let it sit there in the pot cooking for hours; that’s a recipe for mud. If you are truly dedicated, then go with fresh roasted beans. Newly roasted beans are far superior to the powder you buy in the market. Even Starbuck’s whole beans are stale by the time you get it home. Try roasting your own coffee beans, you can even do it right on your stove top with a frying pan.

When I first started with coffee, I took sugar and cream or milk. Now I use light cream and some sort of fake sugar, like Splenda, that is probably bad for me. I’ve tried black, like my Dad drinks it, but I’m not there yet. If you drink your coffee black, you have my utmost respect. I’m jealous of your taste buds.

Look at me: the Coffee Evangelist. Gee whiz, I need to get a life.

Now tell me about you – are you a coffee snob like me? Or do you prefer tea? Anyone feel that I’m in need of a coffee intervention and you’re going to start praying for my deliverance? Should I tell you Doc brings me my first morning cup while I’m still snuggling in bed? That’s power, baby.

Image HTs: Writer-Mommy and A Different Street

The Mentoring Project with author Don Miller

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Any willing grown-up can be a mentor. This video focuses on fatherless boys, but don’t let that stop you from reaching out to the young girls in your life. I’ve mentored girls at church without realizing I was “mentoring” them. I was just trying to be their friend.

And for those of you non-book readers *shudder* with no clue as to the identity of Donald Miller, I’ll link to his MEMOIR and blog.

Oh, Monica, you didn’t.

Oh, yeah. I did.

Memoir. Memoir. Yummy memoirs!