Posts tagged ‘Elizabeth Gilbert’

You can’t make this stuff up

By Monica Brand, 1 February, 2010, 1 Comment

Played the Book Game on Facebook the other day.

If you spend any amount of time goofing off in online circles, then you probably know how it goes. Grab the nearest book, no cheating going to dig out a title that you know will be good or make you look smarter, open to Page 56. Count down to Sentence No. 5.

Now the fun part: broadcast that sentence on your profile (Facebook, Twitter, where ever you normally express your thoughts.) Finish by laughing at all the random goofiness or wisdom coming from an author’s page. I imagine there has been a lot of stupid sentences shared due to the Book Game.

Normally I don’t share space on my computer desk with books. I have papers, pens, notebooks, newspapers, along with various clutter that makes me look like I’m a serious producer of quality content. I don’t read books at this desk, so no books to grab.

But while writing that blog post about Committed last week, a friend threw down a Book Game challenge, and – finally! – Committed snuggling in the mess on my desk.

Open book. Count down. Sentence No. 5.

Are you ready for what Ms. Gilbert has for us?

As Jesus taught: “If any man me to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:2).

Personally, I think Liz knows the Book Game and intentionally put that there, knowing someday it would be called upon to be written on many a Facebook profile or blog post. Wasn’t that nice of her?

Love it, love it.

***

The scripture verse is in the chapter on Marriage and History; Gilbert has a lot to say regarding the Church and marriage. Anyone else read it? Care to discuss? The comments are open for you.

Committed to reasoning

By Monica Brand, 28 January, 2010, 5 Comments

From Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed (A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage):

This entire book — every single page of it — has been an effort to search through the complex history of Western marriage until I could find some small place of comfort in there for myself. Such comfort is not necessarily always an easy thing to find.

And search she does.

I like this book. I don’t agree with everything she says, but like Eat, Pray, Love, her previous book, I take in the meat and spit out the bones. Fortunately, not much spitting here.

Here is what I enjoyed about Committed:

1. It’s a fast, interesting read on the history of marriage. I know a lot more about the history of marriage after reading Committed. I’m a big fan marriage, so that’s well done.

2. Seeing how other cultures view marriage. Gilbert is a good storyteller. And when one travels the world, one tends to pick up good stories. I’m still wondering what happened to that young monk in Cambodia.

3. More Felipe. If you enjoyed the story line of Elizabeth falling for Felipe in Eat, Pray, Love, you get to see what happens next to them in Committed. Hint: it has to do with homeland security.

4. A new thought regarding marriage. Gilbert calls marriage a revolutionary act. Never heard that one before. Read the book to find out what she’s talking about. Then come back here and we can talk about it.

and finally. . .

5. I like to laugh. See page 75, middle of the first paragraph. (They are going to SAVE marriage?!? What a hoot.)

By the way: when my Edmund spotted the book in the store, he wanted to know if it was about Lord of the Rings.

I have no idea why.

Elizabeth Gilbert is brilliant!

By Monica Brand, 25 January, 2010, No Comment

Elizabeth Gilbert lived in amazing places. Italy! India! Indonesia! And where does she choose to set up housekeeping with her new hubby ? Care to take a guess?

New Jersey. Ha. Take that nay-sayers. Not only is Gilbert planted in my Garden State, but she’s right here in my part of the Delaware Valley.

We’re practically neighbors. I could bump into her at the IGA or the coffee shop or she might come to my church. (Errr. She’s probably not coming to church) Hey, how cool is it that after exploring an exotic place like Southeast Asia, it’s my unassuming little patch of Earth that she decides to call home.

Brilliant choice of real estate investing, Liz. Welcome, welcome.

Today I finished Gilbert’s latest book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage and this week I will be sharing my thoughts.

Have you read it? Do you plan on reading Committed?

Let’s discuss it together.

The importance of learning truth

By Monica Brand, 4 December, 2008, 6 Comments

My mom as a young woman, before I was born, worked at a large bank in Manhattan. As a bank employee, she was trained to recognize counterfeit bills. Down in the basement of the bank, my mother counted bill after bill, touching, feeling the money. She learned color, texture, weight of the paper.

My mom, and her fellow bank tellers, learned what was false by knowing first what was real.

Readers, do you see how this applies to us?

Never can we learn the ins and outs of all the false teaching in the world today. There is simply too much of it. Just go to your local bookstore, plug into the Internet, turn on your TV. It’s there.

Christian, be like my mom in the Manhattan bank. Recognize the lie, not by knowing what’s wrong with the counterfeit, but by knowing the truth.

Read your Bible. Get to know the words. Learn to combat the false by knowing first what is true.

When two world collide: Elizabeth Gilbert and why I home school

More thoughts on church: I’ll not give up

Photo: Eric Hauser

Does the book Eat, Pray, Love preach Christ?

By Monica Brand, 28 October, 2008, 19 Comments

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. $Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman\'s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert$

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?

Answering questions: more on author Elizabeth Gilbert

By Monica Brand, 11 August, 2008, 1 Comment

Christian believers are still seeking answers about the author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, so here is a video from Authors@Google. It’s embedded, and I can’t figure out how to get the video here; just follow the link. The video is 30 minutes long – 10 minutes of Gilbert reading from her memoir, and then a Q and A period.

I think it’s interesting to note that her upbringing is sporadic church attendance at a church where there is “not a lot of talk about God.” Sad, especially when she explains how as a ten-year-old she is seeking answers about death and eternity – and it appears not one adult in her life can help her. If I were in the audience, I would have asked if she went to her mother, a Sunday School teacher or minister with her fears.

Watch and let me know your reactions:

YouTube – Authors@Google: Elizabeth Gilbert