I just got done reading "EAT PRAY LOVE" by Elizabeth Gilbert which was the choice this month for my book club. I really enjoyed this book quite a bit. It almost reads as a journal documenting a year long journey that the author sets off on. She spent several months in Italy, then India and finally Indonesia in search of herself and in search of God. The book is dotted with much of her self deprecating humor and her raw honesty. I really admire Elizabeth's very intentional, proactive, stop-at-nothing-type search for inner peace (and yes and of course fabulous food too, how could you not when you're in Italy). Her adventures not only inspired me and made me want to travel so desperately bad, but they have also caused me to reflect on my own inner thoughts and longings. Here is a paragraph from her book that she wrote while in she was at an Ashram in India that resonated with me:
"If faith were rational, it wouldn't be- by definition - faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would be... a prudent insurance policy. I'm not interested in the insurance industry. I'm tired of being a skeptic, I 'm irritated by spiritual prudence and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate. I don't want to hear it anymore. I couldn't care less about the evidence and proof and assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water"
6 comments:
Oooo...I've got to add this one to my booklist! That last paragraph was great!
I LOVE this book! I am in the middle of it (I've been reading it for a while now, somehow with a pre-schooler around it's hard to steal a minute to read). She has really made me think and I love her description of the pizza she ate in Naples...
sounds like a must read for me.
i REALLY enjoyed this book too... i read it many months ago, but still think back to it often.
I actually don't agree with this assessment of what faith is at all.
I think faith is like if a friend tells me "I'll meet you at the place at five." If I believe him--have faith in him--then I'll be there at five too, expecting him to show up. But if I don't then I won't.
God tells us all these things. And either we act like we believe what He says, or we don't.
I don't think faith is about knowledge or ignorance, although it might be about understanding or lack thereof. I think faith is about trust and experience.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen...
Faith is what we have after the word, but before it becomes flesh and walks among us.
That's my take.
I have been passing this book in the store lately and it was recommended to me. Hmm...maybe I'll have to read it. What book club are you part of? I was thinking of starting one.
-Carrie
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