Eat, Pray, Love

Disclaimer: I have not read the book. However, I did see the movie with four girlfriends from the neighborhood.

Liz (played by Julia Roberts) is in pain from a failed marriage and a broken, re-bound relationship. She doesn’t know what she is seeking. But she knows where she wants to look: Italy, India and Bali.

Along the way, Liz meets many interesting people and has an Excellent Adventure:

• She shares comfort food with a make-shift Italian family

• She struggles through spiritual disciplines at meditation retreat in India

• She learns to “smile from her liver” with a Balinese medicine man

The theme of Liz’s journey appeared to be “accept and forgive yourself” because “God is within you.” By the end of the movie, Liz is apparently satisfied with what she has found. But I, the viewer, was not convinced. I believe that the guru and the medicine man led Liz away from the path of true healing.

“Pastoral duty requires that we attend to people’s deepest need and most urgent danger, not that we shore up their self-excusing defenses. The ultimate goal is to lead people to a restored relationship with God through the grace of forgiveness. But without repentance there can be no forgiveness. And without the acceptance of responsibility there can be no true repentance.” Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Ezekiel.

Liz grieved, but never took responsibility. She never admitted the seriousness of her decision to break her marriage vows (without any real provocation). She never admitted how she had hurt her husband, and how she had hurt her young boyfriend. She may have “forgiven herself,” but she certainly did not repent or apologize. So how is she going to experience true forgiveness, other than some fuzzy feeling in her own head?

By the end of the movie, Liz had found love again, in the form of an emotionally-expressive Brazilian man working in Bali.

First, speaking from experience, I’m not sure 6-8 months is sufficient time to heal from a divorce, regardless of how many time zones you cross.

Second, I wonder whether Liz’s new-found world view, with a life centered around the “God within,” is sufficient to sustain her in this new relationship.

May God bless your journey as you eat, pray and love.