Tag Archives: Book Review

Encountering God: Spiritual Reflections in Matthew Perry’s Memoir

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Welcome back, my beloveds! Sorry there was no post last week… was working hard and the week got away from us before the thoughts came together. Not that the thoughts didn’t come together… they did… and I have been wanting to tackle this thought since I finished reading Matthew Perry’s memoir: Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

Let me start off by saying I can not recommend this book. The language is terrible. It’s not really well written, and it seems as though Perry was suffering with his “big terrible thing” in various parts of the manuscript as I found it hard to follow at times. Still, who can judge a person’s life story written from the person’s perspective? It’s real and it’s raw… and certainly had me musing.

So, for the record, Matthew Perry (a Canadian whose mother worked for Prime minister Pierre E. Trudeau!) explains his journey from childhood acting dreams to finally making it big on the sitcom “Friends”. I’m sure you’ve heard about him. Including his recent death and the fallout from his drug supplying doctors. The book certainly outlines his struggles in all its medically descriptive, pain inducing, glory.

Several girls, houses and T.V. and film contracts later, Matty lays it all on the line. His brutal honesty (including fowl language!) follows his ups and downs in Hollywood. Now, I am not a big Friends fan, but if you are a People lover, it’s an interesting read. Especially creepy knowing it was released slightly before his untimely death in a time when he was meant to be sober… I’ll let you decide where that one lies.

Shockingly, it did have me musing a much more profound, spiritually lead thought process than simply another Hollywood memoir. It was his claim of “meeting God”. I can’t quote the whole thing, but smack dab in the middle of the book, at the most bottom point of his “rock bottom”, Matthew Perry states:

“God, please help me”, I whispered. Show me you are here, God, please help me.” …. “This was {my encounter with God}. I started to cry. I mean really started to cry — that shoulder-shaking kind of uncontrollable weeping. I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I was crying because for the first time in my life I felt OK. I felt safe, taken care of. Decades of struggling with God, and wrestling with life, and sadness, all was being washed away, like a river of pain gone into oblivion. I had been in the presence of God. I was certain of it.”

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible thing p.159-160

It was a powerful moment, obviously. And I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit had certainly reached out to Perry in a real and tangible way at the very minute when He was called upon. I have cried those very tears of emotion. I always say, one cannot encounter the God of the Universe and not be changed. And not feel something. Unfortunately, this encounter with God may have stayed with Perry, but only on the surface. His lifestyle of the rich and famous crowded out the feelings of euphoria he got a glimpse of at this moment. He didn’t allow God to truly help him as he prayed. You see, God is willing — but He doesn’t push. We must truly seek Him.

And it’s that thought that had me musing. I am deeply saddened at our dark, dark world. I am deeply saddened for the lives like Matthew Perry’s who are snuffed out by drugs, alcohol and “worldly” pleasures. So many crave peace, and when it is presented to them, they let it slip through their fingers. It makes me sad.

There are other “snip-its” of God thoughts in Perry’s book, and I think to myself… you were so close… There are others I think about when I think those thoughts too. Not strangers in Hollywood with fancy cars and mansions in the hills, but people in my own circle. People I know and care about. And that makes me even sadder. And a tad bit angry. Have you ever wanted to just shake someone and say “You just need Jesus!! (you big dim whit!)”??

So there ya have it. My own little memoir blip on this piece of the internet. My raw and open thinking about the dark world we live in and the people who need Jesus because of it. Oh beloved, if that’s you reading this and you are feeling the “touch of God” because you called out to Him… seek harder! Get real help. Find someone who can lead you to Him. An eternity away from Him is much much bigger than Matthew Perry’s big terrible thing, it is THE big terrible thing. Run from the darkness. He’ll be there, I promise.

The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater

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When we first moved to our old century home, the youngest definitely thought it was haunted. The previous owner had some family troubles, and although he loved the place, he just wasn’t able to keep it. The pool was a murky, bottomless pit of despair, and we kept dredging up odd objects: goggles, a glove, sunglasses, small animals. We were sure the previous owner had murdered his wife and her lifeless body would one day float to the top of our summer project.

The Latest quirky find in the yard…Any guesses?!

Then we discovered quirky things within the old house. A weird spot for a light fixture that didn’t turn anything on. A “secret” tunnel through a duct in the guest room closet. (We followed it as far as we could and only found dust bunnies and mice droppings). Then the basement storm cellar hatch was sealed off from the outside… only leaving a tiny hole. Could something other than chipmunks hide there? And what about that bullet casing we found in another closet? Could the date scrawled in black marker on it mean anything besides a first hunting expedition? How about the poor Elf on the Shelf lost in the basement rafters? A Christmas tradition gone wrong, or was he left to haunt us with sprinkles as we slept? What about the rifle-sized floor board in the porch that just so happens to be loose….

Don’t even get me started on the woods. How many half finished projects did we find out there? Just kids goofing around or were hermits living off the land in a previous life? And the rumours of the “pot house” nearby burned to ruins? Local legend? Or something more sinister? The land has been owned by the same families for generations. Whose to say our century farmhouse wasn’t akin to the black sheep of the family? One never knows what the walls would say if they could talk….

Of course, I am just kidding about all these things. We did find some quirky things left behind, but they are just tidbits and old junk. The previous owner of our property was a nice guy. Still, we love a good story, don’t we? It may be nothing more than a rumour fueled by a piece of history gone haywire. Shared secrets by the campfire, designed to frighten us just enough to keep us on our toes. So it is with Christy-Award winning author Jaime Jo Wright’s book: The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater. Finally, a “romantic” book that wasn’t gag inducing! I quite enjoyed it! Just enough intrigue and mystery to keep you on your toes, and plenty of thought provoking paragraphs.

“Those folks who’d been dealt a hard blow by life should’ve experienced the grace of God through the actions of sharing and service. This was why Kit worked at the food pantry…. People were what mattered most. Not buildings. Not even history. The here. The now. The souls whom God let cross Kit’s path to be impacted today so that in the future, their legacy would speak of healing and not brokenness. Of hope and not destitution. Of God and not a world alienated from its Creator, who wildly loved all people.”

The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater pp.332-333

It’s a twisted tale of rumours steeped in small town suspicions. A parallel between two girls, Kit from present day, and the young lady Miss Greta Mercy from yesteryear. Both linked by ghosts and tales of something deadly lurking beneath the stage of Barlowe theater. Who are the lost boys? Who is the lady in white? You’ll have to read it to find out. It’s a good read. Easy enough to follow as it jumps back and forth from past to present. In the end it all comes together, of course, like a Christian version of Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc. As an added bonus, the author includes her own “background story” and discussion questions. She weaves her own character into that of adoptee Kit.

” ‘Then you’re not abandoned. You don’t need anyone else but Him. That’s why I’m not afraid. Not afraid of losing my job, not afraid of people leaving me. Human nature is conditional. People, unfortunately, are conditional for good or bad reasons. But God is not. So you trust Him, you step out in faith that others will care for you in His strength and grace, and you realize that sometimes people make mistakes. They leave you. Or they betray you. Or life just sends you in different directions.’ …She hated his truth. Hated the way he’d stated it so bluntly and plainly, and yet he was right.”

The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater pp.230

Overall, I have to admit that this was a delightfully creepy story that had just enough intrigue to keep you engaged, with bits and bobs of inspiration thrown in. Only a hint of romance. Just the way I like my books! Apparently, it’s also how I like my farmhouses. Eerie elegance? Perhaps that should be my next decorating style. Incorporating the left behind Elf on the Shelf maybe. Nah, I just love a good story, don’t you?

Available now at Bookstores near you!

I’ll have to check out Jaime Jo Wright’s new book on BethanyHouse.com for 2024. If your interested, The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater is available now at numerous locations. Happy Reading, my beloveds!

Book Review: The Hiding Place

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As we start off another year, it’s about time for another book review! This time it is a classic… although I admit to never reading it before now! The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is now in print for its 35th anniversary! Can you believe it?! Obviously a time tested biography, Ten Boom’s heroic story will live on for many more years. I was graciously donated tickets to go and see the “film version” of a play depicting the story before I actually delved in to the book, and despite what I warn my children, the movie version actually helped me “put a face” to the beloved characters. There are a lot of names. There’s a dash of Dutch references and historical ideas that need to get all sorted out in your reading of the book, so the film helped me, personally, with the history and politics (which I’m not so good at!)

Let’s start from the beginning. In case you have not heard about Ms. Ten Boom, she is a real life concentration camp survivor who, along with her father, sister and other family members, hid Jewish victims of war in a secret room in her Holland home. They were a vital part of World War II’s secret underground. The book reads like an adventure novel: twisting and turning, flashing back to Corrie’s childhood love interest and family matters growing up, then inching its way into her harrowing tale of death and abuse in Germany’s concentration camps for “untold criminal offenses”. All the mean while maintaining the family’s unwavering faith in God and His love for all humanity.

I recently changed the living room curtains in our old farmhouse from a modern print, to lace. The family hates them. ”They look like old lady’s nightgowns” they say. Perfectly suited to a century home where old ladies lived, I think. 

Doesn’t she look like she would love lace curtains?!

I picture Ms. Corrie Ten Boom when I think of that old lady. Not that she was old when her story begins to unfold. The timeline in the book tells me Corrie becomes the first licensed woman watchmaker in 1924. It’s about this time that the book describes her sister, Betsie, taking over the “housekeeping” and her love of tulips and lace and all things pretty and feminine. Perhaps Betsie would have appreciated my light and airy curtains that make everything “a little brighter”.

And so the tale of Corrie and her “sickly” sister shines with the faith of their father. Practiced and wise watchmaker, Caspar, who invests in his children through the scriptures with readings and worship each day around the family table. The love for humanity oozes out of the memoir. Still, Corrie is honest about her doubts, her fears, and her lack of fashion sense. A girl after my own heart, Corrie. A girl after my own heart.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but the resounding theme of God’s miraculous way shining through in a period of human history that was so dark, is definitely the focus of the story. Like the Hiding Place in the upper room itself, God’s unwavering omnipresence is always there… even when we don’t think it is. The book begins with Corrie’s war journey, but ends with her evangelistic journey, as she begins to share her faith with others. She tells her story and shares her faith as a testament to her family’s legacy. The ending is gut wrenching, and I couldn’t help but think how evil our world has become. Yet, God is bigger still.

I shouldn’t have, but I marveled at how much Corrie “got away with”: a hidden Bible, a smuggled sweater, how many hidden actual people in a secret room?! Was she allowed to “lie” in order to hide a bigger truth? It, again, reminds me God is bigger. And He’s in charge. What’s a world war to the Creator of the universe? Mere humans with an evil agenda? God’s got that, too. I like how one reviewer put it: ”…The Hiding Place, repackaged for a new generation of readers, continues to declare that God’s love will overcome, heal, and restore.” And He does it in secret ways that make us wonder “How did that happen?”

And so the biography, some thirty five plus years old now, is one still so relevant for today’s society. A society still filled with hate and destruction, but managed by a still faithful and all-knowing God. I’m encouraged by stories like these. I am reminded of the past in tangible things like the watchmaker’s watch, or my lace curtains. I am strengthened and encouraged for the future, because I know, like Corrie, her sister, Betsie, and those she saved, that God’s love is evident, even if it’s hidden in a hiding place.

I hope you, too, can be encouraged through stories like this classic. And go with peace this week, my beloved, knowing God still sees us in the Hiding Place.