Customer Reviews

Looking for God in All the Wrong Places

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The effort of writer, video producer, progressive activist, and New Thought minister with a background in metaphysical studies Marie D. Jones, Looking For God In All The Wrong Places, is a spiritual self-help guide written with a dash of humor and a great deal of wisdom concerning the many pitfalls of drugs, alcohol, or unrestrained lust for sex, money, or power that interfere with achieving and maintaining a closeness to God. Offering paths for the faithful to follow in order to focus one's mind and truly open one's heart to God's love, Looking For God In All The Wrong Places is a recommended and astute contemplation for Christian readers.

A great read and full of humor and profound insights about who, what and where we look for spiritual satisfaction and happiness. I found the essay style easy to grasp and the ideas stayed with me for a long time after reading. This book is deceptively fun to read. Deceptive because you don't realize what great lessons are being hammered into your head as you are having fun reading it!!!

I was first attracted to the book because the title was so tongue-in-cheek. Turned out, so was the book! Looking for and finding God (if you're lucky) can be a heavy task, but in Marie D. Jones' brilliant book, it is treated in more of a light vein. With chapter titles like "Do You Validate?," "Might as Well Face It, You're Addicted to ___________," and "Catechism Cataclysm," I was able to laugh at myself and others as we take many wrong turns in our life's journey. The book led me to People, Places, and Things where I and others have looked for and not found God or Spirit or Peace. When I finally arrived at "Where to Find God," it all seemed so simple, so obvious. Yet so elusive at the same time. It made me remember how important it is to take "time outs" during my hectic days to sit in the silence, rub my cat's belly, take three deep breaths, and know that God is everywhere and God is right here where I am. Thank you Marie, for this wonderful gift!

Every winter, sometime around February, masses of people worship at the House of Oscar. Some don fancy dresses, others hold parties (complete with paper top hats and cardboard replicas of a little gold statue), still others simply shut off their brains and tune in their TV's to the annual Academy Awards ceremony. For weeks leading up to this event and for days after, all one hears is commentary about the look/dress/action/speech of the scores of gods and goddesses that walked the stage that night. And after the masses of people have picked clean all the Oscar glory there is, they turn to the upcoming baseball season to fulfill that emptiness they feel inside with a good old-fashioned sports god.

Are you one of them? Are you LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES? Marie D. Jones can help you. According to Jones, "...our society can only see God in the pretty, the shiny, and the expensive. But God is everywhere..." (p. 57).

In LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES, Jones enlightens the reader as to where God is really found, despite all the misguided attempts by society to find Him in only "the pretty."

Marie D. Jones, a New Thought minister as well as a licensed pastoral counselor with a master's degree in metaphysical studies, has given God much thought and study and is well-versed in the subject, which couples quite nicely with her lengthy experience as a writer. Jones has been widely published and is even a screenwriter who has produced a children's storybook series.

According to Jones, we as a society spend way too much time looking for God in places we'll never find Him - sports and movie icons, wealth, power, so-called "gurus," and co-dependent relationships, just to name a few. Her goal is to help the reader find the real hiding place of God, saying, "...you never have to go any farther than your own Higher Power within to find wholeness, abundance, and prosperity in all areas of your life" (p. 30).

While the subject of the search for God is a weighty one, Jones manages to keep it blithe throughout. LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES is light on the dry philosophy stuff and heavy on the jokes, puns, and catch-phraseology. Still, Jones manages to make some good points that somehow worm their way into the subconscious of the reader and while he may think he may have gotten only a few chuckles out of the book, he just may find himself worshipping a little differently after the last page has been turned.

At the same time, Jones's jokes occasionally work against her ultimate message, as she pokes fun a little too personally and unintentionally sounds a bit taunting. Thus a sensitive reader might find offense at a statement that contains, "... a bunch of spiritually inept yuppies with bad shoes and worse breath..." (p. 82) and wonder if derision is working against the tolerance and inner love Jones preaches.

Furthermore, Jones uses real life experiences to back up or further explain some of her points of interest. This is a good technique in reaching the reader through having been there/done that just as the reader may have. However, Jones seems to have experienced it all - every trap, every bad habit, every broken hearted experience. Opening up one's weaknesses on paper can be healing and humanizing for a writer, but too much of a humble thing can take away from the message as a reader might wonder just how to trust a messenger who's so easily bent and broken.

The overall success of LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES is that it's an easily understood and lighter look into spirituality that teaches its readers how to look inward and find God. It's a pleasant read unusual in its belief that you can find God and still have fun looking. If you've been struggling, looking for God in those wrong places, this book would be the right place for you.

Superior book by an author with a real understanding of how to talk to people about spirituality, God, beliefs. I read a lot of books of this nature and have to say this is one of my all-time favorites. Filled with humor and sharp wit and wisdom, as well as personal experiences written with heart, courage and a boldness I found totally refreshing!!! I can't wait until Rev. Jones has a new book, I will be first in line to buy it!

I hate books that get so detailed and research-heavy your head spins just reading them. I really enjoyed this book, and felt it was just right for someone who hates having to look at footnotes for every other paragraph. A fun and deep at the same time book...

A great book for anybody who has ever looked for spiritual empowerment in things like money, success, beauty, people, drugs, fame...I love the humor and personal essay-style, which makes the information more accessable and easy to relate to. I hate heavy-handed and preachy books on spirituality, so this was really perfect for me. Reminds me a lot of "Traveling Mercies," and other narrative books that combine humor and serious insight.

Who says being funny about religion is irreverent? Next time you think God doesn't have a sense of humor, buy yourself LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES!

In her Introduction Marie Jones, who has a finely tuned funny bone, takes a look at the odd & ordinary ways in which we humble humans look for the "Life Force, Divine Mind, Creator, Almighty, Coach, or Big Kahuna." (Page 8)

Marie Jones, who is a licensed pastoral counselor, takes us to the People, Places, & Things where we search for the Divine. Lightly written, with many plays on the cliches of our time, she entices you to follow her to Where To Find God.

& where is that? Marie Jones has some simple ideas which require that you lighten up some. Rebeccasreads encourages you to take a gander at LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES -- you just might get some deliciously irreverent giggles & some delectable insights!

In our spiritual quest, many of us come to a point in our lives where we start questioning the things that we have learned, and we start asking the real question: "What is true for me?" In Marie Jone's book "Looking for God in All the Wrong Places," the reader is encouraged - no,expected - to look at things for themselves, to address the issues at hand about religion, politics,and other topics; and make an opinion from their own place of resonance with truth. Marie is not one to let the Higher Power be cast aside, but to cast aside the "God in a Box" view that many prefer to keep him in. There is a difference between spirituality, and religion. Thank you Marie, for showing we can and should speak out, each person is entitled to their own opinion, and that at the very least we can agree to disagree. Accepting oneself and contrasting ideas even when they do not fit into the crowd, and seeing that as a positive place, puts oneself above the crowd, which is where all leaders find themselves to be.

Review by Tiffany Snow, author of FORWARD FROM THE MIND - DISTANT HEALING, BILOCATION, MEDICAL INTUITION AND PRAYER IN A QUANTUM WORLD.THE POWER OF DIVINE: A HEALER'S GUIDE - TAPPING INTO THE MIRACLE.PSYCHIC GIFTS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE - TOOLS TO CONNECT

So rare is it to read a "religious" book that does not get all religious on you. This book is like an old friend, guiding you wisely and wittily along your spiritual path, helping you to avoid the pitfalls and road blocks and making you laugh out loud, too! If you are looking for God, and want to avoid looking in all the wrong places, then you need this book! Rev. Marie is a God-send!