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When we encounter pain and suffering, our lives are disrupted. Our normal paths and expectations come to a halt. Suffering forces us to take a new path, to create new expectations. In Drops Like Stars, Bell shows us how art does the same thing; it disrupts us, forces us to see the world differently and to forge new expectations. How will we reimagine suffering when we realize that God sees our lives as works of art?
“Bell is at the forefront of a rethinking of Christianity in America.”
While Bell's books Velvet Elvis and Sex God received generally strong reviews, this effort to understand the relationship between suffering and creativity feels superficial and overly self-conscious. Few readers will dispute Bell's gentle assertions: that life can be extremely difficult and capricious, that it is often difficult to find God amid suffering, that suffering has a great potential to unify disparate people, and that great bursts of creative energy can arise from pain. Bell explores these issues not by covert biblical exegesis-which was a surprising and welcome highlight of Velvet Elvis-but new-fashioned storytelling. Bell weaves inspiring stories of people who turned their suffering into something transformative, and many of these stories are memorable. They are certainly accessible: Bell draws from fiction, movies, real-life situations and his own life. These anecdotes do not make a book, however, and Bell's spare prose lacks original insights into age-old theodicy questions. Although the design and layout are first-rate, $35 is a lot of money for a 160-page book that is mostly white space. (Aug.)
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Bell and his wife, Kristin, live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with their two sons.
"I've never had a cup of coffee."
"A couple years ago, I hit my head doing a flip on a wakeboard and for three days I had to be told who I was and that I was married and had kids."
"The first time I shared the ideas for Velvet Elvis with a publisher, they were convinced that it was actually six books. I remember thinking, Six books? I don't know if I can even write one!"
"My boys and I are into any sort of board you can ride. Wakeboard, skateboard, snowboard, surf board, etc."
And yet these sculptures were in those bars the whole time.
All these sculptors really did was remove.
Sculptors shape and form and rearrange, but at the most basic level they take away. And there is an extraordinary, beautiful art to knowing what to take away.
When you talk with people who have just received news that they have a life-threatening illness, what do they say?
"Now I must get those hedges trimmed!"
"I've been putting that plastic surgery off long enough."
"It's finally time to join that online Poker club."
No, of course not. They talk about family and friends. They gather those they love as close as possible. They reflect on any amends that need to be made with anybody.
They talk about what matters most.
SUFFERING DOES THAT ...
... IT COMPELS US TO ELIMINATE THE UNNECESSARY, THE TRIVIAL, THE SUPERFICIAL.
There is greatness in you. Courage. Desire. Integrity. Virtue. Compassion. Dignity. Loyalty. Love. It's in there - somewhere. And sometimes it takes suffering to get at it. It's in there.
(Continues...)
Excerpted fromDROPS LIKE STARS by Rob Bell Copyright © 2009 by Rob Bell. Excerpted by permission.
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Anonymous
Posted March 29, 2012
Got this at just the right time, one week before my father-in-law past suddenly and unexpectedly. Never easy to deal with, but with this video had a framework to begin to process it. You will suffer pain, this will prepare you and challenge you.
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Overview
When we encounter pain and suffering, our lives are disrupted. Our normal paths and expectations come to a halt. Suffering forces us to take a new path, to create new expectations. In Drops Like Stars, Bell shows us how art does the same thing; it disrupts us, forces us to see the world differently and to forge new expectations. How will we reimagine suffering when we realize that God sees our lives as works of art?