Drops Like Stars by Rob Bell

From Barnes & Noble

Ask any creative person to describe the most pivotal moment of his or her life, and chances are they will describe a nexus of emotional upheaval and even physical deprivation. Such moments of crisis and uncertainty causes personal suffering, but they also provoke us to rethink everything essential; in effect, to create ourselves anew. In this book, Pastor Rob Bell delves into the complex twine of suffering and creativity.

From the Publisher

We plot. We plan. We assume things are going to go a certain way. And when they don’t, we find ourselves in a new place—a place we haven’t been before, a place we never would have imagined on our own.

It is the difficult and the unexpected, and maybe even the tragic, that opens us up and frees us to see things in new ways.

Many of the most significant moments in our lives come not because it all went right but because it all fell apart.

Suffering does that. It hurts, but it also creates.

This book is an exploration of the complex relationship between suffering and creativity, driven by the belief that there is art in the agony.

Publishers Weekly

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.)

Product Details

• Read a Sample Chapter

Read a Sample Chapter

DROPS LIKE STARS

Zondervan

Chapter One

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...)

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Excerpted fromDROPS LIKE STARS by Rob Bell Copyright © 2009 by Rob Bell. Excerpted by permission.
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