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    Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
    Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
    Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
    Ebook80 pages52 minutes

    Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering

    By Rob Bell and Don Golden

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In Drops Like Stars, the New York Times bestselling author of Love Wins explores the complex relationship between suffering and creativity. Rob Bell (“One of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors” —New York Times) suggests that art can be found in the agony of our lives.  Fans of the thought-provoking works of Donald Miller, N.T. Wright, Brian McLaren, and Timothy Keller will find true enlightenment in this thoughtful and engaging book from this vibrant, progressive voice for a new generation of Christians, the prolific pastor whom Time Magazine named one of the most influential people of 2011.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 24, 2012
    ISBN9780062197306
    Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
    Author

    Rob Bell

    Rob Bell is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and spiritual teacher. His books include Love Wins, How to Be Here, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, Velvet Elvis, The Zimzum of Love, Sex God, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and Drops Like Stars. He hosts the weekly podcast The Robcast, which was named by iTunes as one of the best of 2015. He was profiled in The New Yorker and in TIME Magazine as one of 2011’s hundred most influential people. He and his wife, Kristen, have three children and live in Los Angeles.

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    Reviews for Drops Like Stars

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      The topic of this book is how suffering can enhance creativity. Not that the author puts it so directly. Instead he looks at scenarios of joy and grief, of life and death, both from Scripture and from contemporary times. He demonstrates how God can use our suffering to create something of beauty.

      Rob Bell also talks about art in its many forms and shows how it is often able to speak more clearly to its audience when the composer has suffered and struggled, both in the production of the work and perhaps in his or her personal life.

      It could have been trite or formulaic, but somehow this book is inspiring and encouraging. There are drawings and photos, and an epilogue which explain where the title of the book came from.

      It’s a quick read; only about 130 pages, and with the author’s usual style of spaced out paragraphs and large margins, it could have been contained in half that number. I wouldn't have been too happy if I’d paid full price for it; instead I found it second-hand. However, I liked it overall; it was quite thought-provoking, and would recommend it, but borrow rather than buying.
    • 5/5
      Here's a short little booklet you can read over your lunch hour. Rob Bell, the controversial emergent mega-church pastor and best-selling author of Love Wins, tackles the subject of grief. Bell is a minister, but doesn't turn this into a book about God. It's not tough love and it's not sappy sentiment. Just words to think about and draw inspiration from.If you're thinking about buying this as a gift book, I wouldn't say that it's appropriate for the deep-in-grief stage, but rather the help-me-stand-up-again stage. As Bell says, he's less concerned about the "why this?" than the "what now?"Never heard Bell preach, but I'm sure beginning to like him as a person. I guess that's the important thing for a good spiritual adviser.
    • 4/5
      This is a nice short (but large) book. Although I love the idea of books which engage graphic artists (Jesus for President is still the best example I’ve seen of this), I’m not sure Drop’s format fit here. It’s size conveys the sense of indulgent, which is not the right feeling when you’re supposed to walk through the meaning of suffering.Even so, the book’s content is solid—Bell doing what he does best. His comparison of the sculptor removing everything to get to the core to what is happening when suffering strips away the non-essentials in life is a very helpful image.

    Book preview

    Drops Like Stars - Rob Bell

    Drops Like Stars

    A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering

    ROB BELL

    Contents

    Cover

    Title Page

    Chapter 1 - The Art of Disruption

    Chapter 2 - The Art of Honesty

    Chapter 3 - The Art of the Ache

    Chapter 4 - The Art of Solidarity

    Chapter 5 - The Art of Elimination

    Chapter 6 - The Art of Failure

    Acknowledgments

    About the Author

    Excerpt from What Is The Bible?

    Endnotes

    Explore Your Faith with Rob Bell

    Credits

    Books by Rob Bell

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    CHAPTER 1

    The Art of Disruption

    I know a man who has two sons.

    Both of his sons are married, and both their wives became pregnant in the same year. Out of the two pregnancies,

    one ended in a miscarriage,

    the other in a healthy baby boy.

    And so twice in that year this man I know went to the same hospital, walked down the same hallways with his same family members—the first time to grieve and mourn, the second time to rejoice and celebrate.

    We live in the hallways, don’t we?

    In the hallways.

    We’ve left one room and gone to the other. We’ve sat outside, waiting. We’ve felt that kind of pain and been overwhelmed by that kind of joy.

    We’ve all been in the hallways in one way or another, haven’t we?

    Maybe not in the same family,

    in the same hospital,

    in the same hallways,

    but this man with two sons—

    we know his story,

    because his story is our story.

    Jesus told a story about a man who had two sons. The story begins with the younger son asking for his share of the inheritance, which in first-century Jewish culture was a deeply offensive request, the equivalent of saying,

    Dad, I wish you were dead.

    What an odd way to begin a story.

    What’s even more unusual is that the father grants his request. The son leaves with the money and eventually spends it all. In his humiliation and poverty, the son decides to head home, where he hopes to get work as one of his father’s servants.

    But when he arrives home, he isn’t shunned or punished or treated as a servant. His father rushes out to welcome and embrace him and then throws a party for him. Normally, on an occasion like this, a lamb would be sacrificed for the meal, which would be enough for a family.

    But the father in this story has a calf prepared, which would be enough for the whole village.

    Apparently, the consequences of the son’s departure were so destructive that he needed to be reconciled to the whole community.

    This celebration infuriates the older brother. He refuses to join the party and instead argues the injustice of it all to their father, who responds,

    My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.

    The older brother then has a moment of profound enlightenment. He puts his arm around his father and says, You’re right, Dad. I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass. Can I get you a beer?

    Uh . . . actually, that’s not how the story ends. The story ends with the father’s words about how everything he has belongs to his son and how they have to celebrate because

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