Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering

by Rob Bell, Don Golden

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062197283
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/24/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

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.

Hometown:

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Date of Birth:

August 23, 1970

Place of Birth:

Lansing, Michigan

Education:

B.S., Wheaton College, 1992; M. Div., Fuller Seminary, 1995

Read an Excerpt

DROPS LIKE STARS

A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering

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By Rob Bell

Zondervan

Copyright © 2009 Rob Bell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-27503-9

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Chapter One

STUNNING, ISN'T IT?

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.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Bell is at the forefront of a rethinking of Christianity in America.” — Time magazine

“One of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors.” — New York Times

“Drops Like Stars is an exciting new direction for the prolific pastor.” — Relevant Magazine

“Rob Bell is one of the hottest names in contemporary evangelical life.” — Boston Globe

“One of the nation’s rock-star-popular young pastors.” — USA Today

“Bell weaves inspiring stories of people who turned their suffering into something transformative, and many of these stories are memorable.” — Publishers Weekly

“In this spunky little book filled with photographs… Bell looks at the suffering, pain, and loss that often knock the wind out of us and threaten to destroy our hope for the future.” — Spirituality and Practice

From the Publisher

Drops Like Stars is an exciting new direction for the prolific pastor.

Relevant Magazine

In this spunky little book filled with photographs… Bell looks at the suffering, pain, and loss that often knock the wind out of us and threaten to destroy our hope for the future.

Spirituality and Practice

Bell is at the forefront of a rethinking of Christianity in America.

Time magazine

Rob Bell is one of the hottest names in contemporary evangelical life.

Boston Globe

One of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors.

New York Times

One of the nation’s rock-star-popular young pastors.

USA Today

One of the nation’s rock-star-popular young pastors.

USA Today

"Bell is at the forefront of a rethinking of Christianity in America."

Time Magazine

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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Publishers Weekly