Drops Like Stars thoughts

Rob Bell, in his book Drops Like Stars (which is so unexplainably beautiful despite the explanation of Christ) says:

"Do you know that feeling in class when somebody raises his hand and says, 'I don't get it,' and you feel so relived that you aren't the only one who isn't getting it?

That's what great artists do.

This is what great people do.

They ask it.

They say it.

They express it.

They put in words what so many others are thinking and feeling

And wondering. They affirm that…

You aren't the only one having this experience.

…

We're drawn to it  [music about suffering such as much rap music today] because so much of the time

WE'RE SURROUNDED

BY BUZZ

AND GLOSS
AND HYPE-

We slide down the surface of things.

And then we hear something born of suffering and advesity and we're moved because it's honest. It's real. It means something.

IT'S THE ART OF THE ACHE.

THE ACHE IS UNIVERSAL.

The ache reminds us that things aren't how they're supposed to be. The ache cuts through all the static,

All of the ways we avoid having to actually feel things.

The ache reassures us that we're not the only ones who feel this way.

…SUFFERING UNITES…

It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor or black or white or right or left or young or old-

If you have the same disease as someone else

Or if you both have a daughter with an eating disorder

Or had a brother in jail or had a spouse die

Or recently were fired…

You have a bond that transcends

Whatever differences you have.

That's what suffering does.

THIS IS THE ART OF SOLIDARITY.

…when Jesus died on the cross, this wasn't just another execution by the Roman Empire.

They believed this was the diving, in the flesh and blood, hanging there on the cross, bloogy, thirsty, suffering.

A god who is not somewhere else- remote,

Detached,

Distant- but among us, feeling what we feel, aching how we ache.

SUFFERING LIKE US."

• From pages 46-67

So we're feeling it. We're daring to ask it.

Maybe the question is 'Why?' but 'what now?' might be more productive.

Why?

Because without suffering, we probably wouldn't run back to God.

That's how we are.

Most of the time, it takes suffering

To get us to be willing to let Him change our lives.

It takes us realizing we can't do it on our own-

WE NEED OTHER PEOPLE AND WE NEED GOD.

And the rest of this book includes the answers to 'What now?' questions.

Suffering isn't easy

But it creates something beautiful in us.

Honesty.

Let's dare to be honest.

You're not the only one thinking 'I don't get it. What do I do?'

We are too.