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.

The Box Reference.

To be brutally honest. I have had those days. Where i get up and say: "i don't really want to do anything today." i think we're all afraid to say that. we are afraid and too ashamed to admit that we have those days. Where our heart says "I don't want to do what i know i am supposed to do today." Days where we just don't feel like doing anything. And we're not honest enough to tell anyone. Well. that's my selfish self. and the devil got me to do that for a year and a half. And i will warn you now. You will feel as empty as ever if you let that feeling keep on going. If you do the things that just YOU want to do, you will end up feeling horrible and empty and self-centered and alone. Like i did. For nearly a year. I LET MYSELF slide into it. It was slow. It was selfish. And now i realize what i have to do. That's why it's so important to wake up every day and sit and talk to God until you feel like you have died to yourself. Tell yourself that whoever you are going to serve today is more important than anything you could ever want. Whether you FEEL like you want to serve that person or not. Pray until God gives you the feeling of invigorating love.
In Drops Like Stars, Rob Bell explains how some people aren't just "out of the box" thinkers. There are some thinkers who don't have a box at all. He says that sometimes those people we call "out of the box" really are just a different version of the people who are in the box. But the people who are really really passionate
are those who have been forced
or have decided themselves
to have no box at all.
In Rob's words
all their boxes have all been smashed.
Or they have asked God to smash them.
I think that's when we get bold.
When we ask God to smash all of our unsmashed boxes.
That's dangerous.
When we wake up in the morning and say
God i don't really want to do this
and i am being selfish.
i realize that.
please humble me
please smash all of my boxes and give me a passion to think without a reference to the box at all.
Make me brave enough to follow what you have boldly asked me to do.
Take fear away from me. Give me the strength to stand when all of my frames of reference have been smashed and confused.
And make me joyful when all my frames of reference were smashed.
When you just don't feel like feeling anything
that is a sign to go do something.
Go serve.
I need to find a place to go serve.
People.
Because when we seclude ourselves from people.
We get selfish.
It probably is possible to live alone all of your life.
But have you also observed that the people who live alone
end up being quite self-centered.
It hurts us when we decide to not go take care of other people.
someone other than ourselves.
SO yes.
I am human.
I wake up and sometimes think i don't want to do this today, God. I am scared. I am tired. I am whatever excuse i want to make up to not do this today.
Our sinful nature and our selfishness will make up all kinds of excuses to get us to not do what God wanted us to do. SATAN ONLY COMES TO STEAL KILL AND DESTROY.
DO YOU REALIZE THAT?
BY BEING ALONE, BY NOT SERVING, BY NOT FORCING OURSELVES TO DIE TO OURSELVES.
WE ARE FORFEITING OUR INHERITANCE AND GIVING IT TO SOMEONE ELSE.
ESAU SOLD HIS INHERITANCE- HIS BLESSING FROM HIS FATHER
TO HIS YOUNGER BROTHER
FOR A MEAL.
FOR a meal.
He had come in from the fields and he was tired.
extremely extremely hungry.
goodness he was tired.
and hungry.
So he told Esau that he wanted some of the soup Esau was making in the kitchen.
And for a bowl of soup, he sold his inheritance.
Because he was tired.
So that's why endurance is so important.
Endure. Get past that feeling of "I don't want to. i don't feel like it."
God's son died for you.
So that God would forgive our past sins.
And we would not keep on sinning.
And we would care for those who really
really
have something to whine about and be tired about.
So we can tell others who are stuck in the box
who are tired of trying on their own to be those "out of the box thinkers"
that they don't have to have a box at all.
That is freeing.
When you realize that you don't even have to keep on fighting the status quo.
God loves me.
Because God still loves you no matter what.
And therefore no status quo is necessary.
So We wake up.
Sit and read and pray and do whatever you need to do.
Have patience to wait and pray until all of that selfishness and unholy discontent is gone.
Die to yourself and serve someone else.
I don't think we realize that our inheritance is at stake.
God has a purpose for you.
If you don't know what it is. Sit and listen and read UNTIL HE HAS TOLD YOU EXACTLY WHAT IT IS.
The seen is temporary but the unseen is eternal.
We forget that.
We look to what we CAN see in our future,
saying "goodness i am not sure if i like that very much." or "okay tomorrow i have soccer practice and that one dinner with those people that i talk to all the time, then i'll do some work around the house then read a bit and go to bed and the day after that i'll start all over with a bit of variation just to make myself feel better."
and we don't realize that what we are missing
IS SOMETHING WE CAN'T EVEN SEE or HAVEN'T EVEN IMAGINED YET.
God has something planned for you that you haven't even imagined.
So sit down and talk to him. And listen. until He has told you what that is.
Or serve people and pray while you do so that he tells you what that is.
And that He gives you the strength to carry it out.
Sometimes it takes all of our boxes getting smashed to imagine that life could be any different than we have already planned it to be.

Look at how God planned the concept of time.
Time keeps us in our box a bit.
But God has a design and a plan for you that reaches beyond the stretches of time.
It is bigger than you could imagine.
Things are happening around you that you can't even see.

Don't try to fit GOD into YOUR logic.
Cause it's not going to work.
If you try and fit god into your mind
into your way of thinking.
i'll let you know now.
you'll fail.
i've done it before.
I've tried to over think things.
I'm actually quite good at it (and that's a bad thing).
I've thought about tomorrow way too often, and, likewise, i forfeit my inheritance, not realizing that any minute God could completely make everything do a 180 and put the cards into my hand.
What you can't see
is way more important than what you can see. Cause God is alot bigger than anything we could ever imagine.
He doesn't fit into our boxes.
He created us to live right next to him.
That's why we so easily get tired of referring to being "inside of the box" or "outside of the box"
It's tiring isn't it?
Because we were made to live beside god.
with no reference to a box at all.

Be who God created you to be.
If you don't know who that is,
ask God to show you and tell you.
Do what He purely created you to enjoy doing.
Do the things he tells you to.
Once we submit, we realize that we actually enjoy obeying more than we thought we would
cause God has our best interests in mind.
We can't out-think him and we can't fit Him into our frame of reference.
Cause He IS our frame of reference.
Love and be loved and die to yourself.

God, This is a bold statement.
Please give me the strength and will to live it.
Amen.

The Rich and the Poor and Love.

I am guilty of this as well. I am not perfect. Nor do i use my posessions as wisely as i could. I still have clothes sitting in my closet ready to go to the Wheeler Mission drop box and i have not taken them yet. They are corroding from unuse in my closet and i need to and will get rid of them soon. Have a read. Don't be afraid to let the Spirit or your heart convict you. We are all rich in love and many of us are rich in money and don't even realize it, because we are surrounded by people who look 'richer' than ourselves. This is false. We are rich. With that, we have responsibility. To be humble and to use our money well and in a way that honors God. Everything in life ties together. Your finances affect your heart. Don't listen to the lie that how you spend your money has no relevance to how much you love and submit to God. If God doesn't have a hold of your checkbook, you're holding out on Him, and He's waiting for you to submit it all to Him (not just what you're comfortable with). Money is a man made thing, but God controls the universe, and God has power to do whatever he likes with your money (whether you 'give' it to him or not). So let's just make it easier and let our hearts heal by giving up the financial fight with God and letting Him control our accounts. He has all the abundance in the world and He knows it. But He still wants us to acknowledge in our hearts that he is in control. Have a read.

James 5

"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion [a sign that the wealth was not put to good use and just sat their] will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self0indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you."

The rich don't need money. The rich need love. The rich should give their money to the poor, and the poor should share their love with the rich. The thing is, though: the poor do not have money but they also have in most cases found that they don't absolutely need it either. Love is found to be sufficient and life-sustaining.God is sustaining despite how much money we do or don't have. But we are all commanded to give to the poor.

You see, i think we've got this all wrong. Money that sits and corrodes is corrupted and it will corrupt your life. Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is. It's when we start replacing love with money that things get stick. So. Don't love your money. Love people. And God will tell you what to do with your money.