Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
Rob Bell
Zondervan, 2010
• 144 pp., $19.99 Paperback
• 150 pp., $34.99 Hardcover
• 2:07:30, $19.99 Tour Film
The tour film of Drops Like Stars is a two-hour exploration of a book that you can read in 15 minutes. Neither invalidates the other, for each is rich with familiar stories involving pain and disruption to the everyday lives we have planned. Rushing through the book feels like visiting a sick friend in the hospital for 30 seconds, yet the tour video certainly feels more like a rehearsed song intended to be a spontaneous jam.
Rob Bell offers his typical schtick of making fun of our own Christian subculture, and in many ways we need him to do so. He again proves to be a reference point remover, deconstructing stereotypical Christian bumper-sticker ideologies and skeptic defenses all in one telling of a story. That is something this endeavor is full of: real and fictional stories with which we all nod our heads in recognition. His main point seems to be that pain has a way of making us honest and creative in ways that enable us to let God do something constructive.
There’s not a lot of Bible study here, but more of sharing to connect with universal truths that link to theological ideas. A few naughty comments and words are masked in clever jabs, yet it could be useful for a leadership to watch together to better empathize with the pain of others.
