Suffering

To (kind of) go along with Rob Bell's talk on suffering and how it's sometimes required to imagine a new future, check out this video.

If life was to hand you lemons today, what would be your lemonade?

Drops Like Stars - The Recap

Last night I had the opportunity to travel down to Toronto and catch Rob Bell on his Drops Like Stars tour. Here's a quick recap of some of the hilites.

• The problem with "Out Of The Box" is that "The Box" is still our primary point of reference.
• Suffering forces us to imagine a new future, because the one we were planning is gone.
• If we aren't careful, our success and security and abundance can lead to a certain sort of boredom; a numbing predictability, a paralyzing indifference that comes from being too comfortable.
• Sometimes there is a truth just below the surface that is, in fact, the real issue. And to get it out in the open, we have to suffer. Pain has a way of making us honest.
• Great artists put into words what so many of us are thinking, feeling and wondering. They affirm that we aren't the only ones having this experience.
• It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, black or white, young or old - if you have the same disease as someone else, or if you both have a daughter with an eating disorder, or you were both recently fired... You have a bond that transcends whatever differences you have. That is what suffering does. It is the art of solidarity.
• The first Christians insisted that when Jesus died on the cross, this wasn't another execution by the Roman Empire, This was God in flesh and blood. Bloody, thirsty, suffering, A God who was not somewhere else, distant, aloof, detached - but a God who was among us, feeling what we feel, aching how we ache, suffering like us. The cross was God's way of saying "I know how you feel."
• 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.
• There is greatness within you. Courage. Desire. Integrity. Compassion. It's in there somewhere and sometimes we need to suffer to get at it.
• It isn't just a failure, a mistake, a sin, a wrong. It's also an opportunity to grow, expand, evolve, and learn. It's the art of failure.

He went for almost 2 hours without any notes, holding the crowd's attention for the entire time. It was Rob's first time speaking in Toronto, hopefully not his last.

Hopeful Suffering

I had the chance to speak with Rob Bell today, a guy I've looked up to and respected for a while. A couple years ago Crystal and I made the trip from Barrie to Grand Rapids, Michigan to pay Rob a visit in his natural habitat. After the service I waited patiently as Rob was mobbed by a seemingly endless line of people in attendance that day, and when my turn came up, let's just say it wasn't a good first impression. Dude gave me the Nashville handshake (shake hands while looking elsewhere) and didn't look at the camera when I asked for a picture. To be totally honest, when I see that picture it hurts.

Maybe he's just uncomfortable with the celebrity status he has achieved? At least that's how I reasoned it in my head.

Anyway, my second encounter with Rob (over the phone today) was much more positive. In fact, I'm trying to get the night off work to go see Rob next Wednesday. Maybe even suck up my pride and try for a face-to-face encounter again. We'll see.

If you want to check it out, get your tickets HERE. And you can listen to my conversation with Rob HERE.

Mystery Box

I believe we as Christians do a poor job of communicating the story of Jesus. It is the GREATEST STORY EVER. Why don't we do a better job of telling the story? Is it because we read the Bible verse by verse and ignore the bigger story? Perhaps.

I think JJ Abrams does a great job of telling story. Why? He credits the "mystery box."