Drops Like Stars - The Notes

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.