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breenmachine's review against another edition
3.0
At first the writing felt chaotic and full of run-on thoughts, but I got used to the style. His enthusiasm definitely shows through. I think I would have liked it better if it had chapters or was slightly more organized. His "Zim Zum" book is still my favorite of his.
Some of my highlights:
"There was this massive Christian religious subculture that claimed the president as one of their own, had helped elect and then reelect him, and was relentless and unquestioning in their support of a profoundly unjust war that was going to cause untold suffering for generations. These people claimed they took the Bible seriously, but they had fallen for that ancient seduction we’ve seen again and again. Empire. They were deeply enmeshed, actively propping up the very thing Jesus came to set people free from. In the Bible, that’s not the way of Christ. That’s called anti-Christ."
"I saw how Jesus answered almost every question he’s asked with a question ... What do you think? How do you read it? How do you interpret it? What do you say about it? This is the opposite of brainwashing. This is the opposite of Just believe and don’t ask questions. He keeps inviting people to think critically, to examine, question, doubt, test, struggle. To own it for themselves. I came across this line in the New Testament: Test everything. I love that line. It’s so simple, and yet there’s so much energy in it. The word test there in the original Greek could also be translated to welcome. It’s this idea of welcoming the good wherever you find it, embracing it and celebrating it. It spoke to me of a certain intellectual rigor at the heart of life—you never just accept something because someone told you or someone said it’s true. You test it, you poke, you prod, you see what it does in the world. How it shapes you. What it leads to."
"Endings are often bad. Painful. Awkward. Ugly. Endings can also be good. Have you ever stayed too long somewhere— A job? A relationship? A place? When we stay too long, what could have been a graduation can easily become a divorce. There was a window when it was time to leave, but we stayed, usually because it was comfortable, or familiar, or easy, or there was a guaranteed paycheck, or we were scared of what people would say if we left. And if we stay past that window, often things sour. They turn in on themselves. It gets toxic. We lose our joy. Not all endings are bad. Some are good. And necessary. Nothing is wrong, and yet it’s time to go. For exactly that reason. Because it’s good. This can be a foreign idea if your endings have only ever been bad. Sometimes you have to leave because it’s good."
"And apparently this was all part of it. It was such a gift, to be stripped and humbled like that. Who am I? We know the answer to that question: Who’s asking? That’s what was happening to me. I’d lost so many of the identities I had forged over the years, which was moving me closer and closer to the me behind the me behind the me. To the me who literally didn’t know what to say when people asked me what I did. When so much gets left behind, you discover that you’re fine. You’ve got a little fear, like a fly buzzing around your head, but you’re fine. You’re also free. What a gift."
"Have you ever heard someone talking about the meaning of life and they say, All that matters are relationships? Well, yes. It’s even better than that. Matter is relationships. So when particles bond with particles, and atoms bond with atoms, and molecules bond with molecules, we see something of ourselves there in the earlier stages of the universe. We crave coming together and connecting with others because this is what the entire universe has been doing for billions and billions and billions of years. Connection is an engine of creation."
"The same form that can be liberating and challenging and new and exciting can become over time limiting and stifling and conflicting. A form helps, until it doesn’t. It liberates, until it confines. The problem may not be the form, the problem may be looking to the form to continue to give you what it could only give you for that stage. That chapter. That time. That period of your life."
"This is why when people argue for the existence of God you sometimes get this feeling that they’re actually denying God in the process. Exactly. To try to prove the existence of God is to place God in the same old forms as everything else when God is the name for Being Itself. God is not detached from the world, up there, or above, or somewhere else, that would make God a form like everything else. Poetry does such a better job of naming the divine— you get glimpses, snapshots, presence, lightning bolts, hints, signs of where it’s headed. Because if you freeze it, you’ve just lost its primary essence. When we talk about God, we’re not talking about that which does or does not exist, we’re talking about what the nature of this is. This world, this phenomenon we know to be life, this event we find ourselves in. We’re not trying to prove anything, we’re naming this. God is not a question about what may or may not be up there or above or out there— God is what we’re unquestionably in. And no one is arguing about that. We all agree on this being that we are all experiencing. A verb more than a noun, a direction as much as a beginning."
Some of my highlights:
"There was this massive Christian religious subculture that claimed the president as one of their own, had helped elect and then reelect him, and was relentless and unquestioning in their support of a profoundly unjust war that was going to cause untold suffering for generations. These people claimed they took the Bible seriously, but they had fallen for that ancient seduction we’ve seen again and again. Empire. They were deeply enmeshed, actively propping up the very thing Jesus came to set people free from. In the Bible, that’s not the way of Christ. That’s called anti-Christ."
"I saw how Jesus answered almost every question he’s asked with a question ... What do you think? How do you read it? How do you interpret it? What do you say about it? This is the opposite of brainwashing. This is the opposite of Just believe and don’t ask questions. He keeps inviting people to think critically, to examine, question, doubt, test, struggle. To own it for themselves. I came across this line in the New Testament: Test everything. I love that line. It’s so simple, and yet there’s so much energy in it. The word test there in the original Greek could also be translated to welcome. It’s this idea of welcoming the good wherever you find it, embracing it and celebrating it. It spoke to me of a certain intellectual rigor at the heart of life—you never just accept something because someone told you or someone said it’s true. You test it, you poke, you prod, you see what it does in the world. How it shapes you. What it leads to."
"Endings are often bad. Painful. Awkward. Ugly. Endings can also be good. Have you ever stayed too long somewhere— A job? A relationship? A place? When we stay too long, what could have been a graduation can easily become a divorce. There was a window when it was time to leave, but we stayed, usually because it was comfortable, or familiar, or easy, or there was a guaranteed paycheck, or we were scared of what people would say if we left. And if we stay past that window, often things sour. They turn in on themselves. It gets toxic. We lose our joy. Not all endings are bad. Some are good. And necessary. Nothing is wrong, and yet it’s time to go. For exactly that reason. Because it’s good. This can be a foreign idea if your endings have only ever been bad. Sometimes you have to leave because it’s good."
"And apparently this was all part of it. It was such a gift, to be stripped and humbled like that. Who am I? We know the answer to that question: Who’s asking? That’s what was happening to me. I’d lost so many of the identities I had forged over the years, which was moving me closer and closer to the me behind the me behind the me. To the me who literally didn’t know what to say when people asked me what I did. When so much gets left behind, you discover that you’re fine. You’ve got a little fear, like a fly buzzing around your head, but you’re fine. You’re also free. What a gift."
"Have you ever heard someone talking about the meaning of life and they say, All that matters are relationships? Well, yes. It’s even better than that. Matter is relationships. So when particles bond with particles, and atoms bond with atoms, and molecules bond with molecules, we see something of ourselves there in the earlier stages of the universe. We crave coming together and connecting with others because this is what the entire universe has been doing for billions and billions and billions of years. Connection is an engine of creation."
"The same form that can be liberating and challenging and new and exciting can become over time limiting and stifling and conflicting. A form helps, until it doesn’t. It liberates, until it confines. The problem may not be the form, the problem may be looking to the form to continue to give you what it could only give you for that stage. That chapter. That time. That period of your life."
"This is why when people argue for the existence of God you sometimes get this feeling that they’re actually denying God in the process. Exactly. To try to prove the existence of God is to place God in the same old forms as everything else when God is the name for Being Itself. God is not detached from the world, up there, or above, or somewhere else, that would make God a form like everything else. Poetry does such a better job of naming the divine— you get glimpses, snapshots, presence, lightning bolts, hints, signs of where it’s headed. Because if you freeze it, you’ve just lost its primary essence. When we talk about God, we’re not talking about that which does or does not exist, we’re talking about what the nature of this is. This world, this phenomenon we know to be life, this event we find ourselves in. We’re not trying to prove anything, we’re naming this. God is not a question about what may or may not be up there or above or out there— God is what we’re unquestionably in. And no one is arguing about that. We all agree on this being that we are all experiencing. A verb more than a noun, a direction as much as a beginning."
nrt43's review against another edition
4.0
About 20% through the book, I texted a friend, "I'm going to say it. I love Rob Bell." This is my 4th or 5th Rob Bell book, and it might be my favorite. The book is not earth-shattering, but it's absolutely delightful. Rob draws us ever deeper into the Spirit that creates, that convicts, that leads us further up and further in.
At one point, Bell says he would like to describe himself (on a panel) by saying, "Hi, I'm Rob Bell. I love helping people re-discover the wonder and awe of their lives because that's the starting point. That's where we begin. That's what we all want." And that's a decent summary describing the essence of this book - helping us rediscover wonder and awe - it's re-enchantment! Which is exactly what I wanted.
Here were my favorite quotes:
"Curiosity is underrated. In many ways it's the engine of life. You get these questions and they don't go away, and so you follow them. You set out to answer them and you get answers. And then those answers of course lead to new questions. And on and on it goes. There's a humility baked into curiosity. You don't know. That's your starting point. You're coming from a place of openness driven by a conviction that there's something more, something beyond you, something else out there. Curiosity is an antidote to despair. Despair is the spiritual disease of believing that tomorrow will simply be a repeat of today, nothing new, the future simply an unbroken string of todays, one after the other. But curiosity disrupts despair insisting that tomorrow will not be a repeat of today. Curiosity whispers to you, "You're just getting started." Oh! How I wish we could all foster his curiosity and love for life!
"This Spirit wasn't anything you could get your hands on in any tangible way. And yet it's as real as anything you could hold in your hands. Spirit needs form. That was the giant truth I was feeling my way in to. Spirit needs form and form needs spirit. That was the other truth I was finding my way in to. Both are needed. We need forms, guides, reference points, traditions, lineages, films,... rituals, practices, reminders. They help us access and experience spirit." But when forms lose the spirit, they shackle us.
Apparently the forms discussion stuck with me, and was something he returned to. This quote came about 100 pages after the previous quote. "The same form that can be liberating and challenging and new and exciting can become over time limiting and stifling and conflicting. A form helps until it doesn't. It liberates until it confines. The problem may not be the form. The problem may be looking to the form to continue to give you what it could only give you for that stage, that chapter, that time, that period of your life. Second grade was great when you were in second grade and then you were done with that form."
"When I drive Violet to and from school, we see billboards, hundreds of billboards. They're everywhere in Los Angeles. And most of these billboards are telling me there's something I don't have, and if I did have it, my life would be so much better. They speak to me of lack. I try to block them out. I have to. Because if I gave all those billboards any serious attention, it would drive me to madness. The mind and heart simply can't take that level of bombardment, being advertised to like this. Same with the internet, billions of dollars being spent everyday to keep your eyes and mind locked on the screen for one more click. This is all new. No people anywhere have ever lived with this. In many ways it's like an experiment, and we're getting the results back. And what we're learning is that this modern system can easily drive a person crazy. That word "crazy" - I notice how many people use it regularly.... How did this word get normalized? What is it about the pace of life, about the noise of life, about the insanity of modern life that this is a word people regularly use with a straight face to describe what they're experiencing?" Such an important message here. The modern system is driving us all insane. Here he names the problem. How we engage, and disengage!, from the modern system is an essential question for navigating life and avoiding madness.
As a closing point - Rob Bell checks most of the boxes for being a 7 on the enneagram. In fact, I've heard him self-identify as a 7 on other podcasts. If you're a spiritually minded person and a 7, I would almost guarantee you'll enjoy this book. Get the audiobook! Our public library has it.
At one point, Bell says he would like to describe himself (on a panel) by saying, "Hi, I'm Rob Bell. I love helping people re-discover the wonder and awe of their lives because that's the starting point. That's where we begin. That's what we all want." And that's a decent summary describing the essence of this book - helping us rediscover wonder and awe - it's re-enchantment! Which is exactly what I wanted.
Here were my favorite quotes:
"Curiosity is underrated. In many ways it's the engine of life. You get these questions and they don't go away, and so you follow them. You set out to answer them and you get answers. And then those answers of course lead to new questions. And on and on it goes. There's a humility baked into curiosity. You don't know. That's your starting point. You're coming from a place of openness driven by a conviction that there's something more, something beyond you, something else out there. Curiosity is an antidote to despair. Despair is the spiritual disease of believing that tomorrow will simply be a repeat of today, nothing new, the future simply an unbroken string of todays, one after the other. But curiosity disrupts despair insisting that tomorrow will not be a repeat of today. Curiosity whispers to you, "You're just getting started." Oh! How I wish we could all foster his curiosity and love for life!
"This Spirit wasn't anything you could get your hands on in any tangible way. And yet it's as real as anything you could hold in your hands. Spirit needs form. That was the giant truth I was feeling my way in to. Spirit needs form and form needs spirit. That was the other truth I was finding my way in to. Both are needed. We need forms, guides, reference points, traditions, lineages, films,... rituals, practices, reminders. They help us access and experience spirit." But when forms lose the spirit, they shackle us.
Apparently the forms discussion stuck with me, and was something he returned to. This quote came about 100 pages after the previous quote. "The same form that can be liberating and challenging and new and exciting can become over time limiting and stifling and conflicting. A form helps until it doesn't. It liberates until it confines. The problem may not be the form. The problem may be looking to the form to continue to give you what it could only give you for that stage, that chapter, that time, that period of your life. Second grade was great when you were in second grade and then you were done with that form."
"When I drive Violet to and from school, we see billboards, hundreds of billboards. They're everywhere in Los Angeles. And most of these billboards are telling me there's something I don't have, and if I did have it, my life would be so much better. They speak to me of lack. I try to block them out. I have to. Because if I gave all those billboards any serious attention, it would drive me to madness. The mind and heart simply can't take that level of bombardment, being advertised to like this. Same with the internet, billions of dollars being spent everyday to keep your eyes and mind locked on the screen for one more click. This is all new. No people anywhere have ever lived with this. In many ways it's like an experiment, and we're getting the results back. And what we're learning is that this modern system can easily drive a person crazy. That word "crazy" - I notice how many people use it regularly.... How did this word get normalized? What is it about the pace of life, about the noise of life, about the insanity of modern life that this is a word people regularly use with a straight face to describe what they're experiencing?" Such an important message here. The modern system is driving us all insane. Here he names the problem. How we engage, and disengage!, from the modern system is an essential question for navigating life and avoiding madness.
As a closing point - Rob Bell checks most of the boxes for being a 7 on the enneagram. In fact, I've heard him self-identify as a 7 on other podcasts. If you're a spiritually minded person and a 7, I would almost guarantee you'll enjoy this book. Get the audiobook! Our public library has it.
shellc_'s review against another edition
3.0
3.5 ⭐
This was a slow burn for me, but a couple of chapters in and I really enjoyed aspects of this book.
This was a slow burn for me, but a couple of chapters in and I really enjoyed aspects of this book.
takkuso's review against another edition
3.0
I agree with everything he talks about in his book. The problem was he took forever to get to his point. And maybe that is his point; as he says, "everything is spiritual". He even goes extremely meta towards the end to show - even when talking about anything else, it's spiritual, so it's fine.
I'll try another of his books, because I like his world view. But his writing style may not be for me if this book is his norm.
I'll try another of his books, because I like his world view. But his writing style may not be for me if this book is his norm.
space2read's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
need_to_read's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
reagamh's review against another edition
5.0
This book was a song to my soul that I never want to stop listening to.