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A review by nrt43
Everything Is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We're Doing Here by Rob Bell
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.