Reviews for Drops Like Stars

The average rating for Drops Like Stars based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-30 00:00:00 Dave Plumber First, I read the book in 25 minutes. The bulk of the pages are filled with photographs or one sentence paragraphs. I didn't feel like the photography added anything to the "experience" of reading the book - but I'm mostly a left-brained thinker with occasional (short-lived) jolts of right-brained creativity, so maybe I didn't appreciate the art like someone else would. Basically, if Rob Bell had a blog then the content of this book would only amount to a few posts. Second, the content that IS in the book isn't really that great/helpful/eye-opening/insightful (insert your own adjective for "worth the money to buy, and/or worth the time to read"). He says things that are really pretty obvious: everyone suffers, suffering can unleash the best of what's inside us, we can become bitter or better, and so on. It's not that I didn't like what he had to say, I did like it. The book was just different than I thought it would be (or hoped it would be). But maybe that's part of Bell's brilliance (?). Third, there are a few witty lines along the way. I especially liked his assessment of the white kid from suburbia driving his mom's SUV with the power windows rolled down and the volume of the rap music turned up. Bell asks, "Why is this kid playing this song?" He answers that, if the boy is anything like most of us, his life is so sterile and glossy and numb that he tries to live (or at least feel something) vicariously through the struggles and hurts and challenges articulated in the tone and content of the rap lyrics. Having been in the position of that suburban white kid, I think Bell is pretty much on target. So I guess this book's message can be summarized as this: Everyone suffers - it doesn't mean you're cursed - so acknowledge the pain or guilt or shame or whatever, and paint it in along with everything else on the proverbial canvas of life. And when it's all said and done, that's not a bad message at all.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-04 00:00:00 Steve Hinkle If I had read this book a decade ago, I would have thought it was absolutely brilliant, but I can no longer say that. I liked the concept and the artistic nature of it. I liked a lot of the photography. I especially liked the bit about the experiment in the sculpture class in which students had to focus on either quantity or quality of works produced. That was brilliant. However, one of the primary themes of this book no longer jibes with me. Yes, it is true that pain, suffering, and heartache are almost palpable realities in our human jaunt, and we need to face them honestly, whether we are experiencing them ourselves or standing with others who are walking through them. But pain, suffering, and heartache do not define us. I used to think they do and I wasted highlighters on novelists and essayists who said pithy things to this effect. The reality is, for those who follow Christ, our primary identity lies in our adoption into God's family. Pain is real and must be dealt with, but in the grand scheme, it amounts to little more than a blip compared to the glory of God. The Apostle Paul suffered greatly in his life. Did he talk about these sufferings? Yes, he absolutely did. Did he focus on them? Absolutely not. His focus was on the surpassing greatness of Christ. In fact, he referred to his pain as "light and momentary affliction", choosing rather to focus on the glory of God. It seems this book holds up a flickering candle next to the sun and obsesses about the heat from the candle. I'd rather gaze at the sun.