Getting to Yes, And

Rob Bell: Everything is Spiritual

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Rob Bell

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Kelly breaks digital bread with bestselling author Rob Bell to talk about his new book "Everything is Spiritual: Who We Are and What We're Doing Here."

This book explores a kind of reframing of your own history as a way to embrace all of it, even the tough stuff.

“Often when we explore where we come from, it's easy to get stuck in a sort of nostalgia. It's easy to get stuck in the past, as opposed to seeing your past and all the people you come from and the places you come from and all the weirdness and oddness, instead of seeing it all as a marvel, as a wonder. I just have met so many people over the years who are almost hobbled, or they're almost inhibited by all of the things from their past, they don't quite know what to do with it. But you can also read it in a completely different way:  look at all the strange things i've been a part of, look at all the things that fell apart, look at all the things that made no sense. And yet I'm here. That's kind of amazing.”

I don’t know how much you know about improv, but this book is all about improv. You are yelling a giant ‘yes, and’ at the world.

“In college, I went to an improv comedy night at a theater. And there was an, there was a moment in the night when anybody from the crowd could yell, ‘freeze’ and run up and stop the scene and join the action. Yeah. I had no acting background, but  like an out of body experience, I heard myself yelling ‘freeze,’ and I ran down out of the crowd and tap somebody and got them out of the scene and entered. And it was like channeling a bolt of lightning. I realized now something was beginning to form in me of how I did not want to live my life. I had just seen too many people who had dreams of inquiry floating around in their head and heart and they didn't follow it for whatever reason. And years later they're wondering why their life isn't what they wanted it to be. So it was somewhere starting there that something got formed in me, whatever you do, don't live your life wondering ‘what if,’ right? So improv was all in there. It ignited something. I'm so happy that you picked that up. Of course an improv wizard would pick that up in the book.”

I also feel like this book offers a path to actually take advantage of the global pandemic and social justice reckoning.

“Exactly. My wife, Kristen, and I call it apocalyptic hope because the word apocalypse literally means to reveal. So apocalypse is not necessarily a destruction. It's the revealing of what's been true the whole time. Interesting. My boys and I have talked off and on about how the pandemic is like ripping the mask off.”


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