Rob Bell just gets better and better. Try his latest book out and you'll see the Light, expounded in simple and clear language that can communicate to layman and priest-pastor-Pope in a manner bereft of complicated theological speculations, hardened doctrinal coercion or intolerant dogmatic assertions.
Reading 'How to be Here', I was reminded of how in 2011, the Evangelical Fundamentalist preacher-teacher John Piper wrote off Rob Bell with his famous "Farewell, Rob Bell" tweet when Bell's promo video for his book 'Love Wins' went viral.
Piper was only demonstrating the standard position of hatred towards those who do not toe the fundamentalist, right wing line espoused by most Evangelicals and, instead, seek to discover more deeply the Lord of Love who animates the universe.
Piper was just asserting, like most fundamentalists do, that 'love does not win, hatred does' and the most powerful demonstration to date of that kind of faith has been the political victories in India and the USA of bigoted hate-mongers like Narendra Modi and Donald Trump, respectively. People like Piper are directly responsible, as much as insane terror groups like the IS and the RSS and the swamis and mullahs behind them, for the rise of such demonic forces in society.
But Rob Bell's book tells us how to be creative and fruitful and become whole in precisely the kind of context generated by the hate-mongers. He goes back non-intrusively to the 'beginning' in the book of Genesis, to the notion of ex nihilo, of how something emerges from nothing and how everyone of us has emerged from this 'nothing' so that we can become someone or something unique and be partners in creating and enlarging the scope of LIFE and its wonders on earth.
In other words, creation was accomplished ex nihilo and continues and is as yet unfinished and we all have unique roles to play in the ongoing 'play' as partners with G-d.
As usual, Rob Bell's book (and I have read most of his books, the first one that grabbed me was Velvet Elvis) is superbly designed. Each chapter begins with an excellent, well considered quote. And then a single, focused idea is enunciated and chapter flows into chapter unraveling the process of being and becoming.
To begin with, Bell says every one of us is confronted by 'the blinking line' where the cursor waits for us to dare bring forth something that needs to be brought into existence. The blinking line asks us: What are you here for? Will you dare create something out of nothing? What will your work on or out because 'all work is creative work because all work is participating in the ongoing creation of the world".
What about suffering? Death? Disease? Disaster? These too are blinking lines from which you can bring forth something of worth, of value. Breath itself is a gift every moment and so long as you live you can use your breath to affirm that it's still worth it. Suffering and loss can alert and awaken us to the gift that life is, he notes.
Boredom. Cynicism. Despair. Beware of these. They can get in the way when the blinking line asks: Who are you to do what you propose to do? That's a brutal but enlightening question, Bell affirms. To do what you dare take a risk to do, you need to 'get out of your head' wherein lie excuses, fears, comparisons, memories of past failures and humiliations and so on. And you have to shed your fear of what 'they' might think or do. Bell cites the example of Peter asking Jesus about John - "And what about him?" Jesus responds: "What is that to you?"
Everybody starts again and again with the blinking line or the blank page that asks: Who are you to do this? Can you counter it with "Who am I not to do this?" Bell then introduces us to the Japanese concept of 'ikigai', your reason and purpose for being. Your ikigai is a work in progress involving all the networks of being and becoming that you are involved in.
Your ikigai empowers you to try all sorts of things, whether they fail or succeed, whether they bring you fame and money or nobody takes note of you. Are you angry about something and want to do something about it? It's your ikigai egging you on. Some things you do for yourself and that's fine and other things you do help others.
How do you get to be 'here'? How do you trust your ikigai which also changes over time? You do it step by step. More often than not, you do not know what step 5 or 10 might be and yet you got to take step 1. Do it and the other steps will follow.
This book is not just for those who want to spiritually 'be here now'. It's also for those who embrace creativity. Here one must distinguish between 'success' and 'craft'. Success can suddenly turn sour. Craft leads to love for what you are doing. Beware of 'new fuel', it might run out and then what will you do? Find the craft in all you do.
Rob Bell does not mention it, but he is treading very close to the Indian concept of 'sadhana'. To quote the foxy Sadhguru, sadhana is "about using every aspect of life – both internal and external – so that it is a continuous nurturing for your life." Of course, a fundamentalist like John Piper would have never come across terms like ikigai or sadhana even, being ever a frog in his 'gospel pond'.
Bell has some cautionary tales too that warn us not to be 'overthinking', to learn how to 'suspend judgement', to be glad that you have butterflies in your stomach (nerves) for they tell you that you are alive, to accept that more often than not we do not know what we have on our hands.
In the end, being a creative person, one who lives in the here and now, entails RISK. There's the risk of trying something new and the risk of not trying it. Which path is less risky, he asks koan-like. Risk leads to diving deep and also embracing failure. "Failure is over-rated." It is yet another opportunity to learn. Surrender to what you seek to do. Surrender the outcomes. Reject rejection. The joy is in the work.
Does this sound like pop psychology to you? Perhaps. And yet, having followed Rob Bell a long whiles, it becomes increasingly clear to me that he is becoming a master of simplicity and clarity. He is no longer a religious. He is no longer a preacher-teacher. He is not a guru. He is just a seeker of the Light and the Truth, coming from the depths of wisdom demonstrated in aspects of the Bible, th life of Jesus and the Wisdom Books. "Seek and keep on seeking and you will find and keep on finding," urged Jesus. Bell has the gift to communicate both what he is seeking and what he is finding.
And what more does he tell us about? Rhythm. Sabbath or rest. The power that in the details. The power of the Now. Presence. Seeing.
'How to be Here' is ultimately the layman's guide to the numinous Presence and to becoming both a Seer and Doer. Buy a copy right now and read it at least twice. Shalom.