Rob Bell, NOOMA, Heroes and Moving On

Rob Bell. A modern-day pastor and speaker that often comes under-fire from some Christians who don't consider him Christian-enough, or something like that.

Whatever.

This guy is amazing, and if you've seen any of his NOOMA videos, you'll likely agree. 

Below is a sample-clip from one of this videos, titled "Today." It really helped me when I first saw it. One of my co-workers thought it would be appropriate to share with the team during our last company retreat; and I'm glad he did. 

First, to see more of this guy's heart, this is part of a Rob Bell-interview I found online, at www.beliefnet.com. The interviewer asked Rob "who are the people, known and unknown, who have impacted you?

"I met a woman a few weeks ago who is part of our church. She's probably in her mid-50s, and she said when she and her husband were first married they were unable to conceive. So she and her husband went to an adoption agency and said 'Give us all of the children that no one else wants. Give us the children with the most severe and psychological emotional trauma. Give us the children with the worst physical challenges, and my husband and I will take them.' So she said that it has been 30, 35 years now and her house has been filled over the years.

At the time I was talking with her, she had a woman with her who was in her early 20s who was in a wheelchair, who was about six months old developmentally and apparently will stay that way. And she said to me, 'This is my daughter, and she can't communicate with me, but she can smile a little bit, and I can't imagine life without her.' She has to take care of this daughter 24/7, and she said, 'I just thought you'd find my story interesting.'

I'm kind of standing there kind of like, this is holy, sacred ground, this woman. This is the counterculture at its finest. This is one of my heroes. So I would say my heroes go from this woman I just met to the British scholar N.T. Wright, who has really taught me a lot. And I have a friend who grew up with me in southern California who decided he was going to do something about AIDS. So this white guy from Long Beach marches into these huge shantytowns in Africa and has become something of a legend in his own time. But has just given his life to alleviating suffering where it is needed most. So I have this whole list of people, some of whom are anonymous. I'm always most inspired by the ones who are anonymous and receive no glory."