I just finished reading a delightful book called "Love Does" by Bob Goff. I started reading it after we got on the plane for our flight to Georgia - a girl walked by as she was boarding the plane and said (very enthusiastically and quite loudly) - "THAT IS AN AWESOME BOOK." We talked for a quick minute (as much as one can as other passengers were pressing in and encouraging her to go ahead and move on through to her seat!). Made me smile to connect with this stranger over the book that I had finally decided to read (and makes me smile even more after reading the book).
It was definitely an encouraging, whimsical, insightful and life-giving collection of thoughts, capers & stories. I'm glad I read it (even if it took me quite a while...I read bits and pieces here and there....this sweet book has been across the ocean and all over the state of Georgia).
Here are some of my favorite quotes (mainly because I want to have them all in one place):
Something happens when you feel ownership. You no longer feel like a spectator or
consumer, because you’re an owner. Faith
is at its best when it’s that way too.
It’s best lived when it’s owned.
You don’t need a plan; you just need to be present.
…love is never stationary.
In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning
for it. Simply put: love does.
…he was “with me” in spirit as much as with his
presence. He was committed to me and he
believed in me. I wasn’t a project; I
was his friend.
I used to think I had to act a certain way to follow God,
but now I know God doesn’t want us to be typical.
He (Jesus) spent time with the kinds of people most of us spend our
lives avoiding.
I don’t validate my faith with a church attendance
scorecard. I think of church as a vibrant community of people consisting of 2
or more of varied backgrounds gathering around Jesus. Sometimes they are at a place that might have
a steeple or auditorium seating. But
it’s just as likely that church happens elsewhere, like coffee shops or on the
edge of a glacier or in the bush in Uganda.
…it’s a matter of the heart, the place doesn’t matter…it’s Jesus plus
nothing – not even a building.
What Jesus said we could do is leave typical behind. We could leave all the comparisons and all
the trappings and all the pretending of religion.
…love that never grows tired or is completely finished
finding ways to fully express itself.
Failure is just part of the process, and it’s not just okay;
it’s better than okay. God doesn’t want
failure to shut us down. God didn’t make
it a three-strikes-and-you’re-out sort of thing. It’s more about how God helps us dust
ourselves off so that we can swing for the fences again. And all this without keeping a meticulous
record of our screw-ups.
Things that go wrong can shape us or scar us.
God finds us in our failures and in our successes.
I used to be afraid of failing at the things that really
mattered to me, but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t
matter.
God’s grace comes in all shapes, sizes and circumstances as
God continues to unfold something magnificent in me.
When you go after something you love, you’ll do anything it
takes to get it, even if it costs everything.
I think God sometimes use the completely inexplicable events
in our lives to point us toward Him. We
get to decide each time whether we will lean in toward what is unfolding and
say yes or back away.
Am I the right guy? I
don’t know, but I’m the guy being asked….
Maybe God is doing some inexplicable things in your
life. Each of us gets to decide every
time whether to lean in or step back – to say yes, ignore it or tell God why he
has the wrong person.
I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to
actually live a life of complete engagement, a life or whimsy, a life where
love does.
It’s the invitation to actually live, to fully participate
in this amazing life for one more day.
Decide to be fully engaged.
If people don’t want to come to the banquet, he’s not bitter
or anything. He loves them all the same,
but he’s not going to force them.
A couple of other things happen when we accept Jesus’
invitation to participate with Him in life.
Obstacles that seems insurmountable aren’t. Impediments that we believe disqualify us
don’t.
Accept the invitation to participate.
…think about how incredible a big life really is and how
powerful the One who is throwing the banquet is too.
He asks if we’ll give up that thing we’re so proud of, that
thing we believe causes us to matter in the eyes of the world and give it up to
follow Him. He’s asking us “will you
take what you think defines you, leave it behind, and let Me define who you are
instead?”
When we get our security from Christ, we no longer have to
look for it in the world, and that’s a pretty good trade.
Power is easy to spot because it usually comes in the form
of grace and acceptance, as well as sincere love and respect.
…fight the temptation to merely have the right wrapper and
instead be exactly who He made us to be and who we are right where we are.
Why does spellcheck make me capitalize satan’s name? I don’t
want to. It’s giving him too much
credit.
Jesus doesn’t give satan any grace. He just speaks the Truth to him and then
tells him to go away.
When God is big enough and loves me enough to say He
forgives me, I should actually believe Him.
I shouldn’t keep feeling bad about all the times I’ve messed up because
that’s ignoring what God said…
You don’t need to know everything when you’re with someone
you trust.
I especially see evidence of God in other people’s
lives. What’s beautiful about them
always looks an awful lots like God to me.
God doesn’t think any less of us when things don’t go
right.
Our infinite value, the original masterwork that we are, is
places in us because God is the master artist, not us.
Secretly incredible people keep what they do one of God’s
best kept secrets because the only one who needs to know, the God of the
universe, already knows.
…doing capers without any capes.
Don’t take the bait that if we do incredible things Jesus
will dig us more. He can’t. He already digs us more.
Getting passed by can feel like a great injury. But it’s not.
It’s people like us that can be secretly incredible and get the most
done.
…doesn’t measure his value by what he has but by what he’d
be willing to give up.
I don’t think bible verses were meant to be thrown like
grenades at each other. They were meant
for us to use to point each other toward love and grace an invite us into
something much bigger.
I want someone else’s suffering to matter more to me.
When I put on a suit and tie and jump on a plane to go take
a deposition, we call it “fund raising.”
Just because we weren’t going to plan everything didn’t mean
we weren’t going to be strategic.
God’s love…no reservoir can hold it, no disappointment can
stop it, and no impediment can contain it.
It can’t be waved off, put off or shut down…
Pick something you aren’t just able to do; instead, pick
something you feel like you were made to do and then do lots of that.
