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I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them.
The kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence.
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.
At times, it’s strange to consider how the same person who has gone through so many life changes over the years can believe in this God who is still the same because He never changes.
The people who slowly became typical have the greatest problem wrapping their minds around a dynamic friendship with an invisible, alive God. People who follow Jesus, though, are no longer typical—God is constantly inviting them into a life that moves away from typical.
The ones Jesus first picked to follow Him started out typical, to be sure. They were unschooled and ordinary. Fishermen, businesspeople, blind people, loose women, rip-offs, and vagrants.
Jesus told the people He was with that it’s not enough to just look like you love God. He said we’d know the extent of our love for God by how well we loved people. Fully loving and fully living are not only synonymous but the kind of life that Jesus invited us to be part of.
I used to think being loved was the greatest thing to think about, but now I know love is never satisfied just thinking about it.
Being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving. It’s about going to extremes and expressing the bright hope that life offers us, a hope that makes us brave and expels darkness with light. As Goff puts it, “That’s what I want my life to be all about—full of abandon, whimsy, and in love. I want to be engaged to life and with life.”
I used to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me, but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.
God intentionally guides people into failure. He made us be born as little kids who can’t walk or talk or even use a bathroom correctly. We have to be taught everything. All that learning takes time, and He made us so we are dependent on Him, our parents, and each other. The whole thing is designed so we try again and again until we finally get it right. And the whole time He is endlessly patient.
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 of this without keeping a meticulous record of our screw-ups.
God finds us in our failures and our successes, and He says that while we used to think one way about things, now He wants us to think another way about those same things. Goff observes, “And for me, I’ve realized that 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.”
I used to think I could shape the circumstances around me, but now I know Jesus uses circumstances to shape me.
I used to think God guided us by opening and closing doors, but now I know sometimes God wants us to kick some doors down.
When we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in our hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside of it long enough until somebody tells us we can come in.
I used to think Jesus motivated us with ultimatums, but now I know He pursues us in love.
According to Goff, “If Jesus has taught me anything, though, it’s that sometimes you can really want to know somebody and it takes them forever to want to know you back. Because God made me to love Maria, and because God made it so I had to convince her to love me back, He gave me a very real way to understand what is happening in the universe. Because of our love for each other, I understand just a little more how God has pursued me in creative and whimsical ways, ways that initially did not get my attention. Nevertheless, He wouldn’t stop. That’s what love does—it pursues blindly, unflinchingly, and without end. When you go after something you love, you’ll do anything it takes to get it, even if it costs everything.”
I used to think being a believer was enough, but now I know Jesus wants us to participate, no matter what condition we’re in.
Jesus talked to social outcasts, loose women, lawyers (like Goff), and religious people and said they would not just be so many decorations or window treatments, but He would serve them up as well. He said this was true even though we’re full of the kind of grit that accumulates over the span of a life and quite a few parking lots. The only thing that Jesus said He couldn’t serve up were people who were full of themselves or believed the lie that they were who they used to be before they met Him. Jesus seemed to say that all we would need to do is to scrape together the pieces of our lives that had fallen on the ground, bring those pieces to Him, and He would start using them.
I used to think you had to be special for God to use you, but now I know you simply need to say yes.
God sometimes uses 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. The folks who were following Jesus in Galilee got to decide the same thing each day because there was no road map, no program, and no certainty. All they had was this person, an idea, and an invitation to come and see.
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. We were all meant to save many lives. God is always trying to save lives, and it seems like He usually uses the least likely people to do it.
I used to think I had to be somebody important to accomplish things, but now I know Jesus uses ordinary people more.
You know what it is about someone that makes them a friend? A friend doesn’t just say things; a friend does.
When people realize there’s no agenda other than friendship and better understanding, it changes things. The leaders realized we weren’t there to tell them to stop doing this, start doing that, or talk about controversies or conflicting beliefs or plans. Don’t you want to live in a new normal where you can reach out to people who are different from you and just be friends?
Goff writes, “There is only one invitation it would kill me to refuse, yet I’m tempted to turn it down all the time. I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to actually live a life of complete engagement, a life of whimsy, a life where love does. It doesn’t come in an envelope. It’s ushered in by a sunrise, the sound of a bird, or the smell of coffee drifting lazily from the kitchen. It’s the invitation to actually live, to fully participate in this amazing life for one more day. Nobody turns down an invitation to the White House, but I’ve seen plenty of people turn down an invitation to fully live. Turning down this invitation comes in lots of flavors. It looks like numbing yourself or distracting yourself or seeing something really beautiful as just normal. It can also look like refusing to forgive or not being grateful or getting wrapped around the axle with fear or envy. I think every day God sends us an invitation to live and sometimes we forget to show up or get head-faked into thinking we haven’t really been invited. But you see, we have been invited—every day, all over again.”
I used to think the words spoken about us describe who we are, but now I know they shape who we are.
A self-help guy once said you could look in the mirror and give yourself something he called positive affirmations, like saying to yourself you are good or smart or talented.
Goff observes, “I don’t know if that works, to be honest. Maybe it does. But I do know one thing that works every time—it’s having somebody else say something good about you. I think that’s how we were created, you know, to get named by people this way. I think God speaks something meaningful into our lives and it fills us up and helps us change the world regardless of ourselves and our shortcomings. His name for us is His beloved. He hopes that we’ll believe Him like I came to believe what the coach said about me. He hopes we’ll start to see ourselves as His beloved rather than think of all of the reasons that we aren’t.”
Jesus said to one of the guys with Him that he was a rock even though He knew this same guy would deny ever knowing Him. Jesus was not blowing sunshine at Peter when He did that. Instead, He was calling something out from inside Peter. It was kind of like the coach telling Goff he was a real ball player—he saw it in Goff and called it out. We get to do that for each other still today.
Words of encouragement are like that. They have their own power. And when they are said by the right people, they can change everything. When following Jesus, most of the time—when it comes to who says it—we each are the right people. And the words people say to us not only have shelf life but have the ability to shape life.
I used to think I needed to sacrifice for God, but now I know faith is like a game of Bigger and Better.
There’s a story in the Bible about a young guy who had a lot of money. He was a good guy, very religious, kept the commandments and the whole bit. Jesus told this upstanding guy that if he really wanted to know God, he needed to sell all his possessions and follow Him. The man was sad about the exchange. Like many of us, he liked his stuff, but he liked Jesus too. Ultimately, though, that young man decided he’d worked too hard for what he had, whatever he had to trade to get to Jesus was just too important, and what Jesus had to offer was just too intangible. So he chose to keep his stuff rather than follow Jesus. Jesus doesn’t have this conversation to shame the rich young ruler. The challenge that comes into sharp relief is whether we are willing to give up all we have to follow Him, to know God. Are we willing to trade up? It’s a question worth asking because the answer will shape your life one way or the other.
The real game of Bigger and Better that Jesus is playing with us usually isn’t about money or possessions or even our hopes. It’s about our pride. 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?”
I used to think religion tasted horrible, but now I know I was just eating the fake stuff.
None of us want to make God look bad. But in the end, being fake makes God look worse. When we meet people who have been fed the fake stuff about who God is and what He’s about, it’s not surprising that they have a little indigestion.
I used to think words were all the same, but now I know there are some words I shouldn’t use.
Jesus didn’t always explain everything in great detail. If someone you trust tells you something, and you know it’s for your benefit, you just trust it. You’re fine with the possibility someone might be wrong, particularly when you weigh they might be right and your life would be better if you did what they suggest.
Jesus Christ didn’t present God’s plan like a prospectus promising a return on investment. He just asked people to join the adventure. It’s almost like Jesus came to say, among other things, that a relationship with Him isn’t supposed to make complete sense or provide security. Faith isn’t an equation or a formula or a business deal that gets you what you want. In short, there’s nothing on the other side of the equals sign, just Jesus.
I used to think I had missed the mark and God was mad about it, but now I know “missing the mark” is a stupid analogy.
Goff ponders, “As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to learn most people aren’t bad in the traditional sense. I mean, they aren’t malicious or plotting a bank robbery or setting up scams. The people I know, they are mostly aiming their crosshairs at stuff like being loved, not being lonely, finding some security, and a bunch of other things that are actually pretty normal and worth pursuing. In fact, I think God put it in our hearts to aim for those things, and it’s nice when we actually hit those targets.”
I used to think rules were made by someone else, but now I know we get to make some of our own.
Words spoken by kind people have the ability to endure in our lives.
Jesus was always talking about a reverse economy. He talked about how if you want to receive, you give. If you want to lead, you follow. That the poor are rich and you only really live for certain things if you are willing to die to them. We have more power than we think to make our own rules about life to live out the economy that Jesus put in place.
I used to think life could be shared with anyone, but now I know choosing the right people is pretty important.
Satan was a manipulator who wanted to control God, but Jesus had a relationship with God that Satan didn’t understand, and Jesus had no problem telling him off and getting rid of him. We should do the same. That’s all we should say about Satan. He gets too much airtime already.
Goff observes, “I learned something hitchhiking. I learned that even though I needed a ride to get somewhere, I had a lot of power over who I’d hitch a ride with. I know it sounds simple, but life is like that. You become like the people you hang around, and to a great degree, you end up going wherever they’re headed. When there is someone else behind the steering wheel, it needs to be someone you’d trust with your life, because you’ve given a great deal of control over your life to them.”
We have a lot more power to decide who we do life with than some people think. And if you make a bad pick, you need to do what it takes to get out of the car.
I used to think the best teachers wore tweed jackets and smoked pipes, but now I know they flip over and leak.
When God is big enough and loves me enough to say He forgives me, we should actually believe Him. We shouldn’t keep feeling bad about all of the times we’ve messed up because that’s ignoring what God said. When we don’t trust God’s forgiveness, it’s kind of like saying we really don’t believe He’s that good. Consider this, we should stop asking God to forgive us over and over when He’s made it clear He already has.
Goff describes his Jeep that leaks, “I know it sounds goofy, but I want to be like that Jeep. I want to leak from having been hit by Jesus. From having something crazy happen to me, something that flipped my life upside down. I’ve met people like that, people who leak Jesus. Whenever you’re around them, Jesus keeps coming up with words and with actions. I don’t suppose everybody gets hit by Jesus, but those of us who have talk about Him differently. We start steering funny; we start leaking where we stand. And it’s because we got thrown from our lives in a terrific collision.”
He also observes, “I had to borrow somebody else’s stuff to do just about anything. For a guy who likes not needing anything, that’s pretty humbling. Even my own kids told me to put gas in their cars when I asked to borrow them— ‘and, Dad, don’t flip it.’ That’s what they’d say with a wink as they tossed me the keys. Being dependent has helped me see the world in a whole new way. I’m not as rushed as I used to be. I usually leave for work and return with a big grin because I’m the only middle-aged lawyer on the block carrying a laptop and riding a skateboard to and from work, carving turns along the way.”
I used to think knowing God was like going on a business trip with Him, but now I know He’s inviting me on an adventure instead.
A father’s job, when it’s done best, is to get down on both knees, lean over his children’s lives, and whisper, “Where do you want to go?” Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure. It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary, He simply invites us. God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, “Let’s go do that together.”
Know this: when Jesus invites us on an adventure, He shapes who we become with what happens along the way.
God is more of a Half Dome traveler than a Hampton Inn traveler. Jesus doesn’t invite us on a business trip. Instead, He says let’s go after those things that inspire and challenge you and let’s experience them together. You don’t need a lot of details or luggage or equipment, just a willingness to go into a storm with a Father who’s kicking footholds into the steep sides of our problems while we kick a couple in ourselves too. He guides us into those footholds with His strong hands while we’re safely tethered to Him by a bright red rope of grace, which holds us securely. Somehow in all of this, the terrain we navigate doesn’t seem as scary either, because when we’re on an adventure with God we’re too excited to be afraid and too engaged to be thinking of anything else.
God sees our failed launches in the same way. He sees us flying over the handlebars in slow motion, and while He never wants to see us hurt, He knows it can happen from time to time when we live a life of total engagement. He sees the outcomes before they happen too and calls to us over the noise in our lives warning of something that won’t go well.
I used to think God wouldn’t talk to me, but now I know I’m just selective with what I choose to hear.
Goff relays this story of his wife, “Sweet Maria was tapping her foot and giving me the eye. She told the doctor she had been telling me for some time that my hearing was just fine; I just wasn’t listening. I don’t remember hearing her say that. I realized that what was understandably so frustrating for Sweet Maria was a similar issue I have with God. What I mean is, I only hear the things from God I want to hear, and it makes me wonder if He doesn’t think I’m going a little bit deaf.”
God doesn’t talk in an audible voice because God isn’t a human being; He’s God. That makes sense because human beings are limited and God isn’t limited at all. He can communicate to us in any way He wants to anytime He wants to. Through flowers, other people, an uncomfortable sense, a feeling of joy, goose bumps, a newfound talent, or an appreciation we acquire over time. It doesn’t need to be a big mystical thing.
Some people speak with a great deal of authority about what God is doing right now. Goff reflects, “I’m always amazed because I can never figure out God that quickly. I usually understand what God is doing by seeing it through the rearview mirror. Only then can I connect the dots, and even then, it’s a pretty dodgy sketch. Maybe that’s why the Bible described what we are often doing as looking through a mirror dimly. The Bible says that right now we only know ‘in part’ and that one day, after we’ve gone, we’ll know ‘in full.’ That makes more sense to me because it means our understanding will always have gaps and gaps are good because they leave room for God to fill in the spaces. “
God isn’t giving you the silent treatment because He’s mad. God’s hope and plan for us is pretty simple to figure out. For those who resonate with formulas, here it is: add your whole life, your loves, your passions, and your interests together with what God said He wants us to be about, and that’s your answer. If you want to know the answer to the bigger question— what’s God’s plan for the whole world?—buckle up: it’s us.
We’re God’s plan, and we always have been. We aren’t just supposed to be observers, listeners, or have a bunch of opinions. We’re not here to let everyone know what we agree and don’t agree with, because, frankly, who cares? Tell me about the God you love; tell me about what He has inspired uniquely in you; tell me about what you’re going to do about it, and a plan for your life will be pretty easy to figure out from there. Most of us don’t get an audible plan for our lives. It’s way better than that. We get to be God’s plan for the whole world by pointing people toward Him.
I used to be afraid that if I was authentic I might take a hit, but now I know that being real means I will take a hit.
The Puppeteer is an oil painting of an old guy with his family gathered around, and he’s dangling a marionette from strings, making everybody laugh. He looks like he’s telling everybody a great story. I liked the painting because I’ve always imagined myself kind of like the puppeteer with my kids and their children gathered around someday. The painting also reminds me of how Jesus invites us to gather around Him as He tells captivating stories about a better life, a bigger life, and a greater love.
God doesn’t think any less of us when things don’t go right. Actually, He probably plans on it. What He doesn’t plan on is us putting a fake version of ourselves out there to take the hit. God is the master artist and made an original version of us, a priceless one that cost everything to create. A version that can’t and won’t be created again.
The Bible says people who are friends of God are new creations. The way it’s supposed to work is that old version of us goes away and a new original is painted. Consider one who purchased an expensive painting and had a cheap copy thrown in to hide the real one. Our infinite value, the original masterwork that we are, is placed in us because God is the master artist, not us. The best we could muster ourselves would be a fake. God invites us to be new creations, original art, and to live a life of engagement.
I used to think following God required a lot of navigation, but now I know all I need is a line and a circle.
Goff points out, “I used to think following God required complicated formulas. I thought I needed a big stack of books, so I could figure out exactly where I was all the time. I thought if I constantly measured the distance between me and God, I’d get closer to Him. Early on, the religious people I knew explained to me all kinds of nuances for doing this sort of spiritual math. They suggested that I say certain things in my prayers, have quiet times, go to Bible studies, and memorize Bible verses. They said I needed to know how to explain to someone that God could be a person and a spirit at the same time. They urged me to know how God was going to come back someday but that some people would be here and other people would go missing because it would be a time of great tribulation. They said that for me to know God, there was a whole pile of things I’d need to know first. Honestly, they sounded a lot like the guy in aisle three. What I realized, though, is that all I really needed to know when it came down to it was the direction I was pointing and that I was somewhere inside the large circle of God’s love and forgiveness. I’ve made refinements and countless midcourse corrections in my life. There have been more than a couple of times when I’ve navigated potentially disastrous issues and needed more exact and specific direction. And when I did, I had the resources I needed to figure it out. But most of the time, even though the guy in aisle three and some religious people would squirm, just pointing in the right general direction has been good enough. I think that’s probably because I see myself floating in a massive sea of God’s love. The circle of His grace and forgiveness is big enough and the line leading to Him is long enough that I don’t need to always be measuring latitude and longitude to find myself. It’s a pretty easy calculation each day actually. I’ll tell you how I do it. I find Jesus, keep pointing toward Him, and stay somewhere in that circle. That’s it. You can keep your sextant and almanacs.”
I used to think I should talk about everything, but now I know it’s better to keep some things a secret.
In a world driven by self-promotion and spin, Jesus modeled something different for us. Jesus was saying that instead of telling people about what we’re doing all the time, there’s a better way. One that doesn’t require any capes that can get snagged on something—something like ourselves. Maybe Jesus wants us to be secretly incredible instead. That was His plan for self-promotion. 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.
Secretly incredible people just do things. You want a mission statement to go along with being secretly incredible? Okay, here it is: “Be Awesome.” That’s it. If you want to follow Jesus’ example of how He did things, that’s probably all we’d write down instead of our otherwise heady doctrinal statements. But there’s more. Jesus doesn’t want us to make a fashion statement or be edgy or promote ourselves on the backs of clothing and bracelets all the time either. Instead, Jesus wants us to write “Be Awesome” on an undershirt where it won’t be seen, not on the back of a hoodie. Jesus hardly talked to anyone about what He’d done.
I used to think God was good some of the time, but now I know He’s good all the time.
People who take huge risks aren’t afraid to fail. In fact, they love to fail. It’s because failing means they found the edge.
I used to think there were some prisons you couldn’t escape, but now I know there’s no place I can go where God can’t rescue us.
One of the things about love is that it always assumes it can find a way to express itself.
Organizations have programs. People have friends. Friends trump programs every time.
There is a story of a judge, who was ready to sentence several children for their crimes. In a brilliant move, the judge asked the children to leave the court room before the trials began and wait in another room as he spoke to the parents assembled. The judge knew that there was a much bigger issue that needed to be dealt with in the room before the trials began. The judge spoke to the parents and his admonition was simple: “Parents, forgive your children.” The judge knew that guilty or not, the children would not be able to move forward in their lives without the forgiveness of their parents. A short time later, he walked into the other room where the children were and said, “Children, your parents have forgiven you.” The children were brought back into the courtroom and fell into the arms of their parents. They had received what they needed as much as they needed justice. They had received forgiveness.
Goff explains, “What I’ve learned the more time I’ve spent following Jesus is that God delights in answering our impossible prayers. The kind of prayers made in a dark cell by someone holding unwashed hands. Prayers asking for the things we couldn’t possibly think could happen for us or someone else. Ones we might even feel a little bad saying, as if it’s just asking God for too much. But what I forget is that we’re talking to a God who knows that what we need the most is to return to Him, to return to our lives. And like the judge, God knows that we can’t fully return until we know we’ve been forgiven. God pursues us into whatever dark place we’ve landed and behind whatever locked door holds us in. He holds our unwashed and dirty hands and models how He wants us to pursue each other.”
God searches for us, no matter what dark place we’re in or what door we’re behind. He hears our impossible, audacious prayers for ourselves and others. And He delights in forgiving us and then answering those prayers by letting us return home to Him. When we take Jesus up on His promises, He doesn’t just stand in our lives knocking. He rips our small view of Him and what He can make possible right off the hinges.
I used to think I needed to record stories, but now I know I just need to engage them.
“Whimsy was the gleam in our eyes; whimsy swelled the sails; whimsy swelled our hearts.”
That’s the way whimsy works. It’s a renewable, infinite resource that multiplies. You can come to understand more about faith when you understand more about whimsy. What whimsy means is a combination of the “do” part of faith along with doing something worth doing. It’s whimsy that spreads hope like grass seed in the wind. Whimsy talks, much like the Bible does, about stuff being like an aroma. It is not an overpowering one, just something that has the scent of God’s love, an unmistakable scent that lingers.
I used to think I needed to pick sides, but now I know it’s better to pick a fight.
Jesus talked a lot about disputes, but He never said not to have them. That’s because He knew disputes would somehow be inevitable. What Jesus commented on, though, is a small list of things worth having a fight about. Jesus also talked about how to resolve disputes. He had been the center of quite a few of them, so He would know. He’s still been the subject of countless disputes since He was killed. Even death and resurrection don’t solve some things. While we may not be able to resolve disputes as well as Jesus, we can learn from what He said about them. He said that His followers should just find the person with the least credentials to decide the biggest disputes among them.
Goff reflects, “When I first started following Jesus I wondered what Christians did when they had disputes. Did they even have disputes anymore? I wasn’t sure. After a while, though, I realized that people who loved God had disputes just like everyone else. Some people acted religious about it, and they seemed to get even more religious the bigger the dispute was. The religious people also seemed to carry on their disputes remotely and surrounded the dispute with so many twenty-pound Christian words that it was hard to figure out what they were originally mad about, much less resolve anything. Lots of them had to do with what the religious people thought Christians were supposed to be for or against. What struck me as ironic is that the Bible talked about us being like dust or vapor or like other insignificant things. Yet these folks spoke like they were the ones who had made the mountains when it came to how someone else should act. It wasn’t infrequent that one of the religious people would accuse the other person of “backsliding,” Christian-speak that basically means the other person doesn’t act religious enough. I always thought that was a bad choice of words actually, because it made it sound fun, kind of like ice blocking.”
The Bible said the only weapon any of us really has is love. But it’s love like a sword without a handle and because of that, sometimes we’ll get cut when we pick it up. It’s supposed to be close contact, though. Love always is that way. Bible verses weren’t meant to be thrown like grenades at each other. They were meant for us to use to point each other toward love and grace and invite us into something much bigger.
I used to think I could learn about Jesus by studying Him, but now I know Jesus doesn’t want stalkers.
What’s up with equating “Bible study” with knowing God anyway? Wouldn’t it be a horrible thing if we studied the ones we loved instead of bonding in deeper ways by doing things with them?
Goff noted, “I’d never want to get married to a girl no matter how much I studied her. I’d rather take her sailing or fishing or eat cotton candy with her on a Ferris wheel. I don’t think knowing what her name means in Greek is going to help me love her more. In fact, they have a name for guys who just study things about a person they like but don’t do anything about it—they’re called bachelors. So I started getting together with the same guys each week and instead of calling it a Bible study, we call it a ‘Bible doing.’ We’ve been at it for fifteen years now, and I’ve found there’s a big difference between the two. At our Bible doing, we read what God has to say and then focus all of our attention on what we are going to do about it. Just agreeing isn’t enough. I can’t think of a single time where Jesus asked His friends to just agree with Him. When I have skin in the game, the outcome all of a sudden matters to me and I become engaged. Some people think of engagement as the time between proposing marriage to someone and getting married. I think of engagement as the time between hearing a truth and nodding our heads or making sincere mm-hms in agreement and when we do something about it. That explains why Jesus never talked about just building consensus; He wanted us to build a kingdom instead. If you get engaged like that, you’ll be able to remember Bible verses better because you’re living them instead of just reading them.”
Jesus had in mind that we would not just be “believers” but “participants.” Not because it’s hip, but because it’s more accurate, more fitting that way. He wanted people who got to the “do” part of faith, not because He wanted activity, but because He wanted our faith to matter to us.
I used to think clinched fists would help me fight better, but now I know they make me weaker.
Goff reflected, “Some time ago I stopped thinking about being a lawyer as a career. Instead, I think of it as just a day job. Thinking about work as a day job has made a big difference in the way I approach what I do. It’s also helped me not to confuse who I am with what I do.”
Did you ever notice that when your palms are up, you have an easier time being calm, honest, and accurate? And this is important, it’s harder to get defensive in that posture. When people get angry or defensive they tend to make mistakes. But nobody can be defensive with their palms up. Go ahead and try it. Right now, wherever you are. Set your hands on your knees and turn your palms toward the sky. You can try the opposite too. Clinch your fists. Most people could get angry at a grapefruit when their fists are clinched. Something about the hardwiring that God gave each of us links the position of our bodies and position of our hearts.
It’s hard to say why we’re wired this way, but you’ll rarely see someone get frustrated or confused or get tempted to exaggerate or tell a lie when his palms are up. Goff notes, “I learned this technique from Jesus actually. I used to walk around with my fists clinched, defensive, afraid people were going to take advantage of me. There are also many evils in the world that caused me to clinch my fists. I wanted to be angry and swing at the horrible things people do to one another, especially the things done to kids. But it was Jesus who taught me there was nothing I could really lose if I had Him. He taught me to be palms up, just like He was. Palms up means you have nothing to hide and nothing to gain or lose. Palms up means you are strong enough to be vulnerable, even with your enemies. Even when you have been tremendously wronged. Jesus was palms up, to the end.”
I used to think that taking a risk would reduce the number of friends I have, but now I know that love draws more people in.
The world has been shouting over the noise of our programs that it doesn’t need more presidents or organizations, what it needs are more friends. If you are a sincere friend, folks around you will quickly understand that there’s no hidden agenda and nothing on the other side of the equals sign—just you.
Just because you don’t plan everything doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be strategic. It means just the opposite. Instead of getting wrapped around the axle developing a plan, use your time to develop a strategy. Too many times, we’re like the disciples with no plan, no program, and no preparation.
One of the things about love is that it doesn’t recognize boundaries and never obeys the rules we try to give it.
Sometimes big things happen when you don’t have a plan. Have a big idea instead. You see, the problem with plans is that they usually work. And if they don’t seem to be working, we force them to work and get the small results we aim for. Swapping that for a big idea means we get everything that everyone brings to the pickup basketball game.
Sponsorship programs are common in developing countries. For thirty dollars or so each month, it is not unusual for a child to have a sponsor in the United States to help with school fees. Goff explains, “We got the kids together and explained to them how our sponsorship program was going to work. We gave our kids some seeds, they planted the seeds, they raised the crops, they sold the crops, and with the money, our kids from the Restore Leadership Academy in Uganda sponsor a little skater kid in Oregon through The Mentoring Project, a fantastic organization out of Oregon that helps kids without dads. These Ugandan kids looked through the other end of the telescope and wanted to make sure that other kids could have the same input from mentors that they are getting. If these kids in Uganda had a refrigerator, they would have a picture of the kid with a swoop haircut they are sponsoring in the United States on it.”
Love does whatever it takes to multiply itself and somehow along the way everyone becomes a part of it. You know why? Because that’s what love does.
At the end of a book called Love Does—so what do you do? It can be a tough question to answer, honestly, but it can also be an easy one.
Here’s what to do when you don’t know what to do to move your dreams down the road. Just try to figure out what the next step is and then do that. That sounds too simple, too formulaic; it seems like there must be more to it. But there isn’t. For most of us, that next step is as easy as picking up the phone, sending an e-mail, writing a letter, buying a plane ticket, or just showing up. After that, things start happening. Things that perhaps have God’s fingerprints on them. You’ll know which ones do and which ones don’t. Pick the ones that do. What’s your next step?
We’re part of God’s much bigger plan for the whole world. Just like God’s Son arrived here, so did you. And after Jesus arrived, God whispered to all of humanity . . . “It’s your move.” Heaven’s been leaning over the rails in the same way ever since you got here, waiting to see what you’ll do with your life.