Love. We all know it, we’ve all heard it, we’ve all seen it, and we’ve all felt it. It seems to be the hot topic of every day conversation, and sometimes all we hear is blah blah blah... I’ve learned so much about love in my 20 years of living—loving friends, loving family, pure, honest, true love, and even what it means to love difficult people. BUT, what would it look like if we loved everybody. I mean, really, loved all those we encounter, and loving them right where they are.
Over the summer, I read a book that radically changed my life: Love Does. I heard about this book from multiple people, so when I finally had the chance to read it, I dove straight in. And to my surprise, it flipped my world upside down. It gave me an entirely new outlook on life, and what it means to really love someone right where they are.
The author, Bob Goff, does a tremendous job showing what he means to love people written in his compelling stories throughout his life. He’s captivating, exciting, silly, joyful, and yes—loving.
I’ve had many ups and downs in my life, just as everyone else has, but what I’ve struggled with the most is loving those difficult people, and loving people right where they are. Through failed relationships with many different kinds of people for various reasons, life has taught me that sometimes you don’t always have to be in close relationship to someone to love them. Sometimes, loving someone means loving them from a distance—something much easier said than done.
Bob Goff’s writings challenged me to think more critically about what this loving people right where they are means, and how to turn the feeling of love into simple actions every day.
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.
Maybe Jesus wants us to be secretly incredible instead…You want a mission statement to go along with incredible? Okay here it is: Be Awesome. I think instead, Jesus wants us to write “Be Awesome” on an undershirt where it won’t be seen, not on the back of a hoodie.
That’s just one of the things about love. It always assumes it can find a way to express itself.
The Bible said the only real weapon any of us has is love…They were meant for us to use to point each other toward love and grace and invite us into something much bigger.
Love is never stationary. In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does.
Everyone has heard the saying: don’t talk about it, be about it. And I think that’s exactly what it comes down to when it comes to loving people. Don’t just talk about loving someone, do it. Make loving your friends, family, even those difficult people, a priority in your life, because I can assure you, life just feels a lot better when you do.
He [Jesus] said that we’d know the extent of our love for God by how well we loved people.
