Everybody Always, by Bob Goff
It was the most important book I read because it reinforced so much of what I read in that other book, the Bible. Especially passages like Matthew 22 and 25, all about loving others as Jesus did, or, rather, as Jesus (“if you’ve done it unto the least of these, you’ve done it unto me”).
As I start 2019, I want to continually remind myself that God’s love—and so my love if I am claiming to be his follower—is for everybody, always. I want to listen to the news and seriously ask myself, ask the Spirit of God, how I respond to that situation, those people, in love. What does my love need to look like in action?
I want to see the “irritating” people in front of me—in the store, on the highway, at my work—as people I am to love, always. And to ask the Spirit exactly how that should occur.
Here are a few quotes from the book that truly challenged me:
“We hope for good things to happen to people in need. We hope it and we hope it and we hope it some more. When we do, our brain can fool us into thinking we’re actually helping. But hoping isn’t helping. Hoping is hoping. Don’t be fooled.“
“Instead of telling people what Jesus meant, they just loved people the way he did.”
“What if we found out God’s big plan for our lives is that we wouldn’t spend so much of our time trying to figure out a big plan for our lives? Perhaps he just wants us to love him and love each other.”
I can’t urge you enough to read the book (access it here on Amazon) and maybe let it transform your own thinking, feeling, acting. Here’s to a loving 2019— for you, for me, for all of us.