Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World

by Bob Goff

where whimsy runs wild.

Whimsy is a lot that way—it needs to be fully experienced to be fully known. Whimsy doesn’t care if you are the driver or the passenger; all that matters is that you are on your way.

Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget.

need to stop plotting the course and instead just land the plane on our plans to make a difference by getting to the “do” part of faith. That’s because love is never stationary. In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does.

When you are in high school, you don’t give much thought to what you can’t do. For most people, that gets learned later, and for still fewer, gets unlearned for the rest of life.

wasn’t a project; I was his friend.

He saw the need and he did something about it. He didn’t just say he was for me or with me. He was actually present with me.

faith isn’t about knowing all of the right stuff or obeying a list of rules. It’s something more, something more costly because it involves being present and making a sacrifice. Perhaps that’s why Jesus is sometimes called Immanuel—“God with us.” I think that’s what God had in mind, for Jesus to be present, to just be with us. It’s also what He has in mind for us when it comes to other people.

The world can make you think that love can be picked up at a garage sale or enveloped in a Hallmark card. But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence.

get that look sometimes, and it’s usually from people who don’t have a lot of creativity or haven’t experienced whimsy

The people who slowly became typical have the greatest problem wrapping their minds around a dynamic friendship with an invisible, alive God.

He said we’d know the extent of our love for God by how well we loved people.

Being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving.

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.

He shows that Jesus comes looking for us because people, like sheep, have a knack for getting lost.

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.

Sometimes we can’t even see God because of it.

God’s grace comes in all shapes, sizes, and circumstances as God continues to unfold something magnificent in me.

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.

He pursues us in love.

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.

That’s what love does—it pursues blindly, unflinchingly, and without end.

“You know what it is about someone that makes them a friend? A friend doesn’t just say things; a friend does.”

there’s a big difference between being pen pals and being real pals. To make an impact you have to go there and start a friendship. Friends do—they don’t just think about it.

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.

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

He’s asking us, “Will you take what you think defines you, leave it behind, and let Me define who you are instead?”

He wants us to bring all of the faith we have to Him, even if it’s just a dime’s worth. And He promises that He will trade up with us—because He Himself is what we have the chance to trade for. And what we’ll have to give in exchange for knowing Him is everything we’ve accumulated during our lives and are standing on the porch holding on to.

Words spoken by kind people have the ability to endure in our lives.

we have more power than we think to make our own rules about life to live out the economy that Jesus put in place.

When I don’t trust God’s forgiveness, it’s kind of like saying I really don’t believe He’s that good.

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.

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.

The other fixed point I use is a group of people I feel God has dropped into my life, kind of like a cabinet.

see myself floating in a massive sea of God’s love.

And at the end, perhaps simple words spoken by a loving and proud God will be, “Friends, it’s been a long trip. Welcome home.”