Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People

by Bob Goff

I’ve spent my whole life avoiding the people Jesus spent His whole life engaging.

There’s a difference between good judgment and living in judgment. The trick is to use lots of the first and to go a little lighter on the second.

Burning down others’ opinions doesn’t make us right. It makes us arsonists.

If I’m only willing to love the people who are nice to me, the ones who see things the way I do, and avoid all the rest, it’s like reading every other page of the Bible and thinking I know what it says.

Go find someone you’ve been avoiding and give away extravagant love to them. You’ll learn more about God, your neighbor, your enemies, and your faith. Find someone you think is wrong, someone you disagree with, someone who isn’t like you at all, and decide to love that person the way you want Jesus to love you.

Talk behind each other’s backs constantly. Just talk about the right stuff. Talk about Jesus. Talk about grace. Talk about love and acceptance. People don’t grow where they are informed; they grow where they’re loved and accepted.

God has never looked in your mirror or mine and wished He saw someone else.

Our worst day isn’t bad enough, and our best day isn’t good enough. We’re invited because we’re loved, not because we earned it.

Humble people don’t fall for the lies pride tries to entice us with to fake it.

With the new identity comes a new set of rules. It was a backward economy Jesus talked about. He said if people wanted to be at the front of the line, they needed to go to the back. If they wanted to be a good leader, they would need to be an even better follower. If they wanted to know Him better, they’d need to stop thinking so much about themselves, and if they wanted to love Him more, they needed to love each other more.

don’t

want what’s fair anymore. I want to be like Jesus. It’s a distinction

worth m...

People who are becoming love lose all the labels because they know they don’t need them.

Every time we go to church and point fingers at each other, we betray Jesus with another kiss. At “our” church, we go there to meet Him, not to critique each other.

it’s a lot easier to

agree with Jesus than to do what He says. The command to love our enemies is a good example. The truth is, I don’t want to love mine. My enemies are creepy. They’re mean and uncaring. They’re selfish and full of pride. Some try to

But there’s a big difference between liking Jesus and being like Him, and He said we would never be able to be like Him unless we loved our enemies.

The people who creep us out aren’t obstacles to having faith; they’re opportunities to understand it.

Every time I wonder who I should love and for how long I should love them, God continues to whisper to me: Everybody, always.