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

by Bob Goff

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

He wants us to love the people near us and love the people we’ve kept far away. To do this, He wants us to live without fear.

We’ll become in our lives what we do with our love. Those who are becoming love don’t throw people off roofs; they lower people through them instead.

For a long time, I saw Jesus from a distance and thought we’d met. It still happens to me every time I avoid people God made in His own image just because I don’t understand them.

What I’ve come to realize is if I really want to “meet Jesus,” then I have to get a lot closer to the people He created. All of them, not just some of them.

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.

Jesus told His friends if they wanted to be like Him, they

needed to love their neighbors and they needed to love difficult people.

He said He wants us to love everybody, always.

Arguments won’t change people. Simply giving away kindness won’t either. Only Jesus has the power to change people, and it will be harder for them to see Jesus if their view of Him is blocked by our big opinions.

What I’ve learned following Jesus is we only really find our identities by engaging the people we’ve been avoiding.

love Him, love your neighbor, and love your enemies.

He lets the power of love do all the talking for Him. We have the same shot in other people’s lives every day.

Will it be messy and ambiguous and uncomfortable when we love people the way Jesus said to love them? You bet it will. Will we be misunderstood? Constantly. But extravagant love often means coloring outside the lines and going beyond the norms.

Find a way to love difficult people more, and you’ll be living the life Jesus talked about.

Jesus never said doing these things would be easy. He just said it would work.