“You are not just invited, you are welcome.” ~ Bob Goff
Last year, Bob Goff’s work of encouragement released to book lovers everywhere. Love Does shares snippets of Bob’s life and the incredible acts he commits in the name of…well…love.
Last week, Bob Goff’s work of encouragement took form in a 2 day conference, designed for ordinary people like me to listen to other ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.
I wish I could have attended this 32 hour motivation session with all of you. How can I possibly share all I’ve gained in a single blog post? I can’t. I think I’ll use this week to tell what happens when Love Does Stuff.
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| Kim and I found the Soul Pancake inspired ball pit. |
Donald Miller, author of one of my favorite soul changing books of all time, Blue Like Jazz, did not waste time telling us to stop saying “I can’t” and start asking these 3 questions:
Who am I?
What do I want?
What’s the first step?
Simple enough, right? I think how often I stop myself before any first step with, “When the house is clean. When the kids are older. When I’m eating better. When I meet the right person who can help me. When… When… When…”
Josh DuBois, former leader of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships under President Obama, reminded me of the value of listening. “So often we just want to project out instead of receiving in.” In the world of social media, I’m afraid my own life is headed down this path at times.
Speaking about her work with Young Lives and how God has put her in a line of work she never thought she’d be in, Veronica Tutaj states, “The Lord will mess. you. up. He will take you, the smallest pebble, and throw you in into the water. You will cause the ripple effect.” So reassuring to know we are not in charge of the whole body of water, but I do need to start, to be that rock in the water.
Cindy Breihl reignited my passion for women’s rights all over the world in her work with gender justice through World Vision’s, Women of Vision. I know in our country we are still “fighting” for things like equal pay for equal work, being better represented in government, and issues similar. These matters are important. But we have sisters across the earth truly in battle for education, for respect, to not be sexually violated, to not be possessions. Cindy helped me remember how damned lucky I am to live where I do.
Randy Siever affirmed my view of effective evangelism through relationships. Pastor Dean Curry implored that we look beyond the surface to know others’ stories and John Cotton Richmond shared the life-saving adventures of International Justice Missions.
I cannot impress to you how blessed we were to hear spoken word by Propaganda and Jeff Bethke. Click on their names for links and you too can experience their art via the magic of YouTube.
Oh, and did I mention? Kid President was there. And he rocked. my. world. Not just little Robby, but his brother-in-law Brad. They inspired me so immensely, my next blog post will be dedicated to their philosophy. Those two (their whole support system actually) display the true “nature of a servant.”
And then there’s Bob Goff. The motivational guru who puts his money where his mouth is. The man does stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. More on that in Friday’s post.
Visit the links above to learn more about these ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Are you motivated by any of their works? How can you “Do Love” this week?
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| “Don’t just meet at the table. Bring the table.” ~ Bob Goff |
Pep Talk
Common Thread
Justice Conference – Final Thoughts
*Book links are Amazon Affiliate links.
Love it but what exactly does ""Don't just meet at the table. Bring the table." ~ Bob Goff mean 🙂
David, it's tough to explain unless you were there, but I'll try:
Bob mentioned a few people, hurting in one way or another. We all wrote encouraging notes on tables, and then Bob gave the tables to the recipients. I took it as a way of saying – don't just love someone at the surface, dive in and love with your whole being… even those you don't know.
got to love those " had to be there" moments 🙂 but definitely makes you want to be apart of those types of communities so you can experience it next time- thats a great illustration. Don't just write notes, but dive in and be a part of the healing process is what I hear you saying- thanks Andee for getting back to me