Love God, Love People, and Do Stuff

There’s something really really unique and beautiful about a person who makes following Jesus look simple. Last week, one of those people came to Baylor chapel.

Bob Goff loves people. He throws a parade down his street in San Diego and he ties helium balloons to his friends until they float. He jumps into lakes with his clothes on to send his guests off and he always refers to his wife as “sweet Maria.” He doesn’t shake hands, opting for an awkward side hug instead. He crowd-surfs people during his talks and he teaches Ugandans how to tarp-surf. He puts his phone number on the back page of his book and picks up when you call. All this is even more incredible when you realize he runs a law firm that he started and serves as the US Consul to Uganda.

My buddies and I were talking together a couple days after he spoke. We were asking each other what it was about him that made the gospel look so attractive. Why did we see the person of Jesus so clearly in him? The answer is simple. He takes these words seriously:

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13

This command comes just hours after Jesus has washed his disciples’ feet and just hours before he is arrested and taken to trial. From this command, we get the day Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter Sunday. The label Maundy comes from the latin mandatum, which means to command. On the day we celebrate as Maundy Thursday, Jesus commanded the disciples to love each other like He loved them. Then went and showed them how much He loved them. His love was a love that does. Bob gets that and that’s why he called his book Love Does. It’s an incredible read, full of crazy stories about where God’s love goes when you aren’t afraid to simply live out the last commandment Jesus gave before He was crucified.

My friend Abhisek, who recently became a Christian, loves Bob Goff. It’s one of the biggest man-crushes I’ve witnessed, and his face was glowing when Bob signed his book after chapel. Here’s what he signed.

Love God. Love people. Do Stuff. -Bob

And I can’t help but ask myself what Jesus would write if he came to chapel and signed books. Based off of the Jesus I see in scripture, I think He’d probably write this.

Love me. Love people. Do stuff.

Abhisek and Bob

Just a reminder, you’ve got five more days to give to Mission Waco through Jared and I’s fundraiser. Check it out http://www.razoo.com/story/Lent-And-Living-58

 

Looking Back: Express Yourself

This is another post in the Looking Back series which reflects on a lesson-filled first semester of college. 

There’s nothing wrong with being typical, I guess, but theres is nothing fundamentally right about it either. – Bob Goff

My roommate Nate and I went on one date this semester. Well, that’s if you ask me. Nate refers to it as a forced hangout. Anyways, Nate and I pulled up to pick up Jamie and her friend Emily. A little back story on how we were in this situation, Jamie worked part-time at the dining hall and I saw Nate talking to her one night. This was notable because he ordinarily ignores that entire species although I’m convinced he’s just playing hard to get.

After seeing that, my friend Jared and I realized that we HAD to get Nate on a date with her. I asked Nate if he wanted to go on a double date with me and Jamie and Jamie’s friend Emily. He replied with an adamant “no.” I then immediately went up there and asked Jamie if her and Emily would want to go on a double date. Nate sometimes needs a little prodding with these things.

Anyways, four days later on a Monday night, we pulled up outside their apartment. Nate and I knew that this was just a low-key thing, and we had decided to be ourselves, meaning be as goofy as possible. We had placed our finest room decoration, a canvassed painting of a spanish conquistador named Pierre Jean Louis in the middle of the back seat. When they got in, we asked if they minded Pierre coming along. “He doesn’t get out of the room much, since, well, you know, he’s a painting,” Nate said.

I cranked up the song Express Yourself by Charles Wright on the stereo. The last minute and a half of that song is Charles just improvising; yelling, screaming, repeating meaningless phrases. Nate and I joined him on that section. Around the minute mark, I think Jamie and Emily joined in. We were quite a crew when we pulled up at U-swirl and brought Pierre Jean Louis in to find a seat.

We sampled just about every flavor and filled the nearly empty restaurant with laughter for nearly an hour. Nate told a ten minute  long joke about someone’s first date and then forgot the punchline. It was probably better that way, though. Then Emily told the most horrific first date story I’ve ever heard(by horrific I mean hilarious). It had something to do with his fly being down the whole time and her head being on his shoulder when he realized it and somehow her hair got caught in there when he zipped it up. It ended with the theatre manager coming in with scissors.

Anyways, we had a blast that night, like we do most nights, because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We aren’t typical. The script for the night is usually to go wherever with whoever and be weird, wacky, and contagiously joyful and loving.  I don’t know when it became the fad to strive to be just like everyone else around you, but conformity is big in our world today.

My buddies and I, we don’t want to be typical. We don’t need to compare ourselves to the person next to us and find our validation or self-worth through that. We want to express ourselves like Charles Wright does at the end of his song, screaming, yelling, bellowing, and laughing.

I’ve never read in Genesis that God created “typical” and called it good. Instead, I think men who were bored made up typical and called it, if not good, at least acceptable. People who follow Jesus, though, are no longer typical…Jesus lets us be real with our life and our faith. Maybe my BB gun doesn’t shoot as far as the next guy’s  but it doesn’t matter to me anymore. What Jesus said we could do was leave typical behind. We could leave all of the comparisons and all of the trappings and all of the pretending of religion. – Bob Goff