Words to Wander – Love Does

Words to Wander is a collection of notable quotations from some of my favorite books on the subject of living life to the fullest.  I invite you to add your thoughts on this book in the comments section. Enjoy.

Love Does by Bob Goff – December 2017

Description:   As a college student Bob Goff spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren’t good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean’s office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.

Love Does is light and fun, unique and profound.  It shares paradigm shifts, musings, and stories, both whimsical and hilarious, from a delightfully engaging and impactful guy named Bob Goff.  What fuels his impact? Love. But it’s not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob’s love takes action. Bob believes Love Does.

Notable quotes from Love Does:

“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.  Their dreams become one of those “we’ll go there next time” deferrals.  The sad thing is, for many there is no “next time” because passing on the chance to cross over is an overall attitude toward life rather than a single decision.  They need a change of attitude, not more opportunities.”

“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.”

“I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to actually live a live of complete engagement, a life of whimsy, and life where love does.  It 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 turns down an invitation to the White House, but I’ve seen plenty of people turn down an invitation to fully live.”

“I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them.”

“When people realize there’s no agenda other than friendship and better understanding, it changes things… I want to live in a new normal where I can reach out to people who are different from me and just be friends.”

“You become like the people you hang around, and to a great degree, you end up going wherever they’re headed.”

“I have a project I have been working on for years.  It’s to write down everything I can remember from my entire life.  The first bee sting, the first time I touched knees with someone I liked, the first time I flunked out of a course or got a speeding ticket.  I don’t keep a journal or a diary, and I’ll never just write down facts like what I had for lunch or who I was with or where I was.  Instead, what I’ve been writing down are all of the things I can remember that have shaped me, all of the words or phrases that have pinged me, all of the stories that have happened in my life.  All in the hopes that one day, as I flip through those pages, I’ll see evidence of Jesus in them.”

“Let me tell you what I do when I don’t know what to do to move my dreams down the road.  I usually just try to figure out what the next step is and then do that.  I know it sounds too simple, too formulaic; it seems like there must be more to it.  But there isn’t.  For most of us, that next step is as easy as picking up the phone, sending an email, writing a letter, buying a plane ticket, or just showing up.  After that, things start happening.”