{"id":11421,"date":"2018-04-26T18:45:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T23:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=11421"},"modified":"2018-04-26T18:45:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T23:45:05","slug":"book-review-everybody-always","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=11421","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Everybody, Always"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Goff\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Someone once asked me what I would write if I only had six words for my autobiography. \u00a0Here\u2019s what I came up with: What if we weren\u2019t afraid anymore? \u00a0Throughout history, God has spoken three words more often than any others when\u00a0the people He loved were scared and confused, lost or lonely, paralyzed or stuck. \u00a0In those times, He usually didn\u2019t make a big speech. \u00a0He just said to his people, Be.Not.Afraid<\/em>.” Bob Goff, Everybody, Always<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago I read\u00a0Love Does<\/em>\u00a0by Bob Goff and it totally rocked my world.\u00a0 I blogged some thoughts on that book\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0 Everyone talks about loving people, but Bob Goff challenges us to just do it…and have a BLAST doing it.\u00a0 Does the way that you love people radically change the way they view the Lord?\u00a0 When I heard rumblings that Bob was going to write a new book…I practically did a cartwheel!\u00a0 I have enjoyed following Bob on social media and have listed to him speak several times.\u00a0 His writing really captures some of the thoughts and feelings I have and pushes me out of my comfort zone in all kinds of really good ways.<\/div>\n
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Two weeks ago, I was walking up to faculty devotions with a dear friend that was going to be sharing with us.\u00a0 Out of the blue, we started talking about our mutual appreciation for Bob Goff and his heart for the Lord.\u00a0 We chatted about him all the way across the parking lot.\u00a0 Then, this sweet friend used her platform in faculty devotions to encourage all of us and fill our cup for the last few weeks of school by reminding us of God’s faithfulness in millions of ways in our lives.\u00a0 A few mornings later, this week friend came up to my office and brought me a precious gift…Bob’s new book\u00a0Everybody, Always<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 What a treat…even moreso because of this precious friend who wanted to encourage me!<\/div>\n
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I was in the middle of reading another book, but I stayed up super late that night to finish it so that I could dive into\u00a0Everybody, Always\u00a0<\/em>the next day.\u00a0 Yes, I realize people think I’m weird because of how much I like to read.\u00a0 I can live with that \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
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I highlighted several things while reading Everybody, Always simply because I have to be reminded over and over again what grace and love are really all about.\u00a0 I have to preach the gospel to myself again each day to be reminded of what I have been given through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I’ve typed up all the things I highlighted so that I can be reminded of what extravagant love really does look like.\u00a0 I posted those notes below….<\/div>\n
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I hope you will read this book and then truly go love Everybody, Always.<\/div>\n
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    \n
  • I hope this book moves the needle in a way\u00a0that reaffirms the power of extravagant love and excessive grace in your life and in the world. p. ix<\/li>\n
  • Love isn\u2019t something we fall into; love is someone we become. p. 2<\/li>\n
  • God\u2019s endgame has always been the same. \u00a0He wants our hearts to be His. \u00a0He wants us to love the\u00a0people near us and love the people we\u2019ve kept far away. \u00a0To do this, He wants us to live without fear. \u00a0We don\u2019t\u00a0need to use our opinions to mask our insecurities anymore. \u00a0Instead, God wants us to grow love in our hearts and then\u00a0cultivate it by the acre in the world. \u00a0We\u2019ll become in our lives what we do with our love. \u00a0Those who are becoming love don\u2019t throw people off roos; they lower people through them instead. p. 4<\/li>\n
  • If I\u2019m only\u00a0willing\u00a0to love the people who are nice to me, the ones who see things the way I do, and avoid all the rest, it\u2019s like reading every other page of the Bible and thinking I know what it says. p. 5<\/li>\n
  • I\u2019ve concluded we can be correct and not right. p. 7<\/li>\n
  • 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. p. 7<\/li>\n
  • We need to love everybody, always. p. 9<\/li>\n
  • Be. Not. Afraid. \u00a0These words have exactly as much power as we give them in our lives. \u00a0People who are becoming love\u00a0experience the same uncertainties we all do. \u00a0They just stop letting fear call the shots. p. 17<\/li>\n
  • Simply put, we can stop waiting for a plan and just go love everybody. \u00a0There\u2019s no school to learn how to love your neighbor, just the house next door. \u00a0No one expects us to love them flawlessly, but we can love them fearlessly, furiously, and unreasonably. p. 19<\/li>\n
  • We don\u2019t think Jesus\u2019 command to\u00a0\u201clove your neighbor\u201d is a metaphor for something else. \u00a0We think it mean\u2019s we\u2019re supposed to actually love our neighbors. \u00a0Engage them. \u00a0Delight in them. \u00a0Throw a party for them. \u00a0When joy is a habit, love is a reflex. p. 21<\/li>\n
  • God didn\u2019t give us neighbors to be our projects; He surrounded us with them to be our teachers. p. 21<\/li>\n
  • Instead of telling people what they want, we need to tell them who they are. \u00a0This works every time. \u00a0We\u2019ll become in our lives whoever the\u00a0people we love the most say we are. p. 31<\/li>\n
  • Shame does that to us. \u00a0It makes us leave safe places. \u00a0It breaks the\u00a0rhythms we\u2019ve established with each other. p. 34<\/li>\n
  • Find you way back to the people you\u2019ve loved and who have loved you. \u00a0Figure out who you\u2019ve broken your rhythm with. \u00a0Don\u2019t let the misunderstanding decide your future. p. 36<\/li>\n
  • People who are becoming love are with those who are\u00a0hurting and help them get home. p. 45<\/li>\n
  • Loving people means caring without an agenda. \u00a0As soon as we have an agenda, it\u2019s not love anymore. p. 48<\/li>\n
  • If we want to be like Jesus, here\u2019s our simple and courageous job: Catch people on the bounce. \u00a0When they mess up, reach out to\u00a0them with love and acceptance the way Jesus did. \u00a0When they hit hard, run to them with your arms wide open to hug them even harder. \u00a0God wants to be with them when they mess up, and He wants us to participate. \u00a0p. 57<\/li>\n
  • People who are becoming love stop faking it about who they are and where they are in\u00a0their lives and in their faith. p. 61<\/li>\n
  • People who are becoming love keep it real about who they are right now, while living in constant anticipation about who God\u2019s helping them\u00a0become. p. 65<\/li>\n
  • We\u00a0should all have beautiful ambitions for our lives and who we might become, but we also need to sync it up so we\u2019re not fooled into\u00a0believing we\u2019ve already arrived at a place in our faith we\u2019ve only been thinking about going to someday. p. 65<\/li>\n
  • Do you want to do something amazing for God\/. Trade the appearance of being close with God for the power of actually being close to God. p. 67<\/li>\n
  • People who are becoming love\u00a0talk a lot more about what God\u2019s doing than what they\u2019re doing because they\u2019ve stopped keeping score. p. 74<\/li>\n
  • The promise of love and grace in our lives is this: Our worst day isn\u2019t bad enough, and our best day isn\u2019t good enough. \u00a0We\u2019re invited because we\u2019re loved, not because we earned it. p. 75<\/li>\n
  • People who are\u00a0becoming love understand God\u00a0guides us into uncomfortable places because He knows most of us are too afraid to seek them out ourselves. \u00a0It happens to me all the time, and I usually only recognize in hindsight that the hard places I\u2019ve navigated helped me steer a more purposeful course forward. \u00a0This has\u00a0been God\u2019s idea for us all along. p. 88<\/li>\n
  • Jesus is the only one who can let us know the truth about ourselves and the truth about who He is. p. 111<\/li>\n
  • When we draw a circle around\u00a0the whole world\u00a0like grace did and say\u00a0everybody is in, God\u2019s love gives us bigger\u00a0identities than we used to have. \u00a0With our newer, bigger identities, we can draw even bigger arcs around people\u2019s\u00a0lives. \u00a0We start to see that our time here isn\u2019t meant to be spent forming opinions about the people we meet. \u00a0It\u2019s an\u00a0opportunity to draw the kind of circles around them that grace has drawn around us, until\u00a0everybody is on the inside. p. 113<\/li>\n
  • Great love expressing itself in the world doesn\u2019t need any arm waving; it\u2019s always recognizable and leaves little doubt in the lives of the people it touches. p. 126<\/li>\n
  • We all\u00a0encounter difficulties. \u00a0It\u2019s what we do next that defines us. p. 165<\/li>\n
  • I meet people at Disneyland because where we meet shapes the discussions we\u2019ll have. p. 181<\/li>\n
  • Someone once asked me what I would write if I only had six words for my autobiography. \u00a0Here\u2019s what I came up with: What if we weren\u2019t afraid anymore? \u00a0Throughout history, God has spoken three words more often than any others when\u00a0the people He loved were scared and confused, lost or lonely, paralyzed or stuck. \u00a0In those times, He usually didn\u2019t make a big speech. \u00a0He just said to his people, Be.Not.Afraid. p. 185<\/li>\n
  • Don\u2019t put a toe in the water with your love; grab both knees and do a cannonball. p. 219<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      “Someone once asked me what I would write if I only had six words for my autobiography. \u00a0Here\u2019s what I came up with: What if we weren\u2019t afraid anymore? \u00a0Throughout history, God has spoken three words more often than any others when\u00a0the people He loved were scared and confused, lost or lonely, paralyzed or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,35,16,23,28,17,32,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-creative","category-family","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership","category-marriage","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}