Just do it
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
Bob Goff
Thomas Nelson, paperback
Many of us have gotten used to the idea of consulting teenagers (and younger kids) for help with computer problems. But not so many of us are used to receiving literary tip-offs from those teens. That’s what happened to me with Bob Goff’s collection of personal experiences: Love Does.
One granddaughter e-mailed: “You’ve got to read it. It’s funny, entertaining, and spilling over with lessons about life, like persistence.” Another: “Inspiring and exciting. How could you have missed it!”
The “persistence” refers to an essay about the author’s fierce efforts to get into law school. He makes a dozen assaults on the dean’s office and eventually wedges a foot in the door to plead, “I want to be a lawyer and make a real difference in the world. ... All you have to tell me is, ‘Go buy your books.’ ” The rest is legal history! Bob Goff is a lawyer whose business card simply reads Helper. And that’s what he does in this book. He helps us get our bearings on the extraordinary challenges we face in everyday life by sharing experiences that show how he has overcome them. As Donald Miller says in a foreword: “Goff loves people with a force that is natural … like a waterfall or wind or waves on the ocean. He loves effortlessly.”
One of the most heartwarming stories is “Corner store economics,” which is about Goff’s childhood relationship with a candy store owner who helped him learn to count when they checked the coins Goff held out to him. One day, Goff was dismayed to find he was just one penny short of the amount he needed. The kindly owner instantly said he knew exactly how Goff felt. He picked up a bottle of vinegar and an old rag and rubbed the penny vigorously till it shone. Then he said, “In my store, shiny pennies are worth double.” And the deal was done.
Forty years year later, Goff affirms that words spoken by kind people have the ability to endure. And he observes that we have more power than we think to make our own rules about life, to live out the reverse economy Jesus put in place when he said, if you want to receive, you give. “Because actually,” adds Goff, “we’re all on the same side of the counter when it comes to needing a little help and grace and a shiny penny now and then. We’re the kid and we’re the storekeeper.”
Goff once worked for two years to free a child from a prison in Uganda. And, by contrast, he helped a young man from his neighborhood, called Ryan, whom he’d not met before, to hatch an elaborate plot in which Ryan would propose to his girlfriend in Goff’s backyard, using Goff’s boat and some water canons borrowed from the Coast Guard. All went splashingly well, leaving Goff to conclude: “Ryan’s audacious love is some of the best evidence I’ve found of the kind of love Jesus talked about, a love that never grows tired or is completely finished finding ways to fully express itself.”
No wonder Goff’s subtitle simply reads: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World.
