Love Does by Bob Goff

From Goodreads:

Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world's best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world's most delightfully engaging and winsome people. 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."

When "Love Does," life gets interesting. Each day turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don't want to miss.

Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob's life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.
I picked this up because RA recommended it. I found a few parts a little slow but, for the most part, I felt really inspired. Goff is a great storyteller with some really fascinating life experiences behind him. He ties these experiences to how we can better do the work of God by being more kind, more loving, more willing to DO stuff.

The timing of reading this book was really interesting as I'm going through a bit of a faith journey myself, trying to work harder at just doing good things in Jesus' name rather than focusing so much on the the "fluff" and performances of organized religion. Goff validated my approach and made me feel good about the path I'm taking.

Two quotes that I wrote down early on (before I forgot about writing stuff down and just focused on reading)-

[Talking about his friend Randy] "He was committed to me and he believed in me. I wasn't a project; I was his friend. I wondered if maybe all Christians operated this way. I didn't think so, because most of them I had met up until that time were kind of wimpy and seemed to have more opinions about what or who they were against than who they were for."

"To me, Jesus sounded like an ordinary guy who was utterly amazing. He helped people. He figured out what they really needed and tried to point them toward that. He healed people who were hurting. He spent time with the kinds of people most of us spend our lives avoiding. It didn't seem to matter to Jesus who these people were because He was all about engagement." 

I just saw that RA recommended reading a section a day rather than reading all 31 sections straight. Now that I've finished the book I really wish I had taken that approach. It allows a little more space for pondering and implementation.