Two of my favorite books of the last decade are Love Does and Everybody, Always. Bob Goff ranks among my heroes. There are several reasons Bob’s stories resonate with me so strongly, but here’s the biggest one:

My natural bias is not toward action. It’s toward inaction. It’s toward a perpetual buildup of knowledge. Always learning. Rarely applying. In other words, rather than “Ready. Aim. Fire.” too often I live my life in a state of “Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim…OOOOhhh…look over there! There’s something else to aim at!…Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim…OOOOhhh…”

My point: I greatly admire people who take risks, do stuff, help people, and do their best to spend more time in a world of action rather than a world of theory. My wife is supernaturally gifted at this. It’s one of my favorite things about her. Bob Goff is, too.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet good ol’ Bob at The Hills Men’s Conference. (For the record, I highly encourage all you men out there to attend next January. It’s worth the trip to Fort Worth. Fantastic.) I was thrilled to learn that Bob Goff is the real deal. He’s out there practicing what he preaches every day. Here are a couple takeaway quotes from him that will hopefully impact you as they did me.

“The darkness doesn’t need to destroy you. It just needs to distract you.”

Isn’t that the truth? I could verbosely and in-eloquently expound on that quote for a few thousand words, but I’ll just leave the quote there. Consider it. Ponder it. Act on it. You’re welcome.

As for the second takeaway quote, I don’t remember his exact words, but here’s my paraphrase:

“As Christians, we’re not supposed to be an advertisement for Christ–like how Burger King advertises a Whopper. We’re supposed to be proof of Christ.”

In other words, too many of us Christians spend too much time trying to polish our image for the world. We try to make Christ look good by making ourselves look good…rather than just admitting the truth: we’re generally giant failures that God can use and is using in spite of our messiness.

Thanks for the reminders, Bob. And thanks for providing an incredible platform, The Hills Church.

If you haven’t read Love Does or Everybody, Always, I can’t recommend them enough. Also, Bob has a new 365-day devotional book out. Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400203775/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0.