Bob Goff Quotes

You know what it is about someone that makes them a friend? A friend doesn't just say things; a friend does.

What distracts us will begin to define us. We don't need to swing at every pitch.

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.

Stop doing what you're able to do and figure out what you were made to do - then do lots of that.

When I think about satan, my thoughts go to how Jesus interacted with him in the desert. Jesus spoke with him for just a few seconds and then sent him away. Satan was a manipulator who wanted to control God, but Jesus had a relationship with God that satan didn't understand, and Jesus had no problem telling him off and getting rid of him. I think we should do the same.

Following Jesus is about having your paradigms shift as you navigate a wide range of emotions while living the big life Jesus invites us into.

Sadly, whenever I make my opinions more important than the difficult people God made, I turn the wine back into water.

Wouldn't it be a horrible thing if we studied the ones we loved instead of bonding in deeper ways to doing things with them?

Thinking about work as a day job has made a big difference in the way I approach what I do. It also helped me not to confuse who I am with what I do.

I want to be doing things today, not just flipping through crinkled and yellowed mental pictures of what happened a long time ago.

Do what lasts, get around to everything else.

I learned that faith isn't about knowing all of the right stuff or obeying a list of rules. It's something more, something more costly because it being present and making a sacrifice. Perhaps that's why Jesus is sometimes called Immanuel - "God with us." I think that's what God had in mind, for Jesus to be present, to just be with us. It's also what He has in mind for us when it comes to other people.

When love is a theory, it's safe, it's free of risk. But love in the brain changes nothing.

Words can launch us. We don't need to be a dean to say words that change everything for someone. Instead, God made it so that ordinary people like you and me can launch each other.

That's what love does - it pursues blindly, unflinchingly, and without end. When you go after something you love, you'll do anything it takes to get it, even if it costs everything.

I used to think I had to act a certain way to follow God, but now I know God doesn't want us to be typical.

It will be the people with the greatest love, not the most information, who will influence us to change.

People who follow Jesus, though, are no longer typical - God is constantly inviting them into a life that moves away from typical.

Then the nickel must have dropped when he realized I had pranked him as he groaned under his breath, "Bob!"
Doug's been trying to get back at me for years. But he can't, because I'm a lawyer. You don't get into and through law school like I did without gaining a few street smarts.

We'll become whoever we trust the most says we are.

It's easy to confuse a lot of activity with a purposeful life. Do what lasts; let the rest fall away.

God keeps telling us to be not afraid, to go big

Every time we see people as ordinary, we turn the wine back into water.

Be ambitious about things that last.

I want to go barefoot because it's holy ground; I want to be running because time is short and none of us has as much runway as we think we do; and I want it to be a fight because that's where we can make a difference. That's what love does.

I used to think religion tasted horrible,
but now I know I was just eating the fake stuff.

It seems that what God does most of the time when He has something to say is this ... He doesn't pass us messages, instead he passes us each other.

He didn't tell me I was a fool and that my idea would fall off the tracks on the way to the launchpad. He didn't tell me I would surely crater even if I did briefly lift off. He was resolute, unequivocal, and had no agenda. He was with me.

Next to grace, I bet God thinks making us need each other was one of His best ideas.

He comes from heaven, where He has an amazing love relationship with the Father, which, by it's nature, is the most beautiful existence any person could have. And he offers that to anybody willing to let go of whatever is giving them a false sense of security.

I think God's hope and plan for us is pretty simple to figure out. For those who resonate with formulas, here it is: add your whole life, your loves, your passions, and your interests together with what God said He wants us to be about, and that's your answer.

He was all about engagement.

But I've always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in out hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been close and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside of it long enough until somebody tells us we can some in.

I used to think being loved was the greatest thing to think about, but now I know love is never satisfied just thinking about it.

Whimsy doesn't care if you are the driver or the passenger; all that matters is that you are on your way.

It has always seemed to me that broken things, just like broken people, get used more; it's probably because God has more pieces to work with.

No one leads people to Jesus; He leads people to Himself. All the pressure's off; just go love everybody without agenda.

What is it that you don't think you can do? What do you think is too big for you? Or too scary, or too risky? Sometimes God whispers it, and sometimes, he shouts it. Whatever the volume, I bet he's always using the same three words with us: Be Not Afraid.

He said people who followed Him should think of themselves more like ushers rather than the bouncers, and it would be God who decides who gets in. We're the ones who simply show people to their seats that someone else paid for.

Most of our decisions are driven by either love or fear. Figure out who's doing the talking, then decide what you'll do.

I used to think I needed an invitation to get into most places, but now I know I'm already invited.

Stop telling people how far they have left to go. Instead tell them how far they've come.

Don't save up love like you're trying to retire on it; give it away like you're made of it.

The way we love people we disagree with is the best evidence of what we really believe.

We don't really make friends, they make us.

Insecurity wants us to keep track of our failures;
grace doesn't even write them down.

We can't always see people's pain; they can always feel our love.

Most of us have all the information we need. What we need is more passion.

God isn't trying to make our lives easier; He wants to make them more meaningful.

I think God speaks something meaningful into our lives and it fills us up and helps us change the world regardless of ourselves and our shortcomings. His name for us is His beloved. He hopes that we'll believe Him like I came to believe what the coach said about me. He hopes we'll start to see ourselves as His beloved rather than think of all of the reasons that we aren't.

We were all meant to save many lives. God is always trying to save lives, and it seems like He usually uses the least likely people to do it.

We need to make our faith our very own love story.

We spend a lot of energy remembering failures God spent a lot of love saying we could forget.

A 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.

When we love people but don't make it about us, we're exchanging currency we can use for a while for currency we can use forever.

Nobody turns down an invitation to the white house, but I've seen plenty of people turn down an invitation to fully live.

Actually, the real game of Bigger and Better that Jesus is playing with us usually isn't about money or possessions or even our hopes. It's about our pride. He asks if we'll give up that thing we're so proud of, that thing we believe causes us to matter in the eyes of the world, and give it up to follow Him. He's asking us, Will you take what you think defines you, leave it behind, and let Me define who you are instead?

The cool thing about taking Jesus up on His offer is that whatever controls you doesn't anymore. People who used to be obsessed about becoming famous no longer care whether anybody knows their name. People who used to want power are willing to serve. People who used to chase money freely give it away. People who used to beg others for acceptance are now strong enough to give love. When we get our security from Christ, we no longer have to look for it in the world, and that's a pretty good trade.

I used to think I could shape the circumstances around me, but now I know Jesus uses circumstances to shape me.

Small streams don't plan to be mighty rivers. We just move in a direction; God decides what He'll have us become.

We need to wash the feet of our enemies.

We can be the light of the world without leaving our high beams on and annoying everybody.

Pick something you aren't just able to do; instead, pick something you feel like you were made to do and then do lots of that. You weren't just an incredible idea that God never got around to making. The next step happened for the world when God dropped you on the planet ... God decided to have us intersect history, not at just any time, but at this time. He made us to be good at a few things and bad at a couple of others. He made us to love some things and not like others. Most of all, He made us to dream ... We're part of God's much bigger plan for the whole world. Just like God's Son arrived here, so did you. And after Jesus arrived, God whispered to all of humanity ... It's your move.

God doesn't want failure to shut us down.

I wouldn't have found who and what God had tailor-made for me.

Failure is just part of the process, and it's not just okay; it's better than okay. God doesn't want failure to shut us down. God didn't make it a three-strikes-and-you're-out sort of thing. It's more about how God helps us dust ourselves off so we can swing for the fences again. And all of this without keeping a meticulous record of our screw-ups.

We won't figure out what's sacred in life if we settle for what's safe.

We won't be like Jesus if it's more important to us to be like each other. God doesn't compare what he creates.

Cynicism is fear posing as confidence; joy is hope let off the leash.

We keep asking for answers; God keeps sending us people.

God finds us in the holes we dig for ourselves. We see failures; He sees foundations.

We make loving people a lot more complicated than Jesus did. Every time I try to protect myself by telling somebody about one of my opinions, God whispers to me and asks about my heart. Why are you so afraid? Who are you trying to impress? Am I really so insecure that I surround myself only with people who agree with me? When people are flat wrong, why do I appoint myself the sheriff to straighten them out? Burning down others' opinions doesn't make us right. It makes us arsonists.

Live your life like you're exactly who Jesus thinks you are.

None of us want to make God look bad. But in the end, being fake makes God look worse. It makes people think he tastes like Crisco.
Not only that, but when we meet people who have been fed the fake stuff about who God is and what He's about, it's not surprising that they have a little indigestion. So we can either spend our time talking about wrappers or we can show them what God is really made of. We can show them that God is full of love and is the source of hope and every creative idea. People don't want to be told that their experiences were wrong or that their wrapper or someone else's wrapper is made of the wrong stuff. Instead, we get to be the ones to show them real love from God.

I spend a great deal of time working for kids in Uganda and India and chasing bad guys who hurt them. I started a nonprofit a number of years ago and now Sweet Maria and I think about my day job as a great way to fund the things we're doing. Now when I put on a suit and tie or jump on a plane to go take a deposition, we call it "fund-raising." It still makes me grin every time to say it this way. It's like a really successful bake sale to get rid of bad guys.

Go be the next humblest version of yourself.

Jesus won't try to speak over the noise in our lives; love whispers so we won't be confused about who's doing the talking.

God isn't afraid of our doubts; He's way more concerned when we fake it.

What I've learned the more time I've spent following Jesus is that God delights in answering our impossible prayers.

When it's a matter of the heart, the place doesn't matter.

Grace works that way. It's a kind word from a gentle person with an impossible prayer. It's a force sometimes transmitted best hand to hand in a dark place.

There is only one invitation it would kill me to refuse, yet I'm tempted to turn it down all the time. I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to actually live a life of complete engagement, a life of whimsy, a life where love does.

We all want to have a place where we can dream and escape anything that wraps steel bands around our imagination and creativity.

Fear will give us a reason not to try; hope will give us a reason not to listen.

God's never as nervous about our future, or as concerned about our past, as we are.

Love God, love your neighbors, and do stuff!

Says to ordinary people like me and you that instead of closing our eyes and bowing our heads, sometimes God wants us to keep our eyes open for people in need, do something about it, and bow our whole lives to Him instead.

Faith isn't a business trip walked on a sidewalk; it's an adventure worked out on a steep and sometimes difficult trail.

I used to hope the things I did would work; now I hope they last.

When we want something that bad, it's easy to mistake what we truly need for the thing we really want. When this sort of thing happens, and it seems to happen to everyone, I've found it's because what God has for us is obscured from view, just around another bend in the road.

I guess that guy who ends up with the girl sometimes is just as insecure as the guy who gets dumped by her.

Think the thoughts you would think if you wholeheartedly trusted God's promises.

Do one thing that's heroic for you today - big or small - and fear won't define you anymore.

We get to be God's plan for the whole world by pointing people toward Him.

I used to think God wouldn't talk to me, but now I know I'm just selective with what I choose to hear.

Turning down this invitation comes in lots of flavors. It looks like numbing yourself or distracting yourself or seeing something really beautiful as just normal. It can also look like refusing to forgive or not being grateful or getting wrapped around the axle with fear or envy. I think every day God sends us an invitation to live and sometimes we forget to show up or get head-fakes into thinking we haven't really been invited. But you see, we have been invited - every day, all over again.

We get to decide each time whether we will lean in toward what is unfolding and say yes or back away.

Love isn't something we fall into; love is someone we become.

I used to think you had to be special for God to use you, but now I know you simply need to say yes.

Something happens when you feel ownership. You no longer act like a spectator or consumer, because you're an owner. Faith is at its best when it's that way too. It's best lived when it's owned.