Love Does : Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World

In Love Does, Bob Goff describes a way of following Jesus that is fun, creative, and authentic. Bob empowers average folks to step out and do extraordinary things for the sake of love. And more than just describe it or prescribe it - Bob does it. He gives real life examples of what it looks like to practice christianity with whimsy. Bob opens the book with a story of his Young Life leader encouraging him and going along with him on the adventure of life. He goes on to tell stories of saying "yes" to Jesus' invitation of living life to the fullest. This philosophy has taken him all over the world as he pursues loving God and loving other people. It is embarrassing that Bob's life looks so different from the typical christian because his faith and trust take him to places we should be. His faith in action is inspiring and he manages to tell his stories in a way that invite us in, to go on our own adventures. His tales of whimsy encourage the reader to take chances on opportunities in faith - not knowing if it will come out the way they hope, but worth the risk. One of the adventures this has led Bob to is Charlie. First, Bob received a phone call from his friend Doug claiming to be Ugandan Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi. Doug says that he wants him to counsel him and Bob says jokingly, "Sure, does someone owe you money or something?" Bob leaves that conversation thinking his buddy had a pretty good accent but he wasn't fooling anybody. Weeks later Bob gets another phone call from Doug posing as the Ugandan Prime Minister and this time he wants to meet Bob in New York. Bob says "sure, why not!" and schedules a time to meet his buddy at the airport and is expecting a sign saying something like "gotcha, dinner's on me" or something. Bob arrives and is greeted by Apolo Nsibambi - the actual Prime Minister of Uganda! He is stunned and then the Prime Minister clarifies that he wanted Bob to be the Consul for Uganda, not to just counsel him. Bob sees the opportunity this is for accomplishing stuff that Jesus would love so he says yes. As Consul, Bob finds out about witch doctors who mutilate and kill children for rituals where they bury their body parts within a structure for supposed magical benefits. Bob is the first to ever prosecute one of these witch doctors and has the opportunity to take down the biggest baddest for the premiere. A boy has been mutilated and left for dead. But he has survived, Bob calls him Charlie. Charlie is rescued, stands trial, and even has corrective surgery for his mutilation. The witch doctor is convicted and sitting on death row. Bob spreads the word to the other witch doctors that the killing will end or they will all end up like the one on death row. Bob also cares for and loves Charlie: making him the king of parades, setting him to flight with 1000 balloons, and taking him to meet the president. This is what Bob means by "Love Does". This is the love of Christ lived out by his followers. Since reading the book I sent Bob a facebook message and thanked him for the book. He actually responded quite quickly and proceeded to encourage me in my own endeavors and relationship with Christ. See this review and others like it at booked and convicted. [update] I got to hear Bob speak at a convention in San Diego as well as a little church plant here in San Jose and it was pretty sweet to hear what he has been up to. Just this week he was flying back to Uganda to help facilitate the witch doctor speaking to all of the death row inmates because he has since asked Christ for forgiveness and committed his life to him. He will be sharing how witch craft has gotten him to this point and how Jesus frees him from sin. So legit!show more