Love Does

 By Bob Goff

Thomas Nelson     2012

224 pages     Spiritual

Bob Goff’s first book, Love Does, is a book of experiential stories from the author’s life and the spiritual lessons that he learned from those experiences. Here is a quick summary of the book.

“As a college student he spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean's office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.
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.”

Having had no knowledge of or experience with Bob Goff, I approached Love Does with curiosity. I had not been at the last church book group when the book was chosen, and I wondered what the attraction was. I soon found out. Each chapter begins with a story from his life, and ends with that story’s relationship to Jesus and the Christian life. Each chapter becomes a life lesson. I related to many of the stories in the book, and I found many of them to be quite meaningful. I read the book day by day, chapter by chapter. Each chapter gives the reader food for thought in a very delightful manner, and I found the chapters comforting when read for my own well-being at the end of the day.  

Bob Goff is an extraordinary person, a lawyer and author, dedicated to helping children who have been sold into slavery, particularly in Ghana. The profits from this book, and perhaps others of his book series, support his ministry around the world. I just discovered that Bob Goff will be in Grand Rapids and Holland Michigan in March. Isn’t it funny how something or someone you knew nothing about somehow becomes ever-present in your life.

Here is Bob Goff’s website. On his website, you can get access to his weekly podcasts. He’s quite a guy.