“Creepy People”
If you’ve ever been challenged by the first sentence of a writer’s book or article, Bob Goff will do that. Even the title of the first chapter of his book “Everybody, Always” pulls you in. It’s title? “Creepy People”.
What just came to your mind? Someone in a scary costume or makeup? Maybe. More likely, if we’re honest, what - or more accurately, WHO comes to mind is a visual of someone who looks different than we do, thinks differently than we do, and lives very differently than we do. If we’re honest, we have to admit that we are scared by, intimidated by, judging of and in reality, we often avoid those that are different than us - those we don’t understand. If we are brutally honest, we have to admit that we spend a huge amount of our time avoiding those kinds of people that Jesus spent the most of his time building relationships with and engaging with. Ouch.
Goff writes:
“God… could have appeared in person throughout history… By not doing this, I don’t think He’s avoiding us. I think His plan all along has been for us to meet the people He made and feel like we just met Him.
In this sense, I’ve met God almost every day. Certainly, God wants us to learn about Him by reading the letters and stories collected in the Bible, but He also wants us to meet Him by loving the people who are difficult to get along with. If I’m only willing to love the people who are nice to me, the ones who see things the way I do, and avoid all the rest, it’s like reading every other page of the Bible and thinking I know what it says.”
Most of us are very familiar with the challenge that the Bible gives us to love our enemies. How many of us skim over that challenge simply because we don’t feel that we have actual “enemies”? Enemy feels like a really strong word, doesn’t it? I mean, we have those we get in arguments with, or that we may have a difference of opinion with, but are they really “enemies”?? Goff explains;
“I think Jesus meant something different when He said ‘enemies’. He meant we should love the people we don’t understand. The ones we disagree with. The ones who are flat wrong about more than a couple of things.”
“Loving the neighbors we don’t understand takes work and humility and patience and guts. It means leaving the security of our easy relationships to engage in some tremendously awkward ones.
Find a way to love difficult people more, and you’ll be living the life Jesus talked about. Go find someone you’ve been avoiding and give away extravagant love to them. You’ll learn more about God, your neighbor, your enemies and your faith. Find someone you think is wrong, someone you disagree with, someone who isn’t like you at all, and decide to love that person the way you want Jesus to love you.
We need to love everybody, always.
Jesus never said doing these things would be easy. He just said it would work.”
So, who’s it gonna be? Go!
Order your copy today!
Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People