You know those people who are
huggers? Not the ones who greet you with a hug after they know you for a while.
But the real true huggers. Before you get in a simple “Hello, my name is…” you
find their gangly arms wrapped around your upper body and you feel the
permanent exuberance that consistently occupies the space they take up. This is
how I met Bob.
I’ve heard about Bob for weeks
before he walked into our house. To be honest, I thought there was no way this
guy could be all they say he’s cracked up to be. He was in town for less than
24 hours and I was told to be sure I got to meet him.
And am I glad I did…
My roommates, Paul Young, his son
and a friend of theirs sat on our living room floor soaking up every word of
conversation like we were a bunch of 10 year old kids listening to someone tell
scary stories. For over an hour Bob poured out stories from his life. I felt
like it was one story after another that he just pulled out of a hat – kind of
like a Mary Poppins effect. Right when you thought it can’t get more insane, it
just did. I could spend a couple of hours trying to accurately recount his
stories, but it won’t come close to what was taking place that evening. It was
not Bob’s stories that caused my jaw to drop every five minutes, but the manner
in which he was telling his stories.
He could have been telling us how to
make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because the way he was sharing his life
with us made it seem like it was the most natural thing in the world to be
doing the things he has been doing. This guy flies around the world convicting
witch doctors who murder little boys, is good friends with producers of Pixar
movies, has an office at Disneyland, and encourages his kids to invite world
leaders over to their house for sleep overs by handing out copies of their
house keys, among other things.
Bob makes me question what I am
doing with my life. Seriously. What am I doing with my life? Going around
shaking people’s hands when I could give them hugs instead to say the least.
Someone like Bob puts no limits on love. He puts no limits on the things God
can do in his life. We see a closed door and sit around waiting for another one
to open. Bob sees a closed door starts kicking it down because sometimes that’s
just what you have to do.
There are a lot of people in this
world that spend a lot of time talking about how to take risks, how to live in
truth and how to love. Unfortunately, you find very few people that spend less time
talking about these things and more time living these things. You don’t have to
have an office in Disneyland or hand out keys to your home to strangers in
order to be fully alive. It is much more complicated than that. You have to
live love.
Love does.
That hour of conversation on my
living floor has stirred up some pretty big questions in my life. Sometimes all
you need is an hour or two with a stranger to make you question whether you are
really alive and living out what it means to be loved by God.
please read this man's book.
i am because you are.
