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Best-Selling Author, Bob Goff, Prompts Regent to “Live in Grace and Walk in Love”

Bob Goff
Photo courtesy of Bob Goff.

New York Times Best-Selling author Bob Goff owns up to a lot of quirks when it comes to reminding himself of the Gospel and his role as a Christ-follower within it:

He cuts holes in the left pocket of all of his jeans to symbolize his willingness to let things go. He holds up mirrors to his children and speaks life and encouragement over their lives. He gives away $500 for every time he drops an expletive.

And he has one functioning eye.

“When I say it’s good to see you, that’s really saying something,” Goff said to the Regent University community members on Friday, February 3. Regent School of Law’s Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law partnered with Campus Ministries for “A Night with Bob Goff,” in the University Chapel.

Goff explained that whenever he goes in to see an eye doctor he always asks the question: “When will I be able to fully see again?”

“The doctor always tells me, ‘Bob, you’re going to see more,’” said Goff. “And that’s the message of the Gospel: you’re going to see more the more that you do.”

To Goff, his motto and, perhaps not-so coincidentally the title of his best-selling book, is simple: Love Does. It’s a message he’s tethered to so tightly, he even left his cell phone number in the back of his book. He receives hundreds of calls a day, and he spends intentional time with each call encouraging the party on the other end.

“I can’t get a thing done,” he said, after stopping midway through the event to answer his buzzing phone. “It’s awesome.”

Throughout his life he’s chased after “doing” his faith: being the hands and feet to those seeking justice as a lawyer in the Uganda judiciary. He’s brought more than 200 cases to trial, began an academy for 300 students, and currently serves as the Honorable Council for the United States in Uganda.

But his ultimate goal is to not make his faith easy, but to make it simple – and the answer, for him, comes by way of not trying to follow Jesus for a lifetime, but just 30 seconds at a time.

“Doing my work means keeping my word,” said Goff. “We need to carry people from, the hurting, the lonely, isolated people. Find the people who creep you out and love them.”

Learn more about Regent University’s Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law and Regent’s Campus Ministries.