What if you knew exactly how many days you had to live? How would you spend them?

In this inspiring conversation, New York Times bestselling author Bob Goff joins Willow Weston to explore what it looks like to live intentionally, love people well, and make every day count. Drawing from his own life, health challenges, family, faith, and decades of ministry, Bob shares why he's become more focused than ever on investing in what matters most.

Bob reminds us that the average person has about 27,383 days to live—a perspective that challenges us to stop wasting time on what doesn't matter and start living each day with greater purpose, intention, and love.

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or wondering what God has planned for your life, this conversation will encourage you to stop waiting for someday and start living with greater purpose today.

In This Episode You'll Discover:

• How counting your days changes the way you live.
• Why being available is one of the greatest ways to love people.
• Why your calling starts with the people already in your life.
• Simple ways to make your life count for eternity.

Meet Bob Goff

Bob Goff is the New York Times bestselling author of Love Does, Dream Big, Everybody, Always, and Undistracted. He's an attorney, speaker, and the founder of Love Does, a nonprofit organization that fights for justice, provides education, and advocates for vulnerable children around the world. Known for his contagious joy and practical faith, Bob inspires millions to love boldly, dream courageously, and follow Jesus with childlike wonder.

Connect with Bob Goff on his website or on Instagram

Follow Willow: Website | Instagram | Facebook

💑Check out Collide’s website for info on upcoming conferences, events, and resources.

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5 Exercises to Help you do Amazing Things to help you confront the fear that holds you back, and to say “yes” to God doing amazing things in your life.

Hey, friends. So glad you hopped on to season six of the Collide podcast.

It has been a journey these last few years and I have loved every single second of getting to interview amazing people who are running into God.

He's running right smack dab into their lives and he's bringing them hope and he's bringing them healing and purpose and power, and then they're experiencing just all of this goodness and using it to do amazing things in the world. And I get to bring you those interviews every single week. And so super fun.

For the very first podcast of our Season 6 launch, I get to hand you an interview with one of my favorites, Bob Goff, New York Times best selling author.

He's come to Collide conferences multiple times and I swear, everything he shares in this podcast, you're just going to want to take furious notes because he drops just gems of wisdom over and over and over again. You'll feel like you're just downloading so much goodness. So I hope you enjoy every second.

Make sure if you have not subscribed to this podcast that you subscribe.

It's available on all platforms and it will come to your inbox every single week and inspire you, refresh you and grow you in your faith and in your life. So check that out. But here is the interview with Mr. Bob Goff. It is really good to sit down and be with you.

I feel like I haven't seen you since like pre Covid.

I know it's been a minute.

Yeah. And you have. But you've had a lot of life change. You've become a grandpa. You wrote another book, undistracted. You had a health scare.

So there's a lot going on in your life and you were just in Disneyland.

Yes. Yesterday. Isn't that fun? Yeah. We did such a fun thing at Disneyland. We brought a bunch of people there. We called it the school of whimsy.

Just to think of, like, what if we could like lift our eyes again because so many of us were just some really hard times in isolation. I want to get back to that whimsy. So it isn't just being silly whimsy. It's like a strategic whimsy. Like, why are you doing what you're doing?

Great to pause. And then we brought 30 or 40 Afghan and Ukrainian refugees yesterday just to blow their minds. They have no shelf to put Disneyland on.

I'm like, perfect. Yeah.

Wow. How amazing. So how many people were gathered to kind of center around this being whimsy?

Yeah, I think there was like 60 or 70 okay, so what I've done, done a shift, and it has to do with COVID But just like my own personal target is that I want to be around where the grandkids are. So I've kind of nixed. Except for friends. I'm not traveling around, speaking at things and not doing that.

I have a camp that's nearby the house, and so really staying pretty close to home.

Yeah, I read that in Undistracted. About how I think you canceled something.

Like 72, 70 speaking engagements before COVID shut Earth down. I just said, like, I'm just gonna do this. So really, God's kind of dropped people into my life in your life already.

And so I'm just trying to take good care of the people that are already friends.

That's super cool. You had this healthcare. I don't know if you wanna share about it, but I'm just curious. How are you doing? Are you good to go? Are you 100%?

We have this, like, team with defibrillators nearby. No, no, I'm good to go. We had a couple crazy things that happened. They all started from, like, getting malaria down in Uganda.

And there's, like, the normal kind of malaria, and then there's, like, super size. So I somehow ended up with the super size. I didn't even know I had it.

I got back from Uganda, and I think I went to 10 or 12 cities in a row on the way back, and I was just feeling a little bit under the weather, and it got worse and worse when I got back there, Said, oh, dude, you're like. So we went to the ICU for weeks. And the awesome part, I lost 30 pounds. That's pretty cool. In your face, Oprah. So.

So what I did is I recovered from that, but I've got just a couple little holdover things that ended up happening. It turns out it's not that good for you to get beat up. So we're just, like, worked our way through them. So I'm feeling fit as a fiddle.

Yeah, you're ready to go?

Yeah, yeah. For the number of years I turned 64. Four in February. And so for whatever number of days I have, we get about 27,383 days, give or take.

And so whatever number I have left, man, I'm leaving it all on the field.

How many have you lived so far?

Do you have over 20,000, which is kind of startling when you say, wow, 20,000 in the rearview mirror and about 7,000 something and change. It really is this great. At whatever age Any of your listeners are to say, like, gosh, figure out where.

Where you are on the game board because you'll have fewer petty arguments with people. Because I'm like, there was a scene in A Bug's Life, and this fly flies into a circus tent.

He said, I only have one day to live, and I'm not spending it here. So some of the arguments that have people kind of distracted or sore at each other, I'm kind of bypassing it.

It might read like apathy, but it's actually strategy. And so I want us to apply a little bit more strategy in our life. Strategic whimsy. Like, be fun, be engaged. That's all me. But being strategic.

And you don't have to swing at every pitch.

Yeah, it's really interesting because we hit these milestones in life. I'm about to hit 50.

Awesome.

I need to do the math. I need to do the math on how many years I've lived. But you start to look and go, man, you know, I'm not promised 74, 75 years. Right.

And how can I be intentional? How can I be strategic? When you think about that, this 7,000, if you're.

If you're lucky kind of an idea that you have 7,000 some days to live, what do you hope in the end, Maria says about you, your kids say about you, God says about you.

Yeah, it's a great discussion to have with yourself about, like, to say, if you take away what you're known for, let's say you're a really great musician. So take away all the music, what is it that's left over?

So take Bob the lawyer for 30 years, flying to Seattle in the morning each day and home for supper. So take away lawyer Bob, whatever's left is who I am. Then start writing books.

Take away balloon book Bob, take away that guy, and whatever's left is who you are. So it's great to just kind of strip this thing down to the chassis to say, and this is your legacy. All right?

When you take away this and that and this and that, what you'll end up with is what you're really going to be remembered for.

And while I find writing books very tedious, the strategy is to say, I'm going to end up in a jar someday, and I want something leaning up against it. So for my kids, kids, kids to say, and what I hope I'll be remembered for when it comes to God, I hope you get that thing.

And it doesn't come from Texas barbecue, but well done. Like, you want to get one set of well dones out of God and you'll know if it's well done.

And he didn't roadmap it with all the specificity about what I would do today, but he gave some broad brush strokes like Matthew 25, hungry people, thirsty people, sick people, strange people, naked people, people in jail, in James, widows and orphans. So literally, if you look at what I'm trying to do is I'm just trying to focus on those things.

So, like hungry people and thirsty and sick and strange and naked and people in jail and widows and orphans and so that's how we've organized what I'm doing, just because I know these are the things he'll care about. Writing books is not on the list. He didn't say handwriting books like Jesus only wrote in the sand that, like, blew away. So not a bad thing.

But it's a strategic thing. If you could write books that might connect for my kids. Kids. Kids about a very approachable faith. Somebody asked me when I wrote the last book.

They said, are you watering down the gospel? And I said, oh, I hope so. You know, I want to make it for thirsty people. Right. If you're not thirsty, you're going to hate my books.

But I'm not filling it full of Bible verses. If you want Bible verses, read the Bible. It's full of them. But what I want to do is fill it full of truth, right? So my versions.

I'm a Bible verse guy, so my version of every book I write is totally annotated just in case Jesus comes back to check my work. I may have gotten it wrong, but this is what I was aiming for. So I'm trying to tickle people's ears with a bunch of funny.

What I want to do is just be very invitational and let people know, man, there's room at the table. Get over here.

Let's talk about that a little bit, because I've read your books. You are tickling people's ears and you in love. Does you inspire people to love others and you do it in this really simple and yet profound way.

And I'm kind of curious how you see us as Christians over complicating what it looks like to love each other. Yeah.

And we all come by really simply. I'm not a golfer, but I'm envisioning a golfer. And they're trying to hit the ball further straighter.

And so somebody says, you need to bend your knees. You need to move this foot out. Now point your toe over here, give it a wiggle.

Just all these instructions instead of just swing at the thing, like, just swing. So I'm not saying that those lessons wouldn't be good. If you want some.

You want to hit it straighter, further in your marriage and get some people that are really good with marriages and relationships. If you want to hit it straighter further in your faith, find some people that are doing something with theirs.

Because you can have great doctrine and lousy theology, and I want to have great doctrine and awesome theology. And loving everybody is awesome theology. And not just the ones that agree with you, but the ones that are just flat wrong.

And you say, man, what do I have to learn from you? And it doesn't make me want to get in their grill about that.

It makes me want to get in the Scriptures and understand why do I believe what I believe. Yeah. So that's my reaction, isn't to sort things out for everybody else. That's why I don't put Bible verses. I just don't want.

I have a friend that did that a little bit, and people were like throwing Bible verses like grenades at each other.

And I just feel so confident in the truth of the Scriptures and the power of God unleashed through really fallible people like me that people will sort these. These things out for themselves.

What we can do is just point to something really beautiful and really true and make sure that it's well thought through and then just let people go, not try to control what we create. Right.

Yeah. There's been a lot of pushback in the last few years in Christianity where it seems like.

And I'm not sure, but it seems like it almost like a lot of Christians are making loving your neighbor about being right instead of about loving them. And that's caused a lot of. A lot of hardship. We're having a hard time loving our neighbor. We're kind of like, I'll love you if. Or I'll love you when.

Or I'll love you if you agree with me. You look like me, you vote like me. And so our neighbors are having a very hard time grasping Jesus. Are you seeing this?

I just think everybody's really beat up. I think everybody just beat. And so when they're trying, they come from a great place that they're trying to love people.

And then they see something that doesn't square with their worldview. They're like, ah, what do I do? And so they don't know what to do. So some people then get mean like a rattlesnake.

Other people get quite like a church mouse. Other people Withdraw and nobody knows what to do. And so we're all doing kind of a medium bad. What I want to do is chill out.

There's people that drive down the road with their hands at 10 and 2, following all the rules and clench and terrified. They're actually lousy drivers. There's other people that have.

They're just got one hand at 12 o', clock, they got the necker's knob if they've got a 50s car kind of car. But they're better drivers. And so if we could just be a little bit kinder to ourselves and then just assuming other people have their difficulties.

And my life is complicated and I'm trying to sort some stuff out and I assume they are as well. And if we could just chill out and. But starting with ourselves, like to just stop hitting ourselves. I want people to like repeat this phrase.

I'm not a pinata, I'm not a pinata. And when you hit yourself, this is not candy coming out of you.

This is all this other stuff, depending on who you are, that will dictate what that is. But what I want to do is just chill out a little bit. And again, it might read as apathy, but it's actually strategy. Take it down a notch.

And there's something really beautiful where you could take your faith up 10 notches by taking some of your opinions down a notch. Because I don't want people to meet my opinion. I want people to meet Jesus.

And so people are trying to size each other up all the time to try to figure out what. Where are they at by something they say. Or they'll take this sound bite or that sound bite and say, see this person is this that. And I just don't.

What if you screenshotted Peter? He says, like, you know, I've never even heard of Jesus.

And the rooster's going off and you do this little screenshot, you would say, with Peter, what a loser. But just wait a little bit. And Jesus will say, this is the guy building my entire church on.

And so I want to be a little bit less eager to screenshot somebody's failure, but to just know that there's more to the story. There's more to your wacky neighbor's story. There's more to your wacky story. There's more to. So if we could just chill out.

But we're kind of in a hurry to figure it out right now. And I get it. I'm like one of those guys, I pick juries. I have to figure out in a big Hurry where somebody's coming from.

And so what I want to do is just slow down the cadence a little bit. Say, I'm interviewing everybody, including you, to be my new best friend. Like, right now, that's what's happening right now.

I'm interviewing Joey behind the camera to be my new best friend and where I just met him. So, like. But I need to get to know him a little bit more to see if we'll be best friends or just really great acquaintances.

Oh, yeah, you will.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So isn't that great? Wouldn't that be a different way to see everybody?

Like, if you just were seeing the people that felt like they were impediments to what you wanted to have going on and just slow it down just a little bit. You will meet some really interesting people, and you will write some killer books. Right? Because you'll just, like, talk about the people.

I hope you're still writing a ton. You better be, Willow.

Thanks, Bob. I am writing. I am writing. It's the dream.

Yeah. Find those stories. Continue to write those. I was in Atlanta, and I got delayed on a Delta flight. And, you know, everybody gets a little bit delayed.

I wasn't mad or anything, but I thought, I'm going to call the chairman of the board. And so I knew somebody had his number. I called him up, not to tell Grouse about anything. I just said, I wanted to get to know you.

I've got some time on my hands. I actually invited him to be on the podcast, and he said yes. So I'm like, awesome. There's a guy that drives the tug.

You know those little tugs that push the airplanes out into the alley? Yeah. And his name is Carlos. And Carlos drives cars on the side to, like, get some extra money for his family. So we met. He was just driving me around.

I'm like, what do you do? Because I'm interviewing him for the job, and he says, I drive the tugs. I push the airplanes back.

I said, you know, instead of going 90 degrees out when you get into the alley, he says, you know what I do is I stop at 90, and then I go one more degree. Isn't that awesome? And it jiggles the plane. Have you ever had that where the seat jiggles a little bit? Yeah, that's Carlos saying, hi.

Isn't that awesome?

So I called the guy that's chairman of the board. I said, you got to know about this guy named Carlos. He works for you. He doesn't go 90 degrees. He goes 91.

And every time, even flying up here, On Alaska Airlines. I know that ain't Carlos, but they jiggled a little bit. I thought of Carlos and I think if we could take.

It's Philippians 2:20, that you don't need a Bible verse for everything. But it's Paul saying about Timothy, he's a guy who takes a genuine interest in the people around him.

And if we could take an interest in Carlos and the chairman of the board and the person that bags the groceries and the person that picks the lettuce and the person that planted the lettuce and the farmer who's praying for rain as well as the bride who's praying for sunshine and to say on the very same day. So if we could take that kind of genuine interest, I think what would happen is that people would see Jesus. They would.

I'd start seeing him in people. People would start seeing him in each other.

So I think it starts instead of a program, just say, what if we just get more curious about ourselves and the people around us and what's going on? I got the dreaded note from UPS and they said there's no one here to sign for the package. So we put it back on the truck.

I'm like, no, but did you know UPS trucks only turn to the right? They can't, they're forbidden. They cannot turn left because that means going across traffic and would slow them down. So I just saw.

I just missed the guy. So I just left my house. I made every right I could make and I found him.

Bob, are you serious?

Take a genuine interest in what's going on around you and then you won't be quarreling with people about pre trib and post trib and all this, you know, angels on heads and needles. But what you'll do is you'll actually know about Carlos. You'll know the chairman of the board, you know, the UPS guys hanging, right?

And then you'll find out about the kids for whoever delivers your mail and you can ask them about your kids. And like there's something beautiful and engaging about that. And when love has an agenda, it isn't love anymore. It's a program.

So I'm not saying make a program because we don't need any more programs.

We just need people who take an interest in other people and are curious about the world around them and then just stand back and let that do its thing.

Do you ever feel like your self doubt and fear are holding you back from achieving your dreams? Perhaps you believe that God can do incredible things, things in the lives of others. But not in yours.

If this sounds familiar, it's time to break free from those limiting beliefs and start saying yes to the unimaginable.

Our free resource, 5 Exercises to Do Amazing Things is designed to guide you through the process of confronting your fears, taking inventory of your unique strengths, and reflecting on who you can impact with your gifts. With a focus on studying scripture, this powerful resource just might challenge you to step out in faith and take bold action toward your dreams.

So don't hesitate to get your hands on this free resource and start doing amazing things today. Check out the link in our show notes to grab your copy now.

You're. You're writing books. You have the Oak center, you have the Love does. Org.

I mean, there's so many things that you're doing and you're being an amazing husband, dad, grandpa, all the things. I kind of am curious if we can rewind back to the Bob Goff before millions of people read your books, before we all were fangirling and fanboying.

I don't know if that's a word on you. Did you have any idea, did you have any concept?

Did you have some sort of sense that God was going to use your life to do huge things that would impact people spiritually in the way that you do? I mean, you're talking about, you know, people coming to you and saying, oh, are you watering down the gospel?

I would say you're probably one of the greatest evangelists of our time. You might not call yourself an evangelist, but someone who's, who's pointing people towards God and what God is like in a way that's life changing.

Did you have any sense before any of us didn't know you, that God would be like, hey, Bob, I'm gonna do this.

Yeah. In answer your question, I think what I sensed is that I could be a good friend to people. And so that's been the goal, to be a good friend to people.

And so then when you mentioned, like, Love does and what that organization's doing, like, I just got adjacent to this amazing woman, Jody Luke, who runs it, and then these amazing teachers in Afghanistan and all over the place. But because I was curious, I would go. And then sometimes the people that run in the country are old guys like me.

And so then I could be curious about them and say, would it be okay if we started a school here, even if they're playing for the wrong team to just say, would it be okay? Or if they take over a nation, would it be okay if we restarted our school?

And so I Think I've always had an interest in people and it just happens I've been adjacent to some really neat people, very capable people. And so sometimes people see what they're doing and think that. So I'm medium good friend. Like I try to be curious and a good friend to people.

And then some people try to control what they create and I try not to. We have the craziest interview process. If you were sending somebody over to love does or any other things that I'm up to.

If they say, well, so what's the job? I'd be like, I don't know, what are you good at? Instead of saying, here's the job and can you take complicated you and fit that into this job?

Instead, we start with what somebody's really good at or the care of corollary to that, what do you stink at? And let's do less of what you stink at and more of what inspires you. And then know that you are a new creation. So you'll be constantly changing.

As a matter of fact, if you're not changing, something's amiss, right?

So every year that I operated this law firm for 30 something years up here in the Washington state area, I would propose to every person, with Sweet Marie's permission once a year.

And I would literally take a knee in every guy that practiced law, that was a lawyer, every paralegal, every secretary, everybody, we'd say, will you practice law with me for one more year? And so we dissolved the law firm every year. We said, it's over in about the third week of December.

And then we would get it back together in January and say if we wanted to. So I want to give people an opportunity to figure out, you've changed, what do you want now? And that's the beautiful thread throughout the Gospels.

Jesus asking blind people all the time, what do you want? And so what a great thing for people to pause on.

And if we feel like they're supposed to be, the answer is like, Jesus, you're kind of like primed it in Sunday school that this is what you're supposed. But what if we really ask people, what do you really, really want? When you blow the foam off the top, what do you really want?

And then can we help people get what they want? Instead of telling them what they ought to want, let's give them what they really, really want.

And sometimes people haven't had somebody ask them, what do you want? We try to kind of maneuver them into, you want this job, right? Like these.

There's a guy That I don't know if he got fired from Twitter or quit or whatever, but he's like a big, big guy there. And I was just reading on the plane ride up here that he's no longer there. So my first message to him, what do you want?

Call me up, because I know you're a really bright guy, and so who knows what that'll be? I can't wait. I bet I'll get the answer today. I bet he'll tell me because we've logged some time together over the years.

I bet he's going to tell me what he wants. And I bet he'll still want his marriage. I think he'll still want this beautiful set of kids he has.

I think he'll still want some of these deep, abiding friendships. I know his faith is super important to him.

So once you kind of do a little inventory of what you want, then you can do something with it, because then once you know what you've got at hand, then you can say, what can I release into the world? I mean, think of the list for you. All the things that you're capable of writing, organizing, encouraging, all. All that.

So you might be capable of something but not called to it anymore, right? I've got a bunch of pieces of paper that say, I'm a lawyer in six or eight states, but I don't feel like I'm a lawyer in six states. I quit.

Cost $100 to keep being a lawyer in a state. And if you quit, like, you'd have to take the bar exam and all that. All over. I quit them all. I'm like, that's like a hundred bucks.

You can get like six Starbucks for that. I'm out. So I went full Cortez, he just burned the ships. He said, no, no, no, no, no. We're not leaving. We're here. And so for some people, really to.

One thing that gets confusing is we have so many options. And I just love that verse in the scriptures that say, when Jesus asked his friend, are you leaving, too? And he just said, where else would I go?

I just love that, like, to actually eliminate some of the options from your life and get down to something. I'm focusing on this thing right here.

If it is in the zip code of encouraging people, hungry, thirsty, s. Six strange, naked people in jail, widows and orphans, like, that's right down Main Street. I'm jumping on those. And then the other things, I'm just going to get my head on a swivel.

And if an opportunity comes by, you match an ambition with an opportunity, and where they cross is your next move. So I want to be available. So people call up. They. Not by, like, happenstance. My phone number's out there.

Yes, it is.

So I get all these crazy calls. There's a woman, they called, and she said, the devil's in my bathroom. I've had teenage boys. I know exactly how you feel. And.

And I said, who's your best friend? And she said, there's a woman named Mary. I said, get. Give Mary a call right now. Have her come over. You don't want to face this alone.

And then give me a call back after Mary's there and you sort things out. And so she called back an hour or two later and she said, devil's gone. I'm like, terrific. And so what if we're just.

After Mary left. No, I. Just kidding.

But there's something really beautiful about being available to people. And then I don't.

I didn't feel a responsibility to sort out whether it was actually the devil, it was a bad idea, or it was like, you know, pepperoni pizza from the night before. I didn't know what it was. But. But to just meet people and to give some practical thoughts. I don't give people opinions or advice.

I ask them about experience. I tell them my experience. So I'll just tease that out for a second. I've sailed to Hawaii a couple times and back, which is so stupid because I hur.

The whole way. It's good for 10 or 15 pounds at bare minimum. But I really like the poor malaria. What's that?

Not your diet.

Yeah. Or a Hawaii trip. Yeah, yeah. So these people that with these great big boats, have their boats in Hawaii and they need to get them to the west Coast.

So I'll just call a dozen friends and say, what if you, like, get a $300 ticket over and you can get back for nothing? So we just load it full of food and we start sailing. And it takes about two weeks if things go right, three if they go wrong.

But the thing about this, there was a guy. We're fixing to do it again. And there was a guy that told me, you need to make sure that you do this and bring this and do this.

I said, are you a sailor? He says, no, I never left Ohio. He had a ton of opinions. He just didn't have any experience.

So when people talk about relationships, ask them, hey, what's your experience in relationships? It's not like calling them out. It's just like, tell me. Because relationships Are tricky. How are they going? Do you have lots of friends?

Have you had broken relationships like most of us have? Tell me your experience. If somebody's giving you opinions about your finances, say, what's your experience?

Maybe you've had some reverses and had bankruptcies. Maybe that has happened for no good reason or 100 good reasons. But if we could actually get a little context.

When people tell you what you ought to be doing with your faith, say, tell me your experience. How's it going? Like, what have been the high points this year? What have been the standouts in your faith? And not trying to call somebody out.

There's no. Like, you're just saying, I want to understand some context from this.

So if somebody says, this is how you should grieve, tell me, gosh, what's your experience in grieving? Would have been some of the setbacks that have been among the big ones.

If we could pause and understand a little context before we give people the right to speak into our life. It's just really good. And it takes slowing down the cadence of your life. It just means asking Joey, like, tell me, what's it feel like to be you?

What a great question to ask people. So, what's it feel like to be you today? Because it's not leaning in one direction or the other, but it just says, I'm interested.

If you just said, how are you? That's just being polite. But if you said, tell me some of the things that it feels like, you go like, well, that feels great.

I guess be like, I don't know. Really tell me what's going right or what. Some of the things have been going wrong. That is somebody who really wants to know you.

If somebody asked me that, I'd be like, wow, somebody really wants to know me. Yeah. Yeah.

Very cool.

I think if we got there, people would encounter their faith. And it comes from Matthew 16. Is this Simon Peter moment. Like, who do you say I am? And he said, well, some people say you're a teacher.

And Jesus was a terrific teacher. And said, some say you're a prophet. And he was all of that. He was awesome prophet. But then he said, I think you're God. Next verse. Don't tell anybody.

Which just blows the minds of all my evangelical friends. And the verse after that, flesh and blood doesn't reveal this to you, but the spirit of God. So let the spirit of God do his thing.

Instead of telling people or priming what they ought to think, just say, what's it feel like to be you? And for Most people, if they're honest, they would just say, it feels confusing. It feels kind of like Romans 5.

I keep doing what I don't want to do, and. And I don't do what I do want to do. I guess that's Romans 7. But he's just like, that's Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.

And then there's a long weekend.

For me, I just said, feels like living constantly in conflict between Bob the nice guy and Bob the really selfish guy, and then Bob the happy guy, and then Bob the guy that could feel really lonely and isolated, and then Bob this. And so we can have those feelings. And it doesn't need to be. You don't need to be all this or all this. Both things can be true.

You be both very optimistic and then very reflective and a little pensive about this.

If you've had some relationships that have been great and then you've got burned in a couple relationships, you go like, oh, wow, how do I hold both of these? And part of it is just getting real with it. Just say you can see it so that you can understand it. Then you can take it to Jesus and to fix it.

But if you just say, I'm sad. Say, like, how come? Like, what are the. Ask yourself, or have a friend ask you. I think that's where our faith really explodes.

And when in the Acts church, when they said their numbers were being added to daily, I think it was because they were being real. So they broke bread together, they pounded the carbs, and they had things in common. I think they were, like, having these conversations.

And who wouldn't want in on this? Who wouldn't want in on authentic conversations?

Yeah, true, true. You are such a champion for other people's dreams. I. I mean, you wrote dream big, but I hear you. You champion your wife.

You're always talking about sweet Maria and championing her, your children. You're championing. Championing. That's a hard word to say. Can you say that?

Yeah, well, I'm not even gonna try.

But you're. You're championing people.

I'm curious if that did that for you, someone who kind of did it for you and showed you how to do it, because it seems like you do it for so many people.

Yeah, no, I have, gosh, earliest memory of anything to do with faith was a young life leader named Randy, and that I wrote about. But there's another guy named Steve, and it is 18, 20, 30, 40, 15, 44 years later, and we still meet every Friday, including today.

Really?

Every single Friday.

Wow.

We meet. There's like a 44 years, and he's still in my corner, and he's still this beautiful, authentic voice in my life.

And so find people that you can first measure your relationship in weeks and then aim for months, and then aim for years, and then aim for decades. And I'm aiming for half a century with that guy.

Like, what I want us to do is have some of these relationships, some new people are being onboarded in your life, and then stay in touch with some old ones that have just kind of gone through the arc of life together. So as many as come, don't feel bad if you don't have one that's measured in decades, but just say, well, how about one in years?

Or maybe you've lost track of somebody. Go get reacquainted, pick up where you left off. And I think these will be the people that are cheering for you.

If your head's on a swivel and you're looking for those relationships, you're going to find it. You're going to find what you're looking for.

Yeah, that's very cool.

I want to be intentional in my life and the things I'm working on. So I'm always in a hurry. I'm like, zip, zip, zip, zip.

Now, it's not anything fancy, but with a stiff wind downhill, it'll hit 40. But I drive that thing around. I love that car. Not because it just costs peanuts, but it's just so dog slow. But when I turn the key, it just starts.

There's just nothing fancy about that car, but it slowed me down. And I just. It's great. I just drive up. It takes me an hour and a half to do an hour's worth of driving. It's just delightful.

So you can actually stack the deck. And so stack the deck in your relationships by getting those kinds of questions about what's it feel like to be you, Maybe stack the deck.

Instead of saying, how's life working for you, Willow? Say, how is Your life, Willow, working for the people around you. Wouldn't that be great? Stack the deck.

Ask the people that are nearby you, how's my life working for you? And sweet Maria has told me, when I asked the question, your life actually isn't working for me right now. I'm like, oh, how come? Like, which parts?

And she said, like, you know, you're always zip, zip, zip, zip, zip around. And so that. What was the Next thing? Cancel 70 events. Just say, I'm just going to be around. This is going to be great. I can't wait.

And living in that kind of anticipation. Not that you had your ears boxed, but did you say, hey, I want my life to work for me, but I want it to work for the people around me?

And so I think if we could have those honest conversations with the people you love, then they'll point you towards a really great version of you.

Now, there's other people that will be trying to manipulate you because they have something, but find those trusted voices in your life that there's no other agenda working, only your best. Draw those people close and then listen to what they have to say and then do something about it. Don't just say, I'm going to listen.

Say, be a good doer of those things, not a good listener. Because I know some people that are great listeners, but they're not as great at onboarding those things.

And I'm trying to be from the guy that used to listen well and not do well, but the one that's incorporating that and so go get a slow car and then give somebody other than you access to your calendar to just say, I just have a trusted friend, Becky, and a couple others that have the calendar. It's up to them. It doesn't get on there without them, so. And they just say no to stuff without even me knowing.

It just tells you, oh, he'll be tempted to say yes. So they just say no. Yeah, it's awesome.

That's awesome.

Yeah. She's like, bob needs to be at home with his kids. And so find a couple people to create those kind of circuit breakers in your life.

That's a great tactic, Bob.

I'm curious. You seem so sure that God loves us. Why are you so sure?

You know what? It's Paul again, talking to Timothy. It's 1 Timothy 2:17.

And it says that God chose me, the worst of the sinners, to put on display his immense patience.

And so what I want to do is that, to see how God has been so patient with me and so How I could tend to be so impatient with trying to get things done. But if I could. If he could pick me and allow me to be loved and cared for and surrounded by community of people.

Where it's hard is if you're not surrounded. Like, if you're listening to this and you're feeling incredibly lonely right now because you just feel like, I just got nobody right now.

And so, first of all, to just acknowledge that's a really hard feeling. So I've got a lot of supportive people that care for me.

But I'm thinking right now, the person that feels kind of isolated, they've had a couple relationships that didn't work out, and some friends that they've tried to draw close to that have kind of. They've been polite about it, but they've blown them off. That's the one that I want to reach out to and to just say, God is looking at you.

I have a very orthodox theology. I think God knows everything that has happened and everything that is happening and everything that's going to happen. But here's the crazy part.

The angels don't. The angels only know whatever God tells them. Isn't that crazy?

So if you check out in Matthew, you say, like, God tells the angel, go tell Joseph he's going to be a dad. And the angel's like, no way. God's like, Yahweh.

But what if you were to really actually see if you're feeling lonely, the angels leaning over from heaven just to wait and see what you're going to do next? Like living in that kind of anticipation. You'll start living a better life. You will. I want to dazzle the angels.

And if you say that, you can't dazzle God. He's already, like, knows everything, but the angels don't, other than saying his name. They're, like, just waiting to hear.

They're watching down on you. I wouldn't feel as lonely if I knew I had millions of angels leaning over the rails.

Not in the know, unless God told them what's going to happen next. And he hasn't told me what's going to happen next in my life. But he's given indications along the way.

He's given an indication made, like, availability. And that's strategic.

I've seen some people that wrote a country western song about a big old truck or a big old dog or a big old whatever, and people like it. They tap their foot and then they're not available anymore.

Or somebody gets a bit part in a movie and now they're the big movie star and they're like, they're not available. I'm like, that's. I don't know. That doesn't appeal to me. Like I want to go the other direction.

Like I want to get more available as time goes by, not less available. And so if you say for me, it's not for everybody, it's not for sweet Maria, but for me, I just want to get more and more available.

So I'm just thinking, how could I get more available so for other people that wouldn't appeal to them, but find that thing, find that heartbeat that feels like it's something you can continue to return back to. It will implode. Any sense of in culture, some celebrity that people tend to gravitate toward.

Just go get available to everybody, including the woman with the devil in her bathroom. And just keep your feet right on the ground. It'll make. It'll be really awkward and inconvenient from time.

If I get a phone call at 2 in the morning, it's one of two things that's going on. Somebody's either totally wasted or they're completely desperate. So one of those two things. Sometimes both, but usually one of those two things.

And I try to figure out which of the two it is. And I'll ask you a question. If there's any like, are you in a safe place? Is there any self harm?

If there is, let's get 911, let's be patch them in and get some people that are actually qualified to talk about that, because I'm not. Let's get people to the right people to talk about.

What if we just came up some really simple ideas to make ourselves available to a hurting world in our own way. If they don't want to call, they don't need to call.

But if they do and it happens, then that's actually kind of a neat thing to celebrate availability. Old cars that drive slow, that are kind of banged up, like, just come up with a couple things.

A camp near the House so I can get home to the grandkids.

Like, you can actually structure your life in a way that'll point towards some of the big themes that you feel like God is nudging you in the direction of.

Yeah, simple and profound. Bob, we are about to go into conference mode, and I know I could ask you so many questions, but I'll get a chance later to ask you.

Yeah, some questions, too. But my last question for you is, I feel like you're the king of big dreams.

I. I also think an even bigger big dreamer is God, that he has such big dreams for us. And so often we limit our own dreams by our own feelings of inadequacy or, you know, I'm lacking resources or I'm not good enough or whatever it is.

And so many women that I work with, I've stopped dreaming. And I'm just kind of curious what your advice is, because I know you're always. You're always dreaming.

You know, more and more you're saying, like, I might have 7,000 days left, but I'm. I'm whittling down to my main things, and I'm going for it and trying to be available to it. What's your advice for people who've stopped dreaming?

My experience is that I would have felt overwhelmed by my circumstances. It's hard to dream. I'm just trying to make it through the day.

And so for the man or woman that feels like they're just so overwhelmed with the pressure of finances and faith and family and fun and just everything that starts with an F. Like, just me. Yeah, Just these are the F bombs. But do a little bit of an audit to just say, okay, so let me just hover over my family here for a second.

So first thing God did is he created, and then he hovered. So let me hover over my family. What do you uniquely. I give to each relationship in my family.

So what Lindsey Goff needs is different than Richard Goff, different than Adam Goff, different than people they married, different than the people they made. But just, like, hover over each of those and then hover over your faith for a second.

They say when you blow the foam off the top, like, well, I don't care what my faith looks like. Let's just talk about where it is. And so maybe somebody's feeling like, I've got a bunch of big questions.

And I think angels are leaning over the rails saying, hey, shout them in this direction. We want to hear what those questions are. Maybe you need to bring a friend. Maybe you Just maybe one of your Fs to say just a good friend.

So who is it that you've lost touch with somebody that you remember was a really good friend? There was a guy, Rick, that's. He's a great guy. And we just kind of lost touch with each other.

He lived a mile away and just gave him a call and just said, hey, do you want to get together on Friday? He's like, yes. And so it was just like. And then kind of rekindled that friendship. So faith, family, fun.

Like to just say, when was the last time you just did something that was fun? There's nothing redeeming about it other than the redemptive of stuff that God does when we're just enjoying. He loves seeing his children at play.

So I think if you could just go down, find a way to organize and take a little bit of an inventory of what you've got. The person who's feeling really isolated right now isn't dreaming. 2 Peter 1, 3. And it says this.

And again, I just give you a reference point for people that like to flip over to check and see if it's true. And it's Peter again. And he says, God has given us everything that we need already to lead beautiful godly lives. So if we could just take inventory.

If you really believe that it's all there and we just need to take inventory of it, that would be a really beautiful exercise for that person that feels like, I can't dream. I'd just say, like, I don't know, what do you got? And forget going across the ocean. Go across the street, make somebody a pie.

If they don't want it, I do.

Yeah. That's such great wisdom. Because people want to start huge instead of just walking across the street. Yeah.

Yeah.

So maybe instead of if you want to give water to a million people, what if you just start with one of those little water shooters and just give one person say, are you thirsty? They go, actually, I am. Joey's probably thirsty. Just give a brother a little bottle of water.

Like, if we do some of that stuff, then all of a sudden we're doing hungry people, thirsty people. Your head will start being on a swivel. I teach at San Quentin. I've got all kinds of guys that are in my class every three weeks we're together. Why?

Because it's like one of the six things Jesus said, if you want to find me, you got to find them. And if you don't find them, you're probably not going to find me. It's not. So we do a solid for them. I go there to learn. I got nothing.

They've taught me all kinds of different stuff.

And so if we could get our head on a swivel and to just say, so many people familiar with, like, this friends that are, like, taking the roof apart to lower their friends in front of Jesus. I'm finding these guys at San Quentin, they're the ones lowering me that I'm not the guy that's given the solid to them.

But, gosh, their life experiences have, like, point in this beautiful direction. I want to be in that blast radius. This is really good for me to learn and take note and then to go back home a little bit more present from.

They just wish they could spend the day with their family. I get to spend every day, and I want to make sure I'm doing that.

When you visit them, you visit Jesus.

Yeah, they do. It's like you'd go to each guy who's like, Jesus. There's a couple that know what I'm talking about. There was. I brought.

I always bring a friend with me. And there's a woman who is this concert violinist. She's all so capable in so many areas. But among the things, she is. And she's got perfect pitch.

And there's a guy walking around who's in for life that he's able to have his violin with him. And so he spent years and years and years just playing violin, trying to teach himself.

And so I got the word out to him, hey, show up, because I'm bringing this person, this. This fantastic musician. And so he opened up his case. She opened her up her case, and she. They didn't talk at all. She said, just start playing.

And so he part of. And they didn't try to tune up the violins. She just immediately matched where he was by moving her fingers a 32nd of an inch.

And then she went three steps up with that and started harmonizing with whatever song he was playing. And 60 guys lost their minds to just see that kind of beauty. She didn't say, hey, you tune up to me because I've got perfect pitch.

She said, man, I'll just tune to you. Go, let's go play your song. And I just go, like, what if we could do that?

Use that as a model for how we talk to people about our faith, how we take an interest in them. Like, let's make it about you, not about me. Like, oh, that was great. So I go to learn, and I just take notes when stuff like that happens.

I'M like, oh, perfect pitch.

That's awesome. Well, I go to learn to take notes from you. I'm taking all sorts of notes.

Right, right. That's where. That's where we learn from each other.

Yeah. Bob, thank you for hanging out. Yeah.

This is great.

And sharing, and you're so inspirational. I'm so grateful for you.

So great. Thank you.

Yeah.

Hey, friend, I told you that you would love that interview with Bob. He has so many amazing stories. He is just a ball of energy and joy and lives an incredibly inspirational life.

And I have to tell you that when I sat down with him, he just is truly authentic. He is who he says he is and lives what he preaches, and I appreciate him so much. And I hope that that interview impacted you in a very special way.

I hope you get off the calculator and you count the days that if you were to live the average number of days, how many do you have left? And then I hope you get really intentional with those days because, friend, you have one beautiful life to live.

I hope you keep colliding with Jesus and he purposes your life so much that he blesses your socks off and that he uses you to do amazing things to make this world a better place. Keep gliding and we'll catch you next week.