To Inspire:

All of us are invited to things – graduations, weddings, birthday parties, fundraisers. Bob Goff shares a lesson about invitations in his book, Love Does. Back in 2007 he and a buddy found themselves near the Library of Congress late onenight. They noticed a gate with the sign National Treasure 2 and quickly realized that the movie was being filmed inside at that moment. Parking their car, they walked through every door and past every guard simply by acting like one of the crew. They got all the way onto the set and casually sat and watched filming. And when Nicholas Cage and Diane Kruger took a break and headed to their trailers, Bob and his buddy walked right behind them, past all the doors and guards and back to their waiting car. They weren’t invited – but they invited themselves!

Bob Goff goes on to share his point about a more important invitation:

There is only one invitation it would kill me to refuse, yet I’m tempted to turn it down all the time. I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to actually live a life of complete engagement, a life of whimsy, a life where love does. It doesn’t come in an envelope. It’s ushered in by a sunrise, the sound of a bird or the smell of coffee drifting lazily from the kitchen. It’s the invitation to actually live, to fully participate in this amazing life for one more day. Nobody turns down an invitation to the White House or the Oscars, but I’ve seen plenty of people turn down an invitation to fully live. 

Turning down this invitation comes in lots of flavors. It looks like numbing yourself, distracting yourself, or seeing something really beautiful as just normal. It can also look like refusing to forgive or not being grateful or getting wrapped around the axle with fear or envy. I think every day God sends us an invitation to live and sometimes we forget to show up or get faked into thinking we haven’t really been invited. But you see, we have been invited – every day, all over again.

I’m so grateful to Bob and Maria Goff for their books. Each one reminds us of the blessing of life itself, even amid our everyday challenges and sufferings.

Tomorrow morning when you wake up, decide that you are going to truly live those 24 hours with passion and purpose. Set your phone alarm to check in with yourself every hour or two to recommit to that goal and assess how you’re doing. Pour yourself into others – make every encounter an opportunity to love. And at the end of the day, take stock of the day and what happened – I bet there will be a lot of joy and gratitude in that heart of yours. Then get up the next morning and do it again. And do it every day on – for the rest of your life. You’ll never be the same – and neither will those around you.

Life…what a gift. Live it with greatness, passion, purpose and joy. After all, why not?!

Written by Matt Palmer, Partner & Co-Founder