Love moves towards people.

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35 (AMPC)

Love feels simple until it becomes specific.

It’s easy to agree with love in principle, to admire it from a distance, to post about it, to speak about it in church. But love becomes challenging when it wears a face. A difficult coworker. A misunderstanding in a relationship. A stranger who interrupts our schedule. A friend who disappoints us.

Everybody, Always, by Bob Goff, is an all-time favorite book of mine, and this is becoming a favorite verse of mine:

“Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice.”

Love is not something we reserve for the deserving.

Love is the way Jesus moved through the world.

He didn’t wait for people to earn His affection; He moved toward them first.

Bob tells us stories of choosing presence over convenience — answering unexpected phone calls, welcoming people others avoided, opening his life to interruption. The point isn’t that every story becomes a grand gesture. The point is that love shows up in ordinary moments where we might otherwise choose comfort or control.

As we read those stories, a deeper truth begins to emerge: we struggle to love widely because we often live disconnected from God, from others, and even from ourselves.

Scripture reveals that we are made in the image of a relational God. The Father loves the Son, the Son delights in the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between them. God is not lonely or distant; God is communion.

This means something profound for us: our hearts were designed for relationships.

When Jesus summarizes the law, He joins two commands together - Love God and love neighbor - because they cannot be separated. To love God truly shapes how we love others. And loving others becomes one of the ways we experience God.

We were never meant to live closed off, guarding ourselves from one another. The longing we feel for connection is not weakness; it is the echo of our Creator. The God who made us exists eternally in perfect love and fellowship, and He formed our hearts to find life not in isolation but in relationship — first with Him, and then with one another.

Yet here is the tension many of us feel: we try to love others while secretly running on empty.

In the book, Bob’s stories often hint at a hidden foundation.

Love flows best when it is first received. Jesus Himself models this. Before His ministry begins, the Father speaks over Him:

“This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:17

Jesus ministers from belovedness, not for it.

Sometimes that order can be lived in reverse.

 We try to earn love through performance, achievement, or being useful. When we do, relationships begin to carry weight they were never meant to hold. People become sources of identity rather than companions on the journey.

But when we let God love us first, something changes. We stop grasping. We stop demanding that others complete us. Love becomes overflow instead of desperation.

“We love, because He first loved us.”

John 4:19 (AMPC)

Loving everybody doesn’t mean loving perfectly or evenly. 

It means staying open and listening. 

Jesus loved Peter, knowing he would fail.

He loved Judas, knowing betrayal was coming. 

He loved crowds who misunderstood Him.

He loved the Pharisees who plotted his arrest and death. Even when He preached to them, He desired their hearts to soften. 

Love isn’t naive; it’s courageous.

Stories are what gently expose how often we keep ourselves safe by limiting love to “predictable situations.”

 Yet Jesus repeatedly crossed boundaries, social, emotional, and cultural, because 

Love always moves toward people.

And still, Jesus also withdrew to pray. Love isn’t endless emotional availability; it’s rootedness in the Father that allows us to return again and again with compassion.

Perhaps the deepest invitation of Everybody, Always is this: Love is something we participate in.

When we remain connected to Christ, abiding in Him, His life and love become the source of our own.

“Abide in Me… for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

John 15:4–5 (AMPC)

Love then becomes less about effort and more about availability. 

 We begin noticing people instead of rushing past them. 

Interruptions become invitations. 

Ordinary encounters become sacred.

To love God and love others is not two separate tasks.

It is one movement of the heart.

The God who created us relationally invites us into His own perfect love.

This means:

Love is not weakness; it is participation in God’s nature.

Relationships are not distractions from spirituality; they are often the very place where transformation happens.

Loving others well begins with deeply receiving Jesus's love.

Prayer

Jesus,

Teach me to receive Your love so deeply that it reshapes the way I see others.

Help me remember that my heart was made for relationships with You and with the people You place in my life.

Free me from loving out of fear or performance.

Teach me to love from fullness, with patience and courage.

Make my life a reflection of Your love - for everybody to come to know You, always.

Amen.

How to live this today:

Ask Jesus quietly:

Who do You want me to move towards today or this week?

Who in my life feels difficult to love right now? How can I love them?

Where am I trying to earn love instead of receiving it?

How might Jesus be inviting you to move toward someone today with simple presence?

Take one small action of love - a message, a listening moment, a prayer - and move towards someone.