Everybody, Always summary

Faith can make the seemingly impossible possible.

Take the example of Goff’s friend Lex. He lost his eyesight at the age of eight – but it hasn’t held him back. Today, he’s a long jumper with the US Paralympic team.

After graduating from college, Goff’s son decided he wanted to learn skydiving. Goff chose to also learn so they could take the jump together.

But Goff ended up learning much more than how to fasten harnesses and pack a parachute. He soon realized that the safety instructions also contained insights into how we should treat others.

Goff didn’t decide to learn to skydive because it sounded like fun – it was because he loves his son and wants to spend time with him. That’s what love is. It makes us willing to jump out of a plane for someone!

And as the author puts it, Jesus jumped out of heaven to be with us.

There are plenty of people who are just a bit too eager to tell you all about the good they’ve done. They treat good works in the name of God as a kind of competition. If they do more than others, they seem to think, they’ll come in first and claim the trophy.

But by focusing on the “credit” they think they’re collecting along the way, they lose sight of the true purpose of doing good. And all those brownie points they’ve stashed away in their personal virtue account end up being worthless.

Goff once took his kids to the Madame Tussauds waxwork museum in Washington. While messing around with his children, he decided to play a prank on two old women and pretended to be a sculpture. The joke came off – they were convinced he was made of wax!

He realized that he’s an excellent poser. But that also reminded him of an important truth: posing doesn’t get you very far when it comes to faith. God always knows the truth, no matter who we pretend to be.

It might sound like something out of a horror story, but there are still witch doctors practicing child sacrifice in certain parts of Africa. One of Goff’s proudest achievements was bringing one of them to trial in Uganda. But it wasn’t just an exemplary lesson in justice – it also reminded him of the importance of forgiveness.

Witch doctors believe that the blood, head and genitals of children hold magical properties. They’re so convinced of this that they go to terrible lengths to get hold of them; they don’t hesitate to kidnap and hurt children.