When we wrap someone in love it's harder to ignore how loveable that person is

​Today, Goff asks us to consider, what happens when we decide our love isn't for everybody?

When I went to work for Eckerd Youth Alternatives back in the early 1990's, they had a bumper sticker on all of their vehicles. It proudly declared, "we've hugged our kids today."

I remember days standing in front of the dining hall before meals. As the kids rolled in, I'd try to give a hug to every kid who wanted one.

But not every kid did want a hug.

For some kids, being touched by an adult stirred up bad memories. Some kids didn't think they were worthy of a hug. And there were kids who were mad that this strange dude from Ohio wanted to hug them when the people who were supposed to love them had ever once hugged them.

I think a hug meant most to me when one of those kids didn't walk right on by me and into the dining hall, but instead, stopped to get their first hug from me. The look on someone's face who feels like someone loves them without conditions - well it's priceless.

It might be the look I had the day I realized God was hugging me. A guy who had treated his family and friends and the world and, well, God, like crap. A guy who had spent his days being far more sinner than saint.

I remember what it felt like the day I didn't just walk right on by God. I stopped and looked at him and thought, surely not me. But it was me. He did hug me. And my life changed.

In my work, I often hear people talking about wanting to change the world. More and more I wonder, though, if they and me and we aren't dreaming too big with our plans to change it. What if we're dreaming too grandiose, thinking too much is required of us. Maybe so big we never really do much at all.

What if in reality what might change the world quickest is a hug. What if we just stood at the door of every life in the world - every single life - operating under the assumption the person walking toward us needs a hug. What if we cast aside all qualifiers, all judgment about whether or not that person deserves a hug, and just held on to a belief this person needs a hug as big as one of the hugs that have poured love into our lives.

I think when we wrap someone in love, it suddenly becomes harder to ignore how loveable that person is. I think that serves both sides of the hug equation well.