It hit me about a year ago when I was driving to Chicago with my wife for a short getaway.  I remember the scene specifically, we were on Toll Road 80/90 approaching this incredible old bridge on the outskirts of Gary, Indiana. We were listening to a podcast with Jen Hatmaker and Bob Goff, and Bob was talking about love. It wasn’t complicated, it was just a nudge to actually go and do love in his contagious Bob Goff sort of way. I appreciate the simplicity of his messages, because it can easily feel overcomplicated, but often is really just about having the discipline to do something.  To actually show love without waiting for the perfect opportunity.

On the drive I had an “ah ha” moment.  I realized that we were sort of just waiting for a transaction to happen so we can facilitate this love reaction of clean water.  Nothing wrong with that really, it’s a foundational process to MudLOVE. However, these feelings were coming at a time when a school shooting had just happened in a town about 2 hours south of our headquarters.  These people affected by gun violence are needing love like NOW, and I don’t want to wait for someone to ask for MudLOVE participate. The reason MudLOVE exists is to put love in action, but that doesn’t mean we should wait for someone to make a transaction.  

Right away the team took to the idea of being proactive in our mission and specifically with gun violence.   We ended up focusing on the students and staff affected by gun violence by giving away custom MudLOVE bracelets to the entire schools; a word or phrase of their choice. It felt like the right decision at the time because we know that a word in solidarity with others can be very powerful.  Even though we are reacting to a bad situation, we felt we could be proactive in encouraging the people affected. At MudLOVE we hold firmly that we can’t fully eradicate the hate, or the bad things in this world. Instead we want to be disruptors of those patterns, and we want to use a thoughtful and creative pursuit of love to do that.  We also just happen to use mud for that. This isn’t to say we have the perfect approach, but we’re trying.

If you’ve been affected by gun violence, first, I just want to say that I’m sorry that happened.  I can’t imagine what you must have gone through and be going through today. Second, I want to offer you a word of encouragement, on MudLOVE.  The only catch is that I don’t have the word for you, it’s whatever word you need right now. Wear it on your wrist as a reminder that there is hope in this life.  Go to MudLOVE.com/customband and put in the word you need and checkout using the code “endgunviolence” to get the bracelet for free, only available today. At the end of the day, and as my wife would remind me, love wins, always.  Always always always, love wins.

w/love,

Luke
Founder and CEO

P.S. If you are a part of or know of a school affected by gun violence, please reach out to me at luke@mudlove.com.