All Is Grace_ A Ragamuffin Memoir - Brennan Manning [53]
Since then, you and I have buried friends, listened to confessions, laughed and cried on each other’s shoulders, and walked the peaks and valleys together. Hardly simple, always messy, but never boring. Now as the Sinners get ready to meet again this year, I am reminded about how two simple phone calls, brief conversations, a sense of humor, and brutal honesty can bind people together for life.
I love you, my friend. Keep listening for the phone. I hope it never stops ringing.
Mick
Dear Brennan,
Nearly three decades have come and gone since our paths first crossed. Back then the appearance of my life and yours was pretty darn good. I was a regional director of Young Life in the Carolinas, frantically living for God rather than with God. My cluttered personal life and flourishing ministry left no time for spiritual discipline, soul care, or proper rest and recreation. However, my longing for a saner pace and more meaningful life had become so intense that I was willing to try anything. As I’ve heard you say a thousand times, “the cheese was sliding off my cracker.”
Meanwhile your star was rising high and fast as you did your “ragamuffin thing,” jetting hither and yon, preaching, writing books, and giving retreats. Phoning you “from out of nowhere” and pleading for help was positive proof that I was in a hopelessly desperate state. Answering my call and receiving me as an honored guest was indicative of your Christlikeness. If you ever imagined that by welcoming me you might be “entertaining an angel unaware,” it didn’t take long for you to realize, “Nope. Not this guy.”
Humbly you embraced me with unbridled kindness and care, thus opening the way for me to expose the hidden but real condition of my twisted and deformed soul. Tirelessly you listened to my confession, and without my knowing, the healing of my image of God began. Your unconditional acceptance of me imbued me with uncommon courage to imagine that God accepted me too. Slowly I began to experience Jesus’ relentless tenderness and care. Your persistent emphasis on Abba’s scandalous love initiated my slow recovery from despair.
Today I recognize that if we are fortunate enough, there comes a time when we encounter someone who will leave an indelible mark on our life. Someone whose character embodies the fruits of a deep spiritual walk and whose intimacy with Jesus is so infectious that we long to emulate it. You have been that person in my life.
Your friendship has been like the refreshing shade of a vast tree in the noonday heat. You’ve provided my soul with a safe harbor, a sanctuary of protection. You’ve been a dispenser of hope, a ward against depression, and the cause of countless belly laughs. Most of all you’ve never wanted anything from me except that I am myself.
I am your eternally grateful friend.
Fil
Dear Brennan,
It is impossible for me to imagine the last forty years of my life without our friendship. Your spoken message and your writings would have made a difference, but it was the personal friendship that made the big difference. It was so important to me to identify the message of truth and love with a lifestyle of happiness, humor, and good times. We both knew and acknowledged the redemptive theology of our faith and its call for duty and sacrifice. Our personalities, however, were made for more than sacrifice. I think for both of us—in my case for sure—our temperament called for joy and celebration!
As I look back, I can see how I yearned to find such qualities in a “man of God,” a priest. I hit pay dirt in you. I could at last put together “the Word” and a lifestyle that was considered “less than” in most religious quarters. I had a lot to learn. When we met, I could not conceive of joy and celebration without alcohol.