On Wednesday afternoon Jonathan Brink (thanks for the photo Jonathan!) and I had the unique opportunity to hear Brennan Manning speak at William Jessup University. When I heard he was in town I jumped at the chance to hear him in person. I was introduced to Brennan’s writing when I was in college and his words spoke to my heart in a deep and humble way.

As he spoke I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and a pen to jot down some notes. I take notes with speakers in “sound-bites”, meaning that if a statement jumps out to me I jot it down. This usually works fine when I have a pen that works. This was not the case. My pen barely wrote and so the few statements I tried to write down took about three times as long as they should have.

So hear are some of the sound-bites (which hardly do his message of love justice), forcefully written on a tiny scrap of paper:

• The reason God loves you is this: . . . . . . . because he loves you.
• I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
• You gots to be who you is. If you ain’t who you is then you is who you ain’t.
• Our image of God shapes our image of ourself.
• My father is fond of me….my father is fond of me!
• I need to be set free from fear of my Father and dislike of myself.
• There are only two categories of people: Those who are aware that God loves them and those who are unaware that God loves them. [referring to the polarizing differences between faith-traditions and our personal awareness of God's love]
• [inhale] “Daddy”. . . [exhale] “I belong to you” / “Daddy, I belong to you” / “Daddy, I belong to you” / “Daddy, I belong to you” / [suggesting this as a prayer to say quietly throughout the day]
• I am daddy’s little boy!
• Our only identity is that of Abba’s child.