Read 'All is Grace' by Brennan Manning through in one sitting this morning (very rare for me). Extraordinary end of life memoir, the story of a ministry riddled with alcoholism, shame, divorce, failure and being so blind drunk (at the height of his ministry) that he missed his own mother's funeral. Manning was part of a group including Mike Yaconelli who called themselves the 'notorious sinners', and this book pulls few punches in exposing his own messed up heart and motivations. But it finishes in the most extraordinary way, with the description of a dream encounter with the mother who he'd never felt any love from, where he sees her both in her own deeply broken orphaned childhood as another 'ragamuffin searching for grace' and as an older woman coming to him asking forgiveness. Manning spent much of his ministry with his heart on his sleeve encouraging people deeply to experience Abba's love - 'God loves you unconditionally, and not as you are, because no-one is as they should be.' This book drives you further into that experience of grace wondering what part of each of our lives is hidden from public view - knowing that one day we will be fully known. It's a brave book. Movingly I was reading an advance copy from the shelves of David Pytches. It has his scribbles on the sides and in the back. In a week when the church at large has been analysing the failings and tragedies surrounding another ragamuffin who'd been in his care it is yet more moving still. The book reminds me that we're each more wicked than we dare to allow ourselves (and others) to realise, and yet that there is 'vulgar grace' that takes us back to the 'God too good to be true, my Abba' I found myself reading all 160 pages in one sitting. I'm glad I did. A fresh perspective on a sad and tragic week in the church at large. A broken life that was an offering to/for many, that at the very end of it all points away from his magnetic public self to the only One who can really make the difference we all need.