I shared a beautiful story yesterday from Brennan Manning’s book, “The Furious Longing of God”. I could hardly put it down and finished it in a few hours. I can’t remember reading a book that has had such an impact on me. I ordered 3 more of his other books. Another powerful story from the same book is about a young man named Larry Malaney. He is described as an ugly, short, unkempt obese man, who professed to be an agnostic. Larry was going back to college after the Christmas vacation on a bus accompanied by his father. As he and his father got off of the bus, a group of men across the street started yelling terrible insults about Larry. They were brutal, calling him names like pig and slob. Brennan continues. “Larry Malaney told me that in that moment, for the first time in his life, his father reached out and embraced him, kissed him on the lips, and said ‘Larry, if your mother and I live to be 200 years old, that wouldn’t be long enough to thank God for the gift he gave to us in you. I am so proud that you’re my son!’ It would be hard to describe in words the transformation that took place in Larry Mullaney, but I’ll try. He came back to school and remained a hippy, but he cleaned up the best he could. Miracles of miracles, Larry began dating a girl. And to top it off, he became the president of one of the fraternities. By the way he was the first student in the history of our university to graduate with a 4.2 grade average. Larry Malaney had a brilliant mind.” He asked Brennan to tell him about Jesus, was ordained a priest, and was a missionary for over 20 years in South America.