Larry Malaney

The following comes from Brennan Manning’s The Furious Longing of God. The story beautifully captures the pain that we all feel because of our sin and the sin done against us, and the redemptive healing love of our Father.

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Back in the late 1960′s, I was teaching at a university in Ohio and there was a student on campus who by society’s standards would’ve been called ugly.  He was short, extremely obese, he had a terrible case of acne, a bad lisp, and his hair was growing like Lancelot’s horse.  He wore the uniform of the day: a T-shirt that hadn’t been washed since the Spanish American War, jeans with a butterfly on the back, and of course, no shoes.

In all my days, I have never met anybody with such low self-esteem.  He told me that when he looked in the mirror each morning, he spit at it.  Of course no campus girl would date him.  No fraternity wanted him as a pledge.

The story that follows is what Larry got for Christmas one year…  Christmas came along for Larry Malaney and he found himself back w/ his parents in Providence, Rhode Island.  Larry’s father is a typical lace-curtain Irishman.  Now there are lace-curtain Irish and there are shanty Irish.  A lace-curtain Irishman, even on the hottest day in summer, will not come to the dining room table without wearing a suit, usually a dark pinstripe, starched white shirt, and a tie swollen at the top.  He will never allow his sideburns to grow to the top of his ears and he always speaks in a low, subdued voice.

Well, Larry comes to the dinner table that first night home, smelling like a Billy goat.  He and his father have the usual number of quarrels and reconciliations.  And thus begins a typical vacation in the Malaney household.  Several nights later, Larry tells his father that he’s got to get back to school the next day.

“What time, son?”

“Six o’clock.”

“Well, I’ll ride the bus with you.”

The next morning, the father and son ride the bus in silence.  They get off the bus, as Larry has to catch a second one to get to the airport.  Directly across the street are six men standing under an awning, all men who work in the same textile factory as Larry’s father.  They begin making loud and degrading remarks like “Oink, oink, look at that fat pig.  I tell you, if that pig was my kid, I’d hide him in the basement, I’d be so embarrassed.”  Another said, “I wouldn’t.  If that slob was my kid, he’d be out the door so fast, he wouldn’t know if he’s on foot or horseback.  Hey, pig!  Give us your best oink!”

These brutal salvos continued.

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 two hundred 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!”

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My guess is that if you are reading this post, you can identify with Larry.  You may not know it or others around you may be unaware, but I’m betting that you have a deep fear that God is not pleased with you and that you need to get it done to get his approval.  The story of Larry’s dad is good, but only insofar as it points to our true Dad who is infinitely proud of you in Christ.  If you are in Christ, He has made you absolutely beautiful and He is eternally pleased, satisfied and proud…  now!  As the Father said to the Son in Luke 3:22 (“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”), so He says to you.

If you have not come to Jesus, repenting of your self-centered nature and receiving his free mercy and grace, go to Him.  He came to save those who are hurting, tired, burdened and broken by experiencing your hurt, fatigue, burdens and brokenness on the cross.  Look to Jesus, call to Jesus and find rest for your soul.

HOME SWEET HOME!!!!

Per The Prodigal God by Tim Keller (p. 101-2):

During his ministry he wandered, settling nowhere, and said: “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20).  He remained completely outside the social networks of political and economic power.  He did not even seek academic or religious credentials.  Finally, at the end of his life, he was crucified outside the gate of the city, a powerful symbol of rejection by the community, of exile.  And as he died he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46), a tremendous cry of spiritual dereliction and homelessness.

What had happened?  Jesus had not come to simply deliver one nation from political oppression, but to save all of us from sin, evil, and death itself.  He came to bring the human race Home.  Therefore he did not come in strength but in weakness.  He came and experienced the exile that we deserved.  He was expelled from the presence of the Father, he was thrust into the darkness, the uttermost despair of spiritual alienation – in our place.  He took upon himself the full curse of human rebellion, cosmic homelessness, so that we could be welcomed into our true home.