Book Review | The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning

“You will live with an awareness that the Father not only loves you, but likes you.” –Brennan Manning

The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning

The beauty of Brennan Manning’s books is the vividness and the intensity with which he presents his message. And that message is the simple yet profound truth that our God, the Supreme Being, loves us. Loves you. Loves me.

Well, duh. Right? You’re probably thinking, “I know God loves me; I don’t need to a book to tell me that!”

I disagree. I think we need to hear this message over and over and over again. And there are a number of reasons.

The point

First – Christianity as it is taught in a number of churches gets this but doesn’t necessarily get this right.

God’s love for his creation is a core tenet of Judeo-Christian teaching. Yet a good portion of Christians have glossed over the importance of this fact and in doing so have made the Gospel about something other than God’s redemption and restoration of a people (whom He loves) to his Kingdom. Without an understanding that:

…what God has done in creation,

…what He has done through the Old Testament,

…what He has done through Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension,

…what He continues to do through His church,

…all of history!!!

ALL starts with the fact that GOD LOVES PERFECTLY and WE are the OBJECT of that LOVE.

- devoid of this truth, Christians reduce God to what Manning calls “a small-minded bookkeeper”, “a policeman with a club”, or “a whimsical… thief who delights in raining on our parade.”

Second – not everyone gets this.

The idea of a God that is both transcendent and immanent, just and merciful is revolutionary. Let alone a God that is personal and that is loving. Manning points out that the fact that God condescended and entered into human history demolishes “all previous conceptions of who God is and what man is supposed to be.” This is the power and attraction of Christ, that he became man, made himself nothing so that we would be made right with God. It is through this act that God grants us forgiveness.

It is through this act that God’s demand for justice is filled. It is through this act that we are humbled and sin’s power over us is broken. Only grace bends the knee of the powerful and the weak alike. Christ’s ultimate act of love for us and trust in the Father is the power through which we are made a new creation and secure everlasting fellowship with our Creator. The Father’s love is the promise of life everlasting. The Father’s love is what we put our faith in. The Father’s love is the power for transformation. The Father’s love is the light that shines throughout this dark earth.

Third – no human loves as perfectly as God does.

We are still marred by sin, living in an imperfect world. Our best efforts at love fall incredibly short of the love that Manning dedicates this book to. Compared to the “furious longing of God”, our love is weak, empty and far from perfect.

I am constantly reminded of this as a father as the love I have for my two children, although it is far greater than any love I have ever experienced before, a love that assures me of my willingness to sacrifice even my life for my children, this love has it’s boundaries. When I find myself being impatient with my children or fed up at any minor thing, I think about God. I think about how patient he is with me. I think about what it would be like to know every single thing that my children would do wrong in their lives before they were even born. How would I react? Would I love them less? And it is in these times that I am amazed at how perfect God’s love for me is.

This is why I read and reread Brennan Manning’s books. Because if I understand God’s love framed by my own capacity and capability at love, then I run the risk of my faith being seriously constrained by complacency. My own ability of love is not revolutionary. It is devoid of all power and it will ultimately fail me, leave me empty and withered. We should all dedicate our lives to seeking a better understanding of God’s love, striving for purer experiences of God’s love, and endeavoring to live out God’s love more and more. The Furious Longing of God is a good place to start.

What to expect from the book

The book is short (144 pages). Each chapter presents either 1) describes a different aspect of God’s love for us; 2) discusses the implications both personally and for the church; 3) celebrates God’s love through anecdotes, prayer, or quotes from other writers; or 4) gives a brief glimpse into Manning’s past through which he paints a compelling picture for both sinner and saint alike (Manning is both a recovering alcoholic and priest… he makes no distinction between the extent of his depravity in both periods of his life).

Manning’s writing style is very poetic. There were a few sections of this book that felt extravagant, as though he was striving to craft each sentence perfectly and ended up using strings of words that left me feeling dizzy and unsure exactly what he was trying to say. That being said, part of Manning’s power as the deliverer of this message is his ability to elicit emotion responses to what he puts forth. And given just how amazing the message is, I am more than willing to let his words wash over me, sinking deep and resonating deep within my heart. The things that Manning says always just “feel” true. And for that I am grateful.

Implications for a Kingdom Strategist

The truth that Brennan Manning tells in The Furious Longing of God is central to the work of every Kingdom Strategist and all servants of the Gospel. As Paul says in Ephesians 3:17

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.“

Our unique perspective on Kingdom issues and ability to see where the church is headed depends on our being “rooted and established” in God’s love. For it is only from within the security of God’s profound, world-changing love that we are able to “make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery.” (Eph. 3:9)

For unlike traditional strategists, we do not creating Kingdom strategies. Our King has done that, he has laid the paths. Our job is to lead others to those paths. We are God’s servants and it is by His grace alone that we are able to serve. The strategies we build MUST flow from a center in Christ’s love. Or they are not Kingdom strategies. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2)

Brennan Manning says it like this on page 125 in his chapter “Giving”"

The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creations. Not to make people with better morals, but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumers, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friends, is what it really means to be a Christian. Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.