Abba's Child by Brennan Manning
Week 8: Chapter 8 — The Victorious Limp
Read Chapter 8 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Genesis 32:22–32; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10.
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Manning offers one of his most surprising and hopeful images in this chapter — the idea that our wounds and weaknesses, rather than disqualifying us from God's love, may be the very places where grace becomes most real.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Manning uses Jacob's wrestling match with God at the Jabbok River (Genesis 32) as a central image: Jacob walks away with a blessing and a limp — and Manning argues you cannot have one without the other. What does it mean that the limp is not incidental to the blessing but part of it?
2.Manning draws on his own story of addiction and repeated failure to argue that the "victorious limp" — living in grace while still bearing the marks of our brokenness — is more honest and more powerful than a testimony of seamless victory. How does this challenge the way "testimony" is often presented in Christian culture?
3.Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My power is made perfect in weakness." Manning insists this is not merely a consolation for the unfortunate but a profound theological principle about how God works. What is it about human weakness that creates space for divine power in a way that human strength does not?
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