Homeless, poor, addicts, prostitutes, abusers of all sorts—these are folks most of us studiously avoid, much less befriend. Yet Paul (God in the Alley
) sees God in all of them and shares that spiritual sight in his second book. The lessons are deep and numerous, including the startling notion that the rich are “barely conscious of their deep poverty” while the poor “generally have little sense of their blessedness, the amazing gifts they have to share with people who appear to them to already have it all.” Paul strips away facades as he reveals some of the gifts he's received from the people at Sanctuary Ministries in downtown Toronto: understanding his own addictions to impregnability and independence, discerning the difference between fruitfulness and productivity, and gaining a new thankfulness and a deeper understanding of suffering. This is no theoretical study of the results of poverty or a political statement. It's a gritty look at individuals who reached out and changed Paul's life. It's ugly, scary and depressing at times, but honest and well-written from page one. (Aug.)
