ragamuffiness

if you were wondering where the title of my blog comes from, its from a book called "the ragamuffin gospel" by brennan manning. you should read it...right now.

in essence the book is about grace. its central premise is that followers of jesus often believe grace in theory but not in practice.
the bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondage and distorted the image of God into an eternal, small minded book keeper...the institutionalized church has become a of the healers rather than a healer of the wounded.
Sooner or later we are all confronted with the painful truth of our inadequacy and insufficiency. Our security is shattered and our bootstraps are cut. Once the fervor has passed, weakness and infidelity appear. We discover our inability to add even a single inch to our spiritual stature. There beings a long winter of discontent that eventually flowers into gloom, pessimism and a subtle despair, subtle because it goes unrecognized, unnoticed and therefore unchallenged. it takes the form of boredom, drudgery. We are overcome by the ordinariness of life, by daily duties done over and over again. We secretly admit that the call of Jesus is too demanding, that surrender to the Spirit is beyond our reach. life takes on a joyless empty quality...all our huffing and puffing trying to impress God, scrambling for brownie points and trying to fix ourselves all fly straight in the face of the gospel of grace.

God has a single relentless stance towards us...He loves us. He is jealous for us.

Because of that grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.

Enough said now that I've quoted most of the first chapter...hopefully thats enough to wet your appetite...

this is my favorite part of the book, its a simple prayer at the end of a chapter...i'll leave you with this:

"Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before you and try to bribe you with our preposterous portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our sense. We are sorry and ask you to forgive us. Give us grace to admit that we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to celebrate your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on your mercy no matter what we do. Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the gospel of grace, and to delight in your love. Amen"