I watched the movie, “Ragamuffin” and was challenged to the
depth of my soul. The movie is the life
story of Rich Mullins. His brother acts
in the movie and was heavily involved in it production. So I assume it has a high degree of
accuracy. It was nothing liked I
expected. It is not a sugar coated story
of a plaster saint. The film shows
Mullins with enormous strengths and enormous weaknesses. The weaknesses are perhaps highlighted more
than his strengths. Rich was a gifted
musician and a prolific song writer. He
wrote “Awesome God”, “Step by Step”, “Sing Praise to the Lord”. He worked on an Indian reservation, did
foreign missions, gave most of his earnings to charities and lived off the
average wage in the U.S.! Yet he had a
foul mouth, struggled with drinking, and sometimes came off self-righteous and
smug.
Rich had a broken place in his heart from his relationship
with his father. He struggled with this
most of his life. A measure of healing
was found through one on one ministry by Brennan Manning (who also had
struggles with alcohol).
What are we to make of so much grace and so much brokenness
in one person? For one thing it confirms
my understanding of human nature. We are
all both image bearers of God yet simultaneously broken by sin in every part of
our being. The image of God shines forth
in talents and loving actions. In those
who believe in Christ that image is being restored and will shine brightly at
times and in ways. But that restoration
is a work in progress. The brokenness
continues to raise its ugly head as well.
Every believer will have “Romans 7:16 moments”; “For I do
not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very
thing I hate.” I believe step by step, progressive
growth is possible and should be taking place.
But the struggle will continue.
Relapses into sin, selfishness, and even addictions in some cases, will
take place. This is not to excuse sin,
but to offer comfort and hope to sinners, like me.
Mullins accepted the label “Ragamuffin” from Brennan Manning’s
“Ragamuffin Gospel”. I do not endorse
everything Manning wrote. But I embrace
the core of his message – we are all Ragamuffins, broken, messy, struggling
sinners who at the best are desperately clinging to God’s grace in Christ,
aware of our utter inability to save ourselves or perfect ourselves. We need Jesus! Because of Jesus God’s children are
ferociously loved by Father God because of who Christ is and what Christ
did. If you are trusting in Christ, God
dynamically loves you right where you are!
As one struggling Ragamuffin to another I urge you to open
your heart to be radically embraced by the love of God and watch out! His love will act in your inner being and in
your circumstances to transform you into the image of Jesus Christ. He loves you where you are but He loves you
too much to leave you there!
