The Ragamuffin Gospel

I’m a big fan of Rich Mullins’ music and enjoyed watching his biography, entitled Ragamuffin. Through this movie, I learned about Brennan Manning’s book, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out, which I am currently reading. I’m blown away by the wisdom in this book and find myself wanting to yell out, “Yes! Yes!” Considering I’m reading this book at the gym while working out on an elliptical machine, I might get some puzzled looks if I do this!

A ragamuffin is someone who knows he’s nothing but a pauper who has been invited into the presence of the King solely by grace. He has nothing to offer but his brokenness. I am a ragamuffin. I’m acutely aware of my brokenness and how inadequate I am. I’m so grateful that God does not treat me like I deserve. I’m a beggar kissing the feet of the King and simply grateful that He let me in the door.

I just finished a chapter on the “tilted halo,” which will be the focus of my blog this week. The chapter opens with a story – A man goes to the doctor for a headache. The doctor asks if he drinks alcohol, smokes, or parties. The patient indignantly responds that he would never do such things. The doctor diagnoses him with wearing his halo too tightly. In other words, the man is so focused on “being righteous” that he has choked out all the grace. Some of the most miserable people I know are Christians who fixate on doing everything “right” while also demanding this from others.

Manning says that ragamuffins wear a tilted halo:

The saved sinner with the tilted halo has been converted from mistrust to trust, has arrived at an inner poverty of spirit, and lives as best he or she can in rigorous honesty with self, others, and God.”

I’ll be discussing these three aspects of the ragamuffin this week.

To be continued…

[Graphic: Cover of The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out. Courtesy Amazon.]