Are you a Ragamuffin?

“And Grace calls out, 'You are not just a disillusioned old man who may die soon, a middle-aged woman stuck in a job and desperately wanting to get out, a young person feeling the fire in the belly begin to grow cold. You may be insecure, inadequate, mistaken or potbellied. Death, panic, depression, and disillusionment may be near you. But you are not just that. You are accepted.' Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted.” ~ Brennan Manning

The Rich Mullins biopic “Regamuffin” was not what I expected.  It was not a movie specifically about Rich Mullins, but a movie about all of us. Those of us beaten down by life.  Those of us who have felt the pangs of death, faced the ravages of our bad choices, and who have experienced grace first hand. I had heard that Rich was rough around the edges, but that was an understatement. He was far from perfect. He smoked, had a tendency to drink excessively, and had a problem with language.  He always looked disheveled, almost homeless.  If he had wandered into a church today, he might not have been welcome (kind of like Jesus).  He did not play by the rules and he was not even sure what the rules were. 

I came out of the movie a little confused. Aren’t we supposed to worship people in the media, even Christian artists? With their shiny CD covers and their world tours, aren’t they immune to pain. Aren’t they prayed-up, confessed-up, slickly dressed little church-goers.  I believe the movie helped me not to see Rich as some kind of martyr or a saint that I could follow and emulate. I saw him as more human than I ever believed.  I see his reflection when I look in the mirror.  But he came to understand grace, especially after meeting Brennan Manning and realizing how much God loved him. As he sang in Everyman,

“And the Lord looks down and He understands

The world draws up it’s lines,

But at the foot at the cross there is room for everyone.

And love that is not blind

It can look at who we are and still see beyond

The differences we find….”

The movie was extremely emotional, with portions bordering on ecstasy as I listened to renditions of his wonderful music by the actor who portrayed him. I tossed and turned the night after the movie, wondering what the primary message was supposed to be. I finally came to this one-word conclusion:  grace. It is the most powerful and misunderstood gift that the Father has given us. And it is available for everyone.  The movie also reminded me that I am not perfect, but I am loved.  If that is the gift that Rich gave us in his short 42 years, then his life has meaning beyond his music.  May love guide my life and may I always do what my heart tells me, just as he did. At the height of his music popularity, he chose to leave Nashville and pursue a dream of serving American Indian children with the gift of music. He lived his own life, as rough and unpopular as he might have been with even some in the Christian community. I am thankful for his life and legacy and for the opportunity to experience grace, like everyone who has ever been born.

I am a ragamuffin. And it’s OK. All of us are, even if we don’t know it.