THE RAGAMUFFIN GOSPEL:

Well, my lovely sister knows how much I LOVE to read…so she got me this book she just couldn’t stop talking about while we were home on the Sunday before I hopped on the plane back to Florida. I PROMISED to do my best to try and resist the free wi-fi on the way home, and actually open up and DIG IN!

AND I’M HAPPY TO REPORT - SHE WAS RIGHT! I am SO glad that I started to read The Ragamuffin Gospel, written by Brennan Manning. Now I can’t put it down. I am forcing myself to slow down because I found out a really good friend of mine happened to be reading the book, too…and I wanted to be able to discuss it with her (aka book club… yeah...this is all new to me :o) But if you are looking for a good read, this is IT!

Here is a brief intro to the book: Most of us believe in God’s grace – in theory. But somehow we can’t seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet. Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we’ve done. We come to Him as ragamuffins – dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His “furious love.” Brennan Manning’s now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it-simple honesty-has changed thousands of lives.

I was reading on my lunch break today and I just HAD to share this awesome story of grace with you.

Chapter 6 (excerpt): Grazie, Signore

Brennan writes:

“Amadeus was a remarkable film centered on two powerful and contrasting figures: Antonio Salieri, court composer to the Austrian emperor, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a brash and conceited young genius. “Someone described his life as wine, women and song. And he didn’t sing much.” The limited, uninspired Salieri lives with a raging jealousy for the limitless, God-given talent of Mozart. Yet after every laborious score that he writes, Salieri whispers, “Grazie, Signore.” Thank you, Lord. This song of Salieri lies at the heart of our response to the graciousness of God and the gospel of grace.

Grazie. Signore, for Your lips twisted in love to accommodate my sinful self; for judging me not by me shabby good deeds but by Your love that is Your gift to me; for Your unbearable forgiveness and infinite patience with me; for other people who have greater gifts than mine; and for the honesty to acknowledge that I am a ragamuffin. When the final curtain falls and you summon me home, may my last whispered word on earth be the wholehearted cry, “Grazie, Signore.”

This in one thankful ragamuffin – signing off for the evening!

And to all of you…Where have you seen God’s grace in your life today?