The world as best as I can remember it

"In the end it won't matter if you have a few scars...

...but it will matter if you didn't live." (Rich Mullins)

New 27a: A couple weeks ago my friend V and I went to a church in Minneapolis to see the independent film about the life of Rich Mullins, "Ragamuffin." Rich, as you are likely to know if you've known me and/or my blogs for very long, has long been my favorite music artist - whose words and legacy continue to deeply affect my life.

"Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved - and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken..." (Rich Mullins)

The movie was beautiful! It was so well done, and so true to life - portraying Rich as the ragamuffin he was... a man of incredible musical talent - with a love for God... a man who seemed to so truly seek to know and to love like Jesus. A man who knew the depths of his own loneliness, brokenness, and depravity - and the depths of God's love and grace.

It was hard not to sing along the whole way. (According to V, I did... oops!) It was so hard to see the end, though I knew it was coming, of course. And it was hard to not think of my friend Adam, who introduced me to Rich so many years ago... They both left us far too young - they are both so very missed.

"...All I really need to know 

Is if You who live in eternity

Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time 

We can't see what's ahead 

And we can not get free of what we've left behind

I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears 

All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret I can't see how

You're leading me unless 

You've led me here 

Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led 

And so You've been here all along I guess...."

(Hard to Get by Rich Mullins)

It took a while to write of this one because - I don't know - it just really hit me that hard. The emotions that are intertwined with Adam, the loss of Adam and of Rich, the content itself - of a broken man - and the reckless raging fury - that they call the love of God.

"There's a wideness in God's mercy 

I cannot find in my own 

And He keeps His fire burning 

To melt this heart of stone 

Keeps me aching with a yearning 

Keeps me glad to have been caught 

In the reckless raging fury 

That they call the love of God "
(The Love of God, by Rich Mullins)

Even though I have long loved Rich and would have always gone to see this - if I'd known of it - I'm counting this as a New because I am seeking to have a greater appreciation and awareness of what the Twin Cities - my cities of choice - offers. A big part of that really is the awareness part, which I'm often lacking.

I'm thankful that I became aware of my need to be more aware in time for the Ragamuffin movie.

27b will come tomorrow.