Ragamuffins
Just finished The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning - definitely one of the best reminders about grace that I’ve encountered outside the Bible. I highly recommend this for anyone, whether the concept of grace has you completely baffled or you miraculously feel like you understand grace fully. He had an interesting note in the last section of the book called “19 Mercies: A Spiritual Retreat”:
15. Freedom from your own contempt
Self-hatred is an enormous obstacle to loving other people. Usually we dislike others not because we love ourselves too much, but because we’re not able to love ourselves enough. We fear and distrust others because we feel inadequate. We hide behind anger, sarcasm, or judgmentalism because we’re convinced that we don’t measure up ourselves.
Interestingly, you can read the Gospels line by line and find that Jesus devoted not one minute of His ministry to reinforcing negative self-concepts. By contrast, much conventional Christianity says that we should look in the mirror every morning and exclaim, “Worm! Maggot! You despicable wrtech!”
That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, my capacity to love you lies in direct proportion to my ability to love myself.
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My friend, do you ever allow yourself to believe that Jesus appreciates you for wanting Him? For wanting to say no to so many things that would separate you from Him? Do you ever permit yourself to think that Jesus is grateful to you for giving comfort to another person? For pausing to smile at one of His children who has such a great need to see a smile? For learning more about Him? Do you ever think that Jesus can be saddened and disappointed in you for not believing that He has forgiven you totally?
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The gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to recognize our intrinsic worth and dignity, to love ourselves humbly and wholesomely, and to forgive ourselves as we have been forgiven. Anything less is a refusal to accept God’s love for us. In fact, it is a rejection of Christ’s death on the cross for us as a colossal blunder.
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Yes, we are sinful beings, and we shouldn’t ever think we are infallible and perfect as we are, but I get so sick and tired of churches and messages that go beyond healthy conviction to downright condemnation. That’s not God! Romans 8:1 tells us, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Manning’s message is very different from what we normally hear, but it’s a powerful truth that is too frequently disregarded. He’s not saying that we should become conceited, puffed-up Pharisees - that would require a vicious distortion of his words and complete disregard for the context of the rest of the book and his biblical references. The quote from Francis McNutt that closes this segment aptly sums everything up:
If the Lord Jesus Christ has washed you in His own blood and forgiven you all your sins, how dare you refuse to forgive yourself?
