I've always got about 10+ books that I'm reading simultaneously. During the course of this, a few books sometimes drop out and lose the attention they deserve. My mom bought me The Ragamuffin Gospel back in 2005, and I picked it up again to read today. It's incredible! I certainly didn't appreciate it enough the first time I read it. It's a wonderful reminder of God's GRACE. Brennan Manning unpacks God's grace to us, Ragamuffins, and portrays it in a way that leaves us, well, amazed. That's what God's grace is - amazing. I'm not finished with it yet, but I thought I'd share an excerpt from what I read today.
For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours, not by right, but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned - our degree, our salary, our home and garden, and a good night's sleep - all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for out faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift. "If we but turn to God," said St. Augustine, "that itself is a gift of God." My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.
I am reminded of the verse in Ephesians that says, "Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit." (2:8-9)
Halleluia!
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