Undignified Love

As I was reading the Ragamuffin Gospel, I kept saying "Hey, mom, dad, listen to this...!" There was a lot of really good stuff in it. But this is something that really caught me, the idea of an undignified love.

I wish for you the awakening I experienced many years ago during a spiritual sojourn in the Saragosa Desert in Spain. One night I went to the chapel to pray. The world was asleep but my heart was awake to the Lord and I stood at the crucifix for a long time. Then in faith, I heard Jesus Christ say, "For love of you, I left my Father's side and I came to you, who ran from Me, who fled Me, who did not want to hear My name. For love of you, I was covered with spit and punched and beaten and fixed to the wood of the cross."

I figuratively saw the blood streaming from every wound and pore in Christ's body. And I heard the cry of His blood. "THIS ISN'T A JOKE! It is not a laughing matter to Me that I have loved you." The longer I looked, the more I realized that no man has ever loved me and no woman could ever love me as He does. I went out into the darkness and shouted into the night, "JESUS, ARE YOU CRAZY? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND TO HAVE LOVED ME SO MUCH?"

The day I joined the order, an old Franciscan told me, "once you come to experience the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem beautiful or desirable." That night I learned first hand what he meant.The nature of God's love for us is outrageous. Why doesn't this God of ours display some taste and discretion in dealing with us? Why doesn't He show more restraint? To be blunt about it, couldn't God arrange to have a little more dignity? Wow!

No, the love of our God isn't dignified at all, and apparently that's the way He expects our love to be for others. Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

The Ragamuffin Gospel; Visual Edition

I started reading the Ragamuffin Gospel; Visual Edition by Brennan Manning and so far I'm struggling with reading the book. I love it when books give visual aid, but honestly, as cool as the graphics are, they are too distracting. Some of the fonts used are hard to read (and in some cases hard to see) and the book reads like a magazine making the writing/concepts seem choppy and disorganized. But the funny thing is that I think this disorganized mess gives a great visual of the heart of who we are next to God. I don't think that was it's intentions, in fact, I'm not sure if anyone else even sees that, but I saw that and I thought it was kind of neat.

I'm only about half way through the book, but beyond the visuals, I have read several things that I believe are profound, or hard for Christians and non-Christians alike to accept.

But one of the things that stirred in me was a part that talked about God being revealed in nature and science pushing God out.
One part says very simply "Our world is saturated with grace and the lurking presence of God is revealed not only spirit but in matter- in a deer leaping across a meadow, in the flight of an eagle, in fire and water, in a rainbow after a summer storm, in a gentle doe streaking though a forest, in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, in a child licking a chocolate ice cream cone, in a women with windblown hair. God intended for us to discover His loving presence in the world around us."

There was something about reading this... It was all so simple. Simple, but beautiful beyond belief, and it is where we can discover God. I've been longing return to simplicity. Instead of the droning of an air conditioner in the morning, I want to hear the songs of the birds. Instead of the the smell of chlorine in the pool down the street, I want to smell the scent of fresh flowers and grass. I want to discover God in the stars and marvel at the depths of the universe.

You know, I don't mind thunderstorms. I fear without being afraid. They make me feel small and insignificant but it makes me think of the passage in the Old Testament where God is going to reveal Himself to Elijah. There is a great wind, and earthquake and a fire and even though those things display the mighty power of God, God was not in them. He was in the gentle whisper. Everytime there is a thunderstorm I am reminded of God revealing Himself to Elijah and I am enveloped in God's loving presense.

Books and Blogposts

I went to the Library today and I picked up four books:

The Ragamuffin Gospel (Visual Edition) by Brennan Manning
Velvet Elvis By Rob Bell
Provocative Faith by Matthew Paul Turner
And Jesus in the Margins by Rick McKinley

I'm reading The Ragamuffin Gospel first, but I'm excited about reading all the books. I would love to make time to write about what I'm reading in the books, a commentary, sort ot. . I actually sat down and had a hard time deciding which to read first, so I read the introductions or authors notes to all of them. Finally I picked the one whose intro related most to what I've been thinking about lately. But how I choose my books isn't interesting, so I'll move on.

I have this thing on my blogs that tells me stats about it, and I find it interesting to see what people are putting into google search. People have found my blog by looking for the names of my friends whose blogs I've linked.

But by far, my blog has shown the most searches for variations of "sumbit to one another".
(this is what is yielded from my blog: http://itsmyworld-liveit.blogspot.com/2008/07/submit-yourselves-to-one-another.html )
Do people actually read and take interest in what I have to say?

In some ways I'm concerned that I get a hit on my blog for this topic nearly every day. I wonder what it is they are looking for and why they are looking for something that says to submit to one another. Is it men trying to provide Biblical proof that women are inferior and must submit to mans will? NO! I hope that in reading the blogpost, they understand that submission is mutual and done on the basis of love out of reverence for Christ and not will, power, might, or right.