Ruthless Trust: A Ragamuffin’s Path to God

By Brennan Manning

Book Review by Julie Schofield

I have always been a lover of books. The smell, the feel of the pages, and the worlds they held captivated me at a very young age. There have been many books that impacted me, but besides the Bible, none have had the effect on my life more than Ruthless Trust: A Ragamuffin’s Path to God by Brennan Manning. Published in 2000 as a sequel to the Ragamuffin Gospel, it held what I truly needed; the answer to my struggles following Christ. Trust.

My walk with Jesus has never been a smooth one and I was under a lot of condemnation due to my continual failures. I read many books written by Christian authors, preachers, and teachers, almost in desperation, looking for answers.

One of the duties at the a public library where I worked was shelving books as they came in. As I was sorting the items on my cart the title caught my attention because I immediately thought of my mother calling my brothers and I ragamuffins when we came home filthy dirty after a long day outdoors. (It was the seventies. Sometimes she didn’t see us until dark.)

         In the book’s preface Manning gives us the definition of the ragamuffins:

         The unsung assembly of saved sinners who are little in their own sight, conscious of their brokenness and powerlessness before God, and who cast themselves on his mercy.

 “If the Lord Jesus Christ has washed me in his own blood and forgiven all my sins,” the ragamuffin whispers to herself, “I cannot and must not refuse to forgive myself.” After stumbling and falling, the ragamuffin does not sink into despondency and endless self-recrimination, she quickly repents, offers the broken moment to the Lord, and renews her trust in the Messiah of sinners. She knows that Jesus is comfortable with broken people who remember how to love.”

I was so tired of struggling and wanted to be able to trust in Jesus so badly I had to check it out.

Brennan Manning is, like me, a flawed Christ follower. He is not coming from a place of judgment or perfection. He is open and real in his writing, exposing his own sins and letting the reader know he understands those who struggle in their walk with Jesus. He has a heart for those that haven’t grasped the grace and love of Jesus and suffer in self-loathing. The ones who wonder if they are really saved when they continue to fail time and again.

For the ragamuffin the answer is ruthless trust. He writes, “If it be your way, the sign you can trust will be the slow, steady, and miraculous transformation from self-rejection to self-acceptance rooted in the acceptance of Jesus Christ.”

Ruthless Trust was written after Manning’s spiritual leader remarked, “Brennan, you don’t need any more insights into the faith. You’ve got enough insights to last you three hundred years. The most urgent need in your life is to trust what you have received.”  These words prompted a reexamination of his life, ministry and his relationship with God. He had to ask himself if he really trusted Jesus. Manning had served Christ for over forty years and after thousands of hours of prayer and meditation he states that childlike surrender in trust is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship. Then he adds that the supreme need in most of our lives is often the most overlooked, namely the need for an uncompromising trust in the love of God. While it is good to go to God as a beggar to the King of kings, it is vastly superior to approach God as a little child would approach his papa.

This book challenged me. Was I really trusting in the work Jesus did on the cross? Did I believe ALL my sins were forgiven? Did I see God as a loving Father that cared for me or someone who could never even like me? Through reading this book, I realized that I did not have the ruthless trust I needed and was crippled as a disciple of Christ. How could I tell people about the great love God had for them when I wasn’t trusting in that love myself?

Throughout the book Manning includes inspiring words written by others like Mother Teresa, Henry Nouwen, Richard Rohr, along with scripture scholars and philosophers.

More importantly he takes you on a journey through many of the verses in the Bible about trusting the Lord, of which there are many.

In the final chapter Manning writes, “Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise. Ruthless trust is an unerring sense, way deep down that beneath the surface agitation, boredom, and insecurities of life, it’s gonna be alright. Ill winds may blow, more character defects may surface, sickness may visit, and friends will surely die, but a stubborn, irrefutable certainty persists that God is with us and loves us in our struggle to be faithful.”

I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone that struggles to trust. Reading It was a turning point in my understanding of God’s love for me. I have a lightness and joy that was missing when I allowed condemnation to rule me. I can’t honestly say that I never succumb to those feelings but now I have the answer. I go to my papa. Ruthless trust in his love has changed my life!

            Because I’m a freelance writer, I’m involved in a lot of different projects, and one of the things I do on the side is run a coaching business for writers. I have to keep my client numbers low due to time, but I really love it, and enjoy working with writers at all levels and stages of their manuscripts.

            The hardest thing to convince beginning writers of is allowing themselves a messy first draft.  Writers tend to imagine that published writers sit down at their desk, start glowing with some kind of divine inspiration, and out pours a masterpiece.  I guess they think the editors at the publishing house are just there to catch typos.

            The truth is that no matter how good a writer is, they don’t nail their book on the first draft.  It’s too many words. Too much plot.  Too many discoveries along the way that cause us to go back and rework beginning chapters. Seat-of-the-Pants Writers (of which I am) are particularly vulnerable to messy first drafts. Outliners, on the other hand, tend to have it a bit more pulled together. Still, neither kind of writer ever hits it on the first go-around.

            Much like these writers I work it, many Christians seem utterly aghast at the weak spots in their faith.  “Why don’t I have it together?” “Why do I keep tripping up here?” “Why do I fail so much?” “Why aren’t I more like Jesus?”

            The Bible tells us why, pretty plainly. We’re human. From the beginning, in Genesis, to the end, in Revelation, the Bible recounts story after story of humanity messing everything up. Even the good guys. Even those with the best intentions. Mistakes are made at every turn. Intentional disobedience wreaks havoc. Rebellion. Anger. Even murder.

            So, just about as early as He could, God began whispering about sending a Savior. (Gen 3:15).

            The truth is, our salvation is a free gift from God. The sanctification of our souls (revising ourselves to be more like Jesus)…well, that’s going to take work. But we need to be careful, and work in the way God asks us to.  Work smarter, not harder, as they say.  Because as it turns out, we’re not even able to contribute much to our sanctification either.

            So how do we work smarter?  Well, much like an editor guides a writer into revisions of their book (yes, I did say that with an “s”!), God guides us in the revision of our souls, if we’ll listen to Him.

            As one who has tried to revise my life in my own power and in my own wisdom (and been utterly frustrated by it), let me give you four points I’ve learned within the sanctification process, that may help you work smarter.

Read the Bible with one thing in mind – getting to know God and who He is.

Reading the Bible with any other intention (such as trying to figure out all the promises God must fulfill in your life) can leave you frustrated.  “God said He would supply all my needs and here I am with an overdue bill!” Yes, there are many passages in the Bible that assure us that God wants to take care of us, and is able, but the intention of the Word is to reveal God, and His plan of salvation for humanity. Our relationship with Him can only grow if we know Him. How can you trust someone you don’t know? Studying the Bible with the intention of learning about God will help you trust Him as He molds and shapes you into the image of His Son.

His plan for growing us and dealing with our hearts is vastly different than how we would do it.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul describes the upside-down world of how God works: “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Weakness? What? The world tells us, the stronger we are, the better.  That goes for physique, intellect, emotional and psychological attitudes, and more. If you’re strong, you’re doing great. But Jesus taught us that He doesn’t work that way.  It’s in our vulnerabilities and our soft spots, in the parts we feel the most inadequate that He begins to reveal Himself and His glory.  In short, when we get our big muscles out of the way, He can start doing some things that REALLY show power. True power. Power that does things like raise people from the dead. I can barely raise myself up in the morning, so how do I think I’m going to change much about myself without Him?

Work smaller not bigger.

When I work on novels, you might think that as I write I’m thinking of all the thousands of people who will be reading these words and that is what motivates me to continue to finish the book. You’d be awfully wrong about that. The more I think about the numbers, the worse I get. When I write, I end up thinking about one person, and I write it for that person. With my books, it’s usually my editor. I’m eager to hear what he or she thinks.  The smaller I work, the bigger accomplishments I’m able to achieve. That’s true for the kingdom of God too.  God didn’t gather the disciples together and say, “Hey look, I need you each to have a huge social media presence, preach to crowds of no less than a thousand, and try to get a book deal.”  He, in fact, told them to take care of widows and orphans. Give water to the thirsty. Visit the prisoners. He knew already what meteorologist and mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz noted in the 1960s when he coined the term The Butterfly Effect. He believed that the tiny flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil could set off a tornado in Oklahoma. In other words, the smallest change can cause larger consequences. A ripple effect.  Change within ourselves begins to occur not by doing big things or working extra hard or long. God, who can do all things, chooses to work in the small things to accomplish more than we can ask or imagine, in the world and in our hearts.

Suffering is part of the process, not a punishment for inadequacy.

No matter how many times I tell myself that hard things happening isn’t a punishment from God, when the hard thing happens, I almost always, at some point, whisper (or yell), “What did I do?”  Well, first of all, what a stupid question. I know good and well what I did. Everything I wasn’t supposed to. I mean, do I really want to present that question to God and stand there while He pulls out His list?  For the day? For the year?  For my life? I think not.

            If we’re honest with ourselves, none of us are getting any holier sitting on the couch eating nachos and watching Netflix. The comfortable life doesn’t produce much in the way of fruits of the Spirit.  I know for sure that all of my seasons of growth in God have come from hard seasons of suffering. Some heavier than others. But all full of confusion and turmoil, feeling God wasn’t there, but knowing full well He was. Trying to push past my feelings and doing that thing called “faith.”

I love how Dr. Diane Langberg, a Christian psychologist, speaks of suffering: “As we enter into suffering—our own or another’s—seeking God in the dark places of our lives, the glory comes. It is not from the end of suffering or its effects, but from little by little being transformed into His image as we suffer.”

            What every seasoned writer knows is that the REAL magic of a book happens in the revisions. Pass after pass after pass of the book begins to reveal more and more of the good stuff. It can be arduous. And sometimes even boring, reading the material over and over. It can be frustrating, when you know something is there but you can’t quite get to it yet.  But in the end, the discipline of revision will produce the kind of book that readers will remember. Likewise, the process of sanctification, of becoming more like Him, is never going to be evident right away. Like a book, it’s pass after pass, revision after revision, until suddenly we realize it—we’re becoming more like Him.

I recently watched a documentary called Jesus Music about the beginnings of Contemporary Christian music. It included old footage of Love Song, a band of long-haired hippie musicians I saw at my church when I was a teen. The lyrics they sang and the way they spoke about the Lord was moving and powerful.  I felt Jesus calling to my heart, but was hesitant to walk that aisle in front of Terri, a friend I invited to tag along with me and my family. I found out later that she felt the same pull. We both regretted our choice to ignore Jesus that night. Little did we know he had another plan.

God was doing a brand new thing in the lives of the Cali kids in the 70’s. Many had discovered that the peace, love, and rock and roll experience had left them disillusioned—either addicted to drugs, homeless or both. The summer of love was over and the air in Northern California had chilled, so they went south, where Chuck Colson, the pastor of a church in Costa Mesa, along with his wife, had a heart for the kids living on the beach.

Many members of Pastor Colson’s church had difficulties getting past the long hair and the unwashed smell of the young hippies coming through the doors, but soon they couldn’t deny that God’s Holy Spirit was on the move. Thousands were being baptized in the Pacific after accepting new life in Jesus.

Greg Laurie was one of them. A neglected teen searching for love and acceptance, he soon found it in Jesus and his followers. Laurie went on to be the pastor of one of the largest ministries in Christianity today and continues to be a faithful servant and disciple of Christ.

Laurie went on to write a book about his experience, detailing one of the greatest revivals in the history of our faith. It’s called “The Jesus Movement.”

Reading about this time was very personal to me. I didn’t live on the beach or get baptized in the ocean, but my life was changed forever by an encounter with one of the hippies that did. Not what you would call stellar students, my friends and I were cutting class and smoking cigarettes in the bathroom at school. There was a girl sitting on the floor with us and she asked us if we knew Jesus.  Mainly to shut her up, but also because all of us had grown up going to church and had heard our parents talk about God our whole lives, we said yes.  I truly thought I knew who Jesus was, but as she spoke, I realized that I didn’t know the guy she was talking about. Her face and eyes shone as she told us about her Jesus. How he loved us and came to save us. There was such power in her words it seemed as if I was hearing the Gospel for the first time. When she asked us to come outside and hear more, my friend Terri got up, looked at me and said, “I’m going this time,” and I followed.

As we walked down the street, we saw a very familiar sight. The Jesus Freak van! A wildly painted VW bus full of hippies, it served as a mobile church of sorts, and those in it handed out tracts telling us to how to get saved. Instead of running away, this time we knelt with those beautiful people and changed the course of our lives and our eternities. Jesus saved my soul that day through his followers, a group of Jesus freaks who stepped out in faithful love for God and shared the good news with us.

The Jesus Movement happened during a time of great turmoil. The Vietnam War, civil unrest, racial tensions, the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, and the mistrust of the government all led the young people of this country to rebel against authority. They thought the answer would be found in drugs, free love and dropping out of society. Instead, they found that Jesus was what they were searching for all along.

Our country faces many of the same problems today and Jesus is still the answer. We have been born for this time and in this generation for a reason. People are frightened, angry, and divided, yet God can do a mighty move once again if his people will humble themselves and pray. People are searching for the answer but have trouble trusting in religion and the church.

There’s an old song that said they will know we are Christians by our love, but that is not our reputation today. Unfortunately, and often warranted, Christianity is known for judgment and intolerance.  If we want this to change, we have to take his command to love seriously. It is up to us to pray and ask God to move. He is still the same God who brought that great revival in the seventies. He can do it again.

Julie Schofield has attended WCC for over twenty years. She is a wife, mother and grandmother to three of the best kids ever. In April, she retired after thirty-three years at the public library. (And loving it. “Retirement is all it’s cracked up to be!)