The Real Deal

I normally do not talk much about my faith here, but the other night I was flipping though the channels on the radio and stop at a Christian music station, no not because the music sucked, but instead I heard the sound of a long lost friend of my soul.

Rich Mullins was the real deal.
A musician, writer and singer who was also a Christian and sang about faith so was relegated to the moniker of CM artist.
But when I say he was the real deal, I don't mean his music, I mean the way he lived his life as a Christian.
He lived in a hogan on an Indian reservation in New Mexico where he taught music to children. The money he made from his tours and records were given to his church. They paid him a small salary (the average of the annual salary of a working person in this country) and the rest went to charities.
At the time of his death he was meeting with a Priest and getting ready to join The Church which was about the time I began coming back to The Church*
Even with that it was really more about his general addittude for life that struck me. He admitted he was not perfect, cussed some, might have had a beer off and on (which CM artist did not do) and just wanted to live a mericiful life from what I could tell:

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.

Rich died in 1997 in a senseless car accident. It still hurts my heart that he is gone. I never "knew" him, but he did touch me and so I guess that counts for something.

Now a long bunch of youtube videos, except I can't find any to my more favorite songs. Oh, well.
If you are really interested search for "Rich Mullins Homeless Man" on youtube and watch the wonderful documentary of his life.







"God is right and the rest of us are just guessing..."

*The would be the Catholic Church....