Question 1: What is conversion?

In these next couple of posts, I am going to freely quote from the Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. The book does not address any new or minute point of theology; its goal is, simply, to bring the reader to a radical understanding of our human brokenness and helplessness and the greater expansiveness of the furious love of God.

So what is conversion? Today, many people say, "I accepted Jesus into my heart/life", "I walked the aisle", or "I said the sinner's prayer when I was __."

Manning tells of a phrase that was common in the Deep South more a century ago. People said, "I was seized by the power of a great affection." Oh beautiful words! To be seized by the power of a great affection! While we were still dead in our sins, hating God and hating one another, the Father sent His Son into this dirty, miserable world to live as we do, experience what we experience and take on himself the just wrath of God, so that He might save wretched sinners. Truly it can only be a powerful, mighty affection, a deep, rushing, determined love that would pull our eyes from the muddiness and despair of our own lives to look upon the beautiful, glorious face of God.

"After two thousand years the Body of Christ is still dreadfully divided by doctrine, history, and day-to-day living. Scabrous stories about Christian disunity pepper the pages of periodicals and newspapers. The Body of Truth is bleeding from a thousand wounds. Small wonder that many Christians today are bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. The bleak landscape of the global village has introduced discouragement, disillusionment, and what Parker Palmer calls "functional atheism"--the belief that nothing is happening unless we are making it happen. Though our Christian language pays lip service to God, our way of functioning assumes that God is dead or in a coma. Being seized by the power of a great affection does not seem to relate to the real world in which we live. Does it not require a fair measure of lunacy to listen to the loony tunes of the ragamuffin gospel?

Yes it does! As Zorba the Greek said to his employer, "It's difficult, boss, very difficult. You need a touch of folly to do it; folly d'you see? You have to risk everything!" In the final analysis, discipleship is a life of sublime madness."