Rich Mullins

It's been 10 years since Rich Mullins died in a car accident. The last couple of days there have been many tributes to him, here's my favorite...

Rich was a character who loved Jesus in all his realness, no doubt. And while his music was both good and bad, it was and is his life that inspires me. And his most important effect on my thinking is this: Jesus loves the church.

In the midst of my most cynical time about organized Christianity, I read "An Arrow Pointing to Heaven", a biography based on several of his songs. Lot's of things spoke to me in that book and the accompanying CD, but nothing like Rich's passion for the church, with all her faults. Jesus makes the bride whole, she's not whole on her own. I wanted her to be. I wanted the church to be everything that she could be. One day she will, but that day is not today. So I can be cynical and trash the church, or I can love her the way Jesus loves her.

I'm trying.