The World As I Remember It: Through the Eyes of a Ragamuffin (2004) is a collection of 25 articles that Rich Mullins wrote for Release magazine in the 1990s. Rich Mullins was a Christian singer and songwriter who was championed by Amy Grant from around 1981, when he gained the attention of record labels. Despite commercial success, Rich exemplified Christian simplicity and spurned the spotlight through much of his career. In 1995, even as his songs were being played on the radio, he relocated to a Navajo hogan to teach music. He also cut back his concert schedule and arranged performances to give others more time leading songs. His life was cut short by a car accident at the age of 41, but he had already a productive and influential life.

Because The World As I Remember It is from magazine archives, you can read most of the material from this book online in a website that looks like I built it in high school computer class.

A close friend of mine used to say that Rich Mullins was a better preacher than a songwriter; and he is a widely esteemed songwriter. The Rich Mullins in these articles is the same Rich Mullins that we meet in his music: he is effusive, self-deprecating, and simple in the best way possible.

If I needed to describe Rich in a single word, it would be “incarnational”. He treats all of theology and wisdom as relevant because of its fruit. Rich’s pragmatic attitude towards the Bible is displayed in the 1992 article “Making/Being Made”.

There are two memorable articles about becoming a child: “For Children Only” and “Play It Again”.

I understand more and more why people say that Rich lived on another plane. There is nothing “occasional” in these articles. He doesn’t write about what’s happening in the news or about cultural rifts that preoccupy many Christian writers. Nor is he drawn aside into tired theological debates. This is why decades later, Rich’s music and writings are persistently refreshing.