Good literature gives us entrance into others’ lives. We begin to understand what it is like to live in someone else’s skin. A regular reader of good literature will realize that there is a common human nature that animates all characters and, as a result, the reader can learn something about themselves from each character. The non-fiction book Same Kind of Different As Me focuses on that tension between universal human nature – what we all share in common – and the uniqueness of each person – how we are different.
This true story was written by the main characters: Denver Moore, a former sharecropper who lived on the streets and spent time in prison, and Ron Hall, a millionaire art dealer. I will summarize the story and then spend time reflecting on its import. Both Denver and Ron write their own sections, which run parallel with each other; for example, Denver writes a chapter about his childhood and then Ron writes a chapter about his childhood and so on and so forth. Both of these men tell stories about their jobs, faith – or lack thereof – and families. After his affair, Ron and his wife, Debbie, start to put their lives back together. They become involved members at church and Debbie feels called to serve at the Union Gospel Mission in their hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. Ron begrudgingly accompanies her and they become known by the residents as Mr. and Mrs. Tuesday due to their weekly service on Tuesday. Debbie has a vision in which a man brings the gospel to the city. Early on, the residents think Ron and Debbie are, like so many others, tourist-servants who will not stick around, but in time the residents, with one exception, begin to open up. That exception is a tall, mean looking man – Denver. Debbie realizes that this is the man from her vision and persuades a hesitant Ron to befriend him.
The story sounds much different from Denver’s angle. He has been hardened by the streets and doesn’t want any charity. He doesn’t get close to others and threatens the residents in order to keep his privacy. In the beginning he thinks very little of Ron and Debbie’s service, but in time he becomes more curious. For anyone committed to serving the less fortunate, Denver’s reflections on Ron and Debbie are worth the price of the book. Denver is further frustrated when Ron takes a special interest in him. Ron wrote that Denver was about as “approachable as an electric cattle fence.”
In time Ron starts to feel more comfortable at the Union Gospel Mission. He and Debbie offer to treat the residents to a jazz concert and, surprisingly’ Denver takes them up on the offer. They drive to the concert but Denver wanders outside smoking. Ron approaches him and asks him to come in. Denver enters and Ron presses his luck. Ron writes, “then I did something stupid: I smiled heartily and patted him on the knee. ‘Denver, I’m glad you came.’ He didn’t smile back, didn’t even blink, just stood up and walked away. At first, I was afraid to turn around, but later, as the concert began, I saw him out of the corner of my eye, sitting on the back row, alone.”
After the concert, Denver approaches Ron and said – in his own dialect preserved in his style of writing, “I want to apologize to you. You and your wife been tryin to be nice to me for some time now, and I have purposely avoided you. I’m sorry.” Denver offers to chat the next time Ron and Debbie come to the mission, and Ron again presses his luck and offers to take Denver out to breakfast at his favorite restaurant. “‘I ain’t got no favorite restaurant,’ Denver said, then he added, ‘matter of fact, I don’t think I ever been to no restaurant.’” Ron says he will pick him up the next day. Denver writes, “Lord-a-mercy, did that open up a can a’ worms.”
The next day, Ron and Denver went to a café. Denver confesses that most of the folks at the mission thought that Ron and Debbie were CIA agents trying to collect information on the residents. They talk for a bit and Denver asks Ron for his name and his wife’s name, admitting that in his circles real names are kept secret. Denver cuts through what he sees as the smokescreen. “What you want from me?” he asks. “I just want to be your friend.” Ron replies. “Let me think about it,” Denver said after a lengthy pause. A week later Ron grabs a cup of coffee with Denver. After a bit of small talk, Denver returns to the issue of being friends. He offers an amazing analogy about catch-and release fishing and then says, “So, Mr. Ron, it occurred to me: if you is fishin for a friend you just gon’ catch and release, then I ain’t got no desire to be your friend… but if you is looking for a real friend, then I’ll be one. Forever.”
Ron is dumbfounded but takes Denver’s offer as seriously as Denver gave it. A genuine friendship emerges and in time Denver deals with the demons of his past. Debbie invites him to a retreat and, for a reason inexplicable to him, Denver attends. Of this retreat Denver said, “you know, you got to get the devil out the house ‘fore you can clean it up! And that’s what happened to me up in them woods. I had time to clear my head and shake loose of some old demons and think about what God might have in mind for the last part of my life.” As Denver reflects on God’s work in his life, he also reflects on God’s work in the world and warns Ron, “the work Miss Debbie is doin’ at the mission is very important. She is becoming precious to God… when you is precious to God, you become important to Satan. Watch your back, Mr. Ron. Somethin’ bad getting ready to happen to Miss Debbie. The thief comes in the night.”
True to Denver’s words, Debbie was diagnosed with liver cancer. While Ron and Debbie work with the doctors, Denver maintains a rigorous prayer schedule for Debbie. Denver begins to minister to others and feels the Spirit’s call to preach the gospel. After about a year, Debbie’s battle with cancer takes a sharp turn for the worse. Raw emotion jumps from the page during and after Debbie’s death. In these pages you read of a real man mourning the death of his beloved wife while confronting the God who took her away. In time, Denver helps Ron see God’s hand in Debbie’s life and death.
Through a host of events, Union Gospel Mission decides to dedicate a chapel in Debbie’s honor and Denver accepts the call to preach the gospel from its pulpit. Although Denver worries Ron will now cut their friendship loose, Ron redoubles his efforts and in time Denver moves on to another house on Ron’s property. Since the publication of this book, they have been speaking about their stories and about the gospel. The proceeds from their work go to the Union Gospel Mission.
Although this book is a gateway to any number of profitable discussions, I would like to focus on service, the splendor of life, suffering, and the sanctifying nature of relationships. Co-author Ron Hall is honest and authentic about service. Our culture is schizophrenic about those the Bible calls “the least of these.” Certain segments of our culture glorify this group to no end. They gloss over the besting problems that afflict large swaths of the urban poor imagining that each individual has a heart of gold rusted only by an oppressive world. We are told that the poor have a ‘special insight’ into the human affliction and are therefore less corrupted than the middle and upper classes. Reading enough sociological studies, one would think that the American upper and middle classes are among the most self-loathing in human history. Other segments of our culture villainize the poor and disadvantaged as easy scapegoats for the culture’s problems and as a foil to make themselves look better.
The Bible stands in opposition to both these strands of thought, knowing that every human heart – lower, middle, or upper class - is infinitely wicked. The Bible is straightforward about the dangers of riches and the dangers of poverty. If this is true, all those we serve, rich and poor alike will have a sinful bent, just as we have. It is easy to throw stones at those who are hesitant to serve; it is much harder to go out and serve. As Ron wrote about one of his acts of service, “the trip stripped off my do-gooder veneer to reveal a squeamish man whose charity, at the time, had definite limits.” We like to serve because it makes us feel like good people. This book encourages us to serve to and past the point at which we realize we are bad people, as bad as the Bible tells us. In our service to others, we need to be honest and say that many of those we serve are selfish, self-entitled, and demanding, but this is exactly as we appear before God. In service, we come to see others through the eyes of the God and in turn we come to see ourselves in the eyes of God. It takes extraordinary effort to convince ourselves we are incredibly unique and jaw-droppingly exceptional – and yet good portions of the days of many of us are committed to this foolish end. Service shows us that we are just like those we serve.
Service also shows us the humanity of those we serve. No one exists as a stereotype. Everyone has intricacies and complexities that are unique to them. As Ron and Debbie served the poor at the Mission, they came to realize that they and the residents had far more in common than in contrast. Contrary to certain philosophies, nobody cares about the masses in theory, we can only care about individuals in practice. Authentic relationships engender trust and care. Service births such love and is itself birthed by the love we have experienced through the divine service done to us by Christ.
Some books are able to capture the fragile splendor of life. Debbie’s slow but godly death encourages the reader to suck the marrow out of each day God gives. Debbie dies honestly. Thinking about the hospital, she breaks into tears, “I don’t want to die there. I don’t want to die at all.” Here is a woman who appreciated the days God gave her but was not ready to come to the end. When she reaches the final leg of her journey, Debbie asks, “How do you live the rest of your life in just a few days?” Debbie does. She does it by being enveloped by grace. She offered wisdom to her children, sacrificial love to her husband – including the release to one day marry again, even to the extent of releasing him to marry the woman with whom he committed adultery - and thankfulness to God for her life. As the reader watches God prepare this woman to die, one is reminded of the bittersweetness of life. While we are often consumed with the petty things of the day, there is a divine drama moving behind the scenes; when we see a glimpse of it, in a book like this, our eyes are further trained to spy it for ourselves.
As with The Shack this book offers an intimate look at suffering before the face of God. Near the death of Debbie, Denver writes, “I could see Mr. Ron sometimes sittin beside Miss Debbie’s bed, a lotta times with his head in his hands. I could tell he was hurtin real bad, but there was somthin else in his face that bothered me some: He was mad. And I knowed who he was mad at.”
While reading about Denver and Ron I thought about Job and his comforters. Like Ron, Job was going through the suffering of a fallen world. While Ron was losing his wife, Job had lost everything except his wife – and she was very little encouragement. Job’s friends offered platitudes and theological moondust. They offered words that were clichéd and calloused. Job’s friends reproached him for questioning God. In frustration, Job cries out, “Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?” Denver is no less direct than Job’s friends, but his words are birthed in love. He is patient with Ron’s pain and doubt, but he never ceases to bring his friend back to Christ. Job’s friends were doubtless among the wise men of the day. Job ran in the most influential and the wisest circles. He was the richest, holiest man in the land and his friends, doubtless, had much reading and wisdom between them; however, the homeless, ex-convict Denver outstripped them all in Biblical wisdom. Unlike Job’s friends, he doesn’t speak words of wind. Denver is patient with those in affliction. He mourns with those who mourn. Denver accepts the gravity of Ron’s pain and allows himself to be consumed with his friend’s suffering in order that he might encourage Ron towards a wholeness that only comes through Christ.
In Denver’s godly wisdom we see a truth I have been mulling over during my time at First Byron: humble saints and industrious theologians very often arrive at the same conclusions on life. In other words, there is something about godly living that fosters godly reflections on existence. Denver never attended seminary and could not read until retirement age, yet when he became obedient to Christ, he loved as Christ loved and his reflections were pulled in line with the great doctors of theology. In this we see the truth of Paul’s words, “the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.” God has seen fit to make His wisdom manifest in the church; may we continue to display His wisdom through our common life.
Since wisdom comes from God, it is shortsighted of us to lament wasted time. God grabbed Denver late in life. I just finished reading John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life with a group of young adults. Throughout the discussions, many of us lamented the time we felt we had wasted and continue to waste. I take hope from Denver’s story knowing that a humble obedience to God brings us in line with His will and His wisdom and emboldens us to live intentional and purposeful lives, no matter our age.
As this book shows, such changes often come through relationships. Just as the Trinity is a relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so humans are built for relationships with others. Without these relationships we wither. Denver was alone. He pushed others away to avoid pain. Although Denver is an extreme and very visible case, we see this same evasiveness in ourselves. We push away a delicate topic with a joke, we avoid direct speech for fear of confrontation, and we undertake almost acrobatic feats to cloak our heart. Through his relationship with Ron, Denver began to shed his layers. Hopefully, you can think of a relationship which has forced you and which forces you to shed your shields; if not, the gospel compels you to do so. Honest friendships are mutual. Denver contributed as much as Ron. In time, Ron comes to depend on Denver for wisdom and care. When Debbie dies, Denver helps pick up the pieces of Ron. In this we see the vulnerability we avoid.
The fact that relationships change people should come to know surprise to Christians who confess that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Truth is not an abstract set of ideas but at its deepest it is a person, Jesus of Nazareth. We come into this truth not by assenting to a body of facts but by committing to the Christ. We enter this truth not by becoming enlightened but by being joined to Christ. “Abide in me,” Christ commands.
After reading this book, I made sure it was a work of non-fiction. Although it would be difficult for any human author to imagine such a story, I wanted to be sure that it was the work of the Divine Author. I was encouraged to find that these events occurred in real time in a real place. It reminds me that God is at work in our world. Right now I am working on a sermon on the Ascension of Christ. Luke writes about the ministry Jesus began to do before his Ascension. Luke speaks of Jesus’ ministry beginning before His Ascension because he wants the church to see itself as the overflow, and in some ways a continuation, of Jesus’ ministry. As Denver and Ron would attest, it is the Spirit of Christ who rules over the world and the church, restoring human hearts so that one Christ may be all and in all.
In two months, we will be looking at Shusako Endo’s masterpiece Silence. Endo is a Japanese Catholic and Silence focuses on martyrdom, suffering, and the silence of God.