"Same Kind of Different as Me"

If you have not read the book "Same Kind of Different as Me" and do not mind some spoilers......then read on.   If you have read it....read on.

Here is a synopsis of the book and then some of my reactions to it.
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Meet Denver, a man raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana in the 1960s; a man who escaped, hopping a train to wander, homeless, for eighteen years on the streets of Dallas, Texas. No longer a slave, Denver's life was still hopeless-until God moved. First came a godly woman who prayed, listened, and obeyed. And then came her husband, Ron, an international arts dealer at home in a world of Armani-suited millionaires. And then they all came together. 

But slavery takes many forms. Deborah discovers that she has cancer. In the face of possible death, she charges her husband to rescue Denver. Who will be saved, and who will be lost? What is the future for these unlikely three? What is God doing? 

Same Kind of Different As Me is the emotional tale of their story: a telling of pain and laughter, doubt and tears, dug out between the bondages of this earth and the free possibility of heaven. No reader or listener will ever forget it.

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I love the message behind the book.  It was so enjoyable to be able to see how people of so varied and different in upbringing, advantages and disadvantages and world-outlook can come together and become brothers.   This interconnectedness I really believe.   I love it.   I love seeing it manifesting in all ways in this world.   I have even experienced some of it.

Most of the life of Miss Debbie is a life of service to others comes from a place of love, not obligation.   She showed this consuming passion to help people worse of than herself.  She loved people.   She changed the way that her husband Ron looked at the indigent.   She was the interconnectedness, the inspiration and the glue that brought such different people such as Ron and Denver together.   A very admirable woman.

I also find it intriguing that it is through the death of Miss Debbie, that fundamentally shifts the role faith had to play in Ron's life.   His faith was so much a part of his ties with his wife, his love for her.  When she was gone and prayers had not healed her, he faced either loosing his faith or finding it for himself.   It became his faith.   The visitation from Miss Debbie to Denver and his words of comfort, and admonition to Ron caused him to go on.   To embrace his faith even in the absence of the love of his life.

It is always amazing when people change under the acceptance and love of others.   Denver went from a beat-down and disconnected man to one of love, compassion and faith.    These transformation are what I live to hear about, to experience, to retell.   This is what I love most about the book.   The transformation of Ron and Denver.

I Love, Love, Love transformational stories.