Known By Their Love

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We've all heard that Christians would be known by their Love. Are we? Do strangers see in us a Love so "not-of-this-world" that it defines us as His? 


That's not the case with me. I don't know how to Love like that. Not really. Not daily. Not everyone. Oh sure, I'm good at loving those I like. Or even being really nice to people I don't know. But what about a Love so radical that people know it is beyond my ability to create?


Same Kind of Different As Me is the story of Love so radical that it changed people. A Love so radical that it could only have as its source the Lord. It tells the true story of lives so far removed from one another that only He could have orchestrated their intersection in a way that impacted a city. And it just so happens, it's the city I grew up in: Fort Worth, Texas.


Denver Moore was a modern day slave. Really. 


He was a share cropper on a cotton plantation in Louisiana. He had no electricity, no indoor plumbing and lived "by the leave" of The Man. The system was set up so that, no matter how long or hard these people worked, they always ended up more deeply in debt to The Man. They would pick cotton from sun up until sundown, but since they didn't know how to read or write, The Man who owned the land was the same one who weighed the sack of cotton, telling the workers how much they had picked that day. Even on days when they knew their sack was heavier than normal, the Man still told them it weighed the same as on every other day. Having to purchase clothing and food from the Man's store on credit, they had no way to earn a profit or improve their situation. So year after year after year, they survived, working all day everyday and still ended the year more in debt than when they began.


One day, Denver simply walked to the train track, hopped a freight car and left. It didn't matter where.


During the years Denver was picking cotton, Ron and Debbie Hall were growing rich. Ron had grown up poor, but learned that he had an eye for art. He bluffed his way into the world of the Rich and Famous, brokering the sale of paintings he didn't own by understanding his clientele. Debbie was not impressed with the trappings of wealth. She was growing closer and closer to the Lord and believed that possessions were empty, not worth collecting. Their marriage hit bottom when Ron, believing Debbie didn't love him, had an affair. When she learned the truth, she did something that changed their marriage forever: she called his lover and told her that she forgave her and that she was committed to being such a wonderful wife to her husband that he would never again stray. And that is exactly what happened.


As the Lord resurrected their marriage, He also called them to service. Debbie believed she was to serve at the Union Gospel Mission in the "ghetto" of Fort Worth. Ron went with her to keep her happy. Debbie wasn't content, though, to simply serve a meal once a week. She truly loved the homeless people she found there. She found a myriad of ways to show that Love: from learning all their names and praying for each one daily, to hosting "beauty nights" where she and a friend would wash and style the lice-filled hair of ladies who hadn't felt beautiful in years. 


Ron was still not sold. He was perfectly content to stand behind the counter, serving meals, where none of those people could get close enough to touch him. But then Debbie had a dream. She dreamed that the Mission was completely transformed into a place of beauty and she dreamed about a man who was the key to not only the transformation of the mission, but of the city of Ft. Worth. Guess who that man was? Denver.


After Denver left the plantation, he quickly learned how to be the meanest homeless man around. Everyone else was afraid of him. And that is exactly the way he wanted it. He wanted to be left alone.


But he hadn't planned on "Miss Debbie."


When she first saw Denver, he was threatening to kill people. Didn't phase her. She told Ron, "That's him!! That's the man from my dream!" Ron thought she was nuts!


She wasn't.


The Lord used Denver and Debbie's Love for him to change everyone around them. 


You really would be blessed by reading this book. But, I have to warn you: have a box of kleenex handy. The story doesn't have a fairy tale ending. It will challenge you to see things from God's Perspective, even if it means saying goodbye to someone you dearly love.


A few years ago, Ron Hall and Denver Moore came to Midland and I got to go and hear them speak. It was so precious. The Lord took these two, with absolutely nothing in common, and made them brothers.


#50 out of 52 in the "Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge."


I had read this book before, but decided to read it again. This time to the kids.  There were a few sections here and there that I "edited-on-the-fly" so that they didn't even know they had missed anything. But there were sections I intentionally left in that were not "pretty." They loved it. And have been talking about it since we finished it yesterday afternoon. It was hard to read out loud because I kept bawling. They understand though, and simply waited patiently until I could compose myself enough to continue.