Oh. My. Goodness...there are a handful of books and movies that I just think everyone needs to experience for themselves. And you know what it's like. You are so moved, so touched, you can barely stop yourself from annoying everyone around you by sharing it with them. And, I mean actually quoting from it...to everyone. I felt this way when I read "The Diary of Anne Frank, "The Hiding Place," "Redeeming Love," "Dinner With a Perfect Stranger, " "The Notebook," and "The Shack" and when I watched "Crash." Not the easiest to read or watch....some would say gut wrenching, but so worth it. Some would say...life changing. Or you would hope life changing. Like Beth Moore says about Kind Neb, you want to learn it by reading it, not experiencing it for yourself...and you want it to stick.
"Same Kind of Different As Me" is that kind of book. It will move you. It will touch you. And it will make you want to change the world. Even while knowing that perhaps the change you will make will be small...because it will start with you. I have this philosophy that we are not better...not worse than each other. Just different. And I think we are not all that different. We probably have a lot more in common, if we took the time and the change of heart to look through God's eyes. Yet, we focus on all these things that separate and divide us, when we could be looking at maybe the one thing that can unite us. And perhaps we spend entirely too much focusing on what's wrong and what needs to be changed in others, that we completely miss what needs to change in us. "Sometimes we don't recognize ourselves until we judge another and hear the Holy Spirit resound within our hearts, 'You are that person!' " (Beth Moore, Daniel). Ouch. God called us to love one another...not fix one another. Only He is qualified to do that.
"Same Kind of Different As Me" is a tale of "a modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together...gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, it also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love...without a doubt, in the heart of God." One of the homeless men in the book tells Ron Hall, the rich art dealer, that we aren't all that different. We are all just a few paychecks, an unfortunate circumstance, and our spouse leaving us away from being on the streets. Denver Moore, the modern-day slave, sees the irony in how rich people call raw fish "sushi" and the poor man calls it "bait." Though but for the grace of God, go I.
"I guess we were pretty good at the whole Christian thing - or maybe we were bad at it - because we managed to alienate many of our old college friends. With our new spiritual eyes, we could see they didn't have fish stickers [on their cars] either, and we set about saving them from eternal damnation with all the subtlety of rookie linebakers. Looking back now, I mourn the mutual wounds inflicted in verbal battles with the 'unsaved.' In fact, I have chosen to delete that particular term from my vocabulary as I have learned that even with my $500 European-designer bifocals, I cannot see into a person's heart to know his spiritual condition. All I can do is tell the jagged tale of my own spiritual journey and declare that my life has been the better for having followed Christ." (Ron Hall, "Same Kind of Different As Me," emphasis mine.).
Let us be changed. Forever changed. From the inside out. Let our hearts break for what breaks His heart. Let us begin changing the world by first changing the only one we can...ourselves. Just imagine...
"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one"
Oh, how love covers a multitude of things. Sometimes, all you need is love. God's love.
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