It took a while to decide which book to take to Maui. It was a big decision! I love taking one–and only one–book on a trip and reading the whole thing start to finish. Then, the same way that music or smells “take you back”, that book then “takes me back” to that place, creates a theme of the trip, engulfs me in its story for the duration of the trip. And, because I tend to fall headlong into a story and have trouble crawling out of it into daily life, vacation is the perfect time to read a story or novel. I can sink down into it and not stress about the laundry remaining undone. I can live temporarily in its pages during vacation but then return from the physical and virtual journey at the same time.
So this time I took The Same Kind of Different As Me. It was a journey to be sure. I traveled from the dusty fields of a Louisiana cotton plantation in the 1960s to the 2005 Presidential inauguration. I silently wept in my airline seat while my kids watched VeggieTales at my side. I lay awake at night in our hotel and thought about my life, the gospel, the lost. I was convicted and challenged, encouraged and inspired.
The book is the true story of Denver Moore, a black homeless man in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ron Hall, an international millionaire art-dealer, whose wife relentlessly pursued her dream of reaching people with the transforming power of the gospel of grace. Reading the real-life account of Denver’s life made me shudder, especially juxtaposed with the environment in which I read the book–lounging on the white sands of a Hawaiian beach. Hearing the miraculous account of Ron and Denver’s meeting and Deborah Hall’s dream reminded me of God’s spectacular power and relentless pursuit of His eternal plan:
“To bring good news to the poor … to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” (Is. 61:1)
My recommendation? Read it. It’s a surefire way to stir an apathetic heart.
My favorite line was when Denver Moore–when asked how they should give his introduction before preaching–replied that he didn’t want them to say anything about him because “I don’t want to tell em ’bout me. I want to tell em ’bout the Lord.” When they insisted that they had to give an introduction Denver replied,
“Just tell em I’m a nobody that’s tryin to tell everybody ’bout Somebody that can save anybody.”
Amen, Denver. Ironically that very day I was trying to figure out what to write in a bio of myself that I have to submit later this week. Denver’s one-line bio was perfect. If we could all just have that perspective, amen? I spend far too much time worrying about my pathetic bio and not enough time praying for souls. This book is a healthy dose of eternal perspective. And we can all use a bit of that, amen?
So if you have a chance, check out The Same Kind of Different As Me, and have the kleenex handy.