I recently read the book, “Same Kind of Different as Me” and
it was the most inspirational book that I’ve ever read. The story begins by
telling two separate story lines about two completely different men from two very
different backgrounds. One is a wealthy white man named Ron and the other is a
very poor black man that was a modern day slave, named Denver. Denver had a
very tough life as he lost his close family members in a house fire. He gets
shuffled around between other family members and lives his childhood and early
adulthood working day and night in the fields. Ron grows up in an entirely
different family situation and is able to go off to college, get married and then
end up making millions by selling expensive artwork that he creates and lives
the wealthy life.
Unfortunately, Deborah dies from her cancer but she is definitely not
forgotten. Deborah impacted so many lives through the way she handled life
situations and through the way she cared for those all around her and through
her love for Jesus Christ. After Deborah’s passing, Denver feared that Ron
would leave him. Ron assures
Denver that he is now a part of their family and considers him his best friend.
Denver trusts Ron at his word and realizes that because of Deborah, he was able
to find a new family. This story is about love, grace, friendship and impacting
people’s lives in a Godly way. This is my review of the book and I highly
recommend you go and read it. I hope it moves you the way it did me.
These two men's lives cross paths when Ron and his wife,
Deborah decide to begin working in a homeless shelter out of a desire Deborah
has to serve the poor. They meet Denver who has recently become homeless after
fleeing the scene of endless hard work as a sharecropper with almost no pay.
Denver does not trust rich white people because of the horrible way they treated him when he was growing up and refuses to speak to Ron for quite
some time. When Ron persists in
getting to know Denver he finds that over time the perception he has of Ron
fades and it’s slowly replaced by a relationship of love and grace.
Ron and Denver meet while Ron is helping out at the homeless
shelter that Denver comes to often and they end up becoming best friends. The
person who encouraged this relationship was Ron’s wife Deborah. Deborah was a
wonderful Christian woman who valued people’s lives and had a beautiful heart
for Jesus. About the time Ron and Denver become friends, Ron and Deborah get
the heartbreaking news that Deborah has cancer. It is a huge shock to many
given the fact that Deborah had impacted so many lives, including Denver’s life
through the homeless shelter and through other situations.
Denver begins to realize how important these people are to
him and how much they have impacted his life and helped him. It is through
Deborah’s heart for the LORD that Denver was able to become so close to both
Ron and Deborah. Denver begins to constantly encourage and pray for Deborah
while she is battling with cancer. Ron begins to see how much Denver has come
around since they first met and he also begins to see his heart for
Christ. It is through Deborah’s
fight with cancer that Ron and Denver get to know each other on a deeper level, learn life lessons from each other and become extremely close.
