Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Non-fiction

A story of friendship: Review of Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore

I first heard about this book when I saw a preview for the movie. Not sure how I missed it the first time around, but I’m so glad I got to read this story of how an unlikely friendship changed not only the people in it but the community around them.

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent is a book I won’t soon forget. It challenges me to reconsider what I think I know about homelessness and those who sleep on the streets. Denver’s life experiences working on sharecropping plantations in Louisiana is a heartbreaking reality I wish was fiction. And Ron’s rise to success as an international art dealer and his recovery from a personal fall in his marriage is inspiring.

I loved the back-and-forth perspectives of this story, how Denver’s and Ron’s voices were unique and first-person. I appreciated the honesty both of them revealed through their stories about failures and feelings. This was not a sugar-coated, all-is-happy tale. I had goosebumps and tears throughout, and reading the book makes me all the more eager to see the movie.

Maybe my favorite part of the whole book is how the relationship between Denver and Ron is mutual. This is not a story of how Ron’s friendship with Denver saved Denver. The two men saved each other and offered each other wisdom and comfort and challenge in times of need. And even though her name isn’t on the cover, the story is also about Ron’s wife Debbie and how her sparkling attitude opened the way for this relationship in the first place.

Reading this book makes me want to take more seriously the idea that friendship with people I might not think of as friends can change things. But it’s a consistent relationship that matters. Denver’s question about catch-and-release fishing in relation to friendship was a hard check in my life. In Denver’s words:

If you is fishin for a friend you just gon catch and release, then I ain’t got no desire to be your friend. But if you is lookin for a real friend, then I’ll be one. Forever.”

Don’t let this book or movie pass you by. (And in this movie edition of the book, there are some bonus pages about how the book came to be a movie. That itself is a story!)

I received a copy of the book from the publisher through the Booklook Bloggers Program. Review reflects my personal opinion.

Wrestling with faith and doubt: Review of Daring to Hope by Katie Davis Majors

It is tempting in Christian circles to hold up missionaries and other “heroes of the faith” as prime examples of every spiritual ideal. A young woman who moves to Uganda, starts a ministry, and adopts a baker’s dozen of daughters could easily be thought of as perfect or at least some kind of holy that is unattainable to the rest of us.

But Katie Davis Majors, in her new book Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful, assures readers that she wrestles with faith and doubt, just like the rest of us.

Ultimately, our hidden reach for God counts so much more than our public one. Some people may look at my life and say how amazing I am or what a radical Christian I am, just as some people may praise you because you seem to have it all together, but what really counts will be the quiet devotion practiced in our own homes. What will matter most at the end of our lives are these people right in front of us who get to see all of it, the happy stories and the tragic ones, the pretty good parts of us and the ugliest parts of us. At the end of time all that will count is that we lived the Gospel with our very lives, that we paid attention to the people God gave us and dwelt knowledgeably and hospitably in the place to which He called us. (p. 100)

In this follow-up to her popular Kisses from Katie, Majors recounts many stories of hope and heartbreak in her Ugandan neighborhood, how saying “yes” to God and the people He brings her doesn’t always end happily, the way she thinks it should. She shares with readers what she has learned about God and His faithfulness in times like these and emphasizes the importance of wrestling with God through these circumstances.

She writes:

I think we often look at our lives and see the barren places. It seems the garden is empty, plans dead and withered, dreams laid waste. It is easy to believe the lie that the good is over and gone and maybe God is done working here, in me and in you. … Could we rejoice in the waiting? Could we believe that God who brought Jesus out of the black of the tomb and green shoots out of the hard earth will bring beauty out of our barren seasons? Could we know that beauty is in this whole process, the growing and the pruning and even in the waiting, not just the part with the beautiful flower? (p 69)

The stories and lessons in this book are accessible to anyone desiring to live a life of faith where they are. It is not a book only for missionaries or spiritual leaders or young people. It is for anyone who wonders if hope is worth it when the outcome is unexpected.

You can hear from Katie in the book trailer about what this book means to her, here:

And if you want to read more, check out Katie’s post on Ann Voskamp’s blog.

(Disclosure: I received an advanced copy of the book from the publisher. Review reflects my honest opinion.)

SaveSave