What Difference Do It Make?

CanCan, 13 January 2010,
Categories: Reviews
Tags: books, review

I got a copy of What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing through a book review program with Thomas Nelson Publishers. There are over 8,025 bloggers in the program. Feel free to join!

What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing
is the second book co-written by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent. I’m left really wanting to know more about the background, wanting to read their first book, Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together.

What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing is an inspirational, quickly-read 224 pages.
Each chapter flip-flops between Ron Hall and Denver Moore, and is able to be digested on it’s own; the book isn’t arranged chronologically and the stories aren’t even really connected.

The writing style is rife with colloquial language and even a little bit bawdy at times, for a being the fruit of a Christian publishing house. I guess that is to help the reader relate to the humanity of the authors. For me, I found it a little uncomfortable.

Many pages are given to Ron Hall’s account of his dysfunctional relationship with his father. I didn’t really find this story to be redeeming, but I’m not familiar with what was shared in the previous book

Denver Moore has an interesting life story and some inspiring quotes. His story starts with being born into a share cropping family in the 1930’s, with all kinds of hiccups along the way from homelessness to jail time.

Now, Denver Moore has lots of wisdom to share as an artist (some of his paintings appear in the book…..he began painting at age sixty-five before he learned to read and write two years later), evangelist, and homeless advocate.

…when you reachin out to folks, ’specially if you just reachin out when other folks expects it, you got to ask yourself - is you doin it for God, or is you doin it for you? The things you do for nothin is the things you keep forever … If you doin it for somethin, you already done got paid. God don’t pay no overtime.

- Denver Moore, in What Difference Do It Make?

What I found most inspiring was accounts of the practical action taken by other people who reached out to the less fortunate/homeless around them after reading Same Kind of Different as Me.

Since I have lived for a long time outside of the US, in developing countries, I have given a lot of thought about what kind of charity works for the poor, and what kind of charity is more of a benefit to the giver.

To be sure, it is a blessing to the homeless when they see people who care. But to really help, you’ve got to get down in the pit with people and stay with them until they find the strength to get on your shoulders and climb out.

- Ron Hall, What Difference Do It Make?

There are some insightful nuggets of wisdom to be found in this book. If you enjoy Southern people, biographies, and want to be challenged to do more for others, What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing is a good read.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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