Rigney Ministries

After being so very blessed by the testimony of Debra Hall’s life in Same Kind Of Different As Me, I was excited to read the sequel, What Difference Do It Make, but I found it a little disappointing. Not that I wasn’t blessed by the stories of how Debra’s testimony encouraged others to reach out with the love of Christ … but because the book felt like a promotional scheme, trying to get extra mileage out of the beautiful story in the original book. This seems to be standard marketing procedure for ‘best sellers’ in Christian publishing lately, producing a flurry of extra-mileage companion materials.

The stories of lives that have been touched by Debra’s example were wonderful, but they really seemed to be secondary in this book, as it’s focus was more on Ron and his rocky relationship with his father. Maybe the stories are better suited for an interactive blog-type of media, where the emails and letters could be regularly updated, and those who are looking for a sense of direction about how to reach out to their community could find examples and encouragement.

Pearls of Wisdom

All of that being said, there were some pearls of wisdom in this book. One such pearl was found in Denver’s dialogue about helping the poor and needy.

But 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.

Well said, Denver! Further over in the book, Denver offers a profound insight to those of us who are suspicious about what is done with ‘our’ blessings once we have handed them over to a needy person.

I was sho ‘nough happy to hear that story ’cause it shows that even if you bless some needy person just a little bit, God might use other folks down the line to weave your little gift into a bigger blessin. And if you bless folks, you gon’ get the blessin back, no matter what they does with the money. So you give the gift with no strings attached, and let God take care a’ business on the other end.

I plan to keep Denver’s ’sermons’ in mind as I try to live by the law of love … “He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know Me?” says the LORD” (Jer 22:16 NLT).

On His Exciting Journey,

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This is my personal review of What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing, written by Ron Hall and Denver Moore and published by Thomas Nelson.