Why you need to see ‘Same Kind of Different As Me’

It’s unusual to meet the authors of a best-selling book that becomes a major movie. But that’s what happened for my wife and me after Same Kind of Different As Me was published and became a cultural phenomenon.

Janet arranged an evening at the Dallas church we pastored for Ron Hall and Denver Moore to discuss their book with our congregation. Before they met, Hall was a successful art dealer in Ft. Worth, while Moore was homeless. According to Ron, their first encounter didn’t go well: “After he threatened to kill everybody in the room, I tried to avoid him.”

Their transformational friendship became the subject of their book and now a movie starring Academy Award-nominated actors Greg Kinnear and Djimon Hounsou and Academy Award-winning actress Renee Zellweger. I saw the film last night and urge you to see it and to encourage your pastor, congregation, and everyone else you know to see it. It is one of the most powerful and profound movies I’ve ever experienced.

I won’t give away the plot of this amazing true story. Rather, I’d like to think with you about a reality that Same Kind of Different As Me makes clear. Brennan Manning makes my point better than I can: “God loves you as you are, not as you should be, since no one is the person they should be.”

Let’s explore his assertion in reverse order.

“No one is the person they should be”

We are each made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:27). However, we have each sinned and fallen short of our Creator’s glory (Romans 3:23). This conflict between our intended nature and our fallen nature triggers a great disruption in our souls.

We know who we should be, but we also know that we are not who we should be.

So, we create what psychologists call an “idealized self,” the person we wish we were. We learn to project this person to other people. Many live behind this facade for so long that it becomes who they believe themselves to be.

But this false self not only hides…