Ron Hall was a successful art dealer. He traveled internationally and bought and sold art that was worth millions of dollars. He was at the peak of his professional career, but his professional success led him to neglect his marriage and his personal life tanked. His wife, Debbie a committed Christian, remained committed to Ron, but he went outside the marriage and had an affair with another woman.
We learn early in the movie of his infidelity and we quickly see Debbie’s generous and forgiving spirit. She picked up the phone and called his mistress and basically said, “I don’t blame you, and I forgive you.” She hung up the phone and told her husband she forgave him as well. She then said, “Choose her or me.” Ron chose his wife and chose to do the work it would take to breathe new life into their relationship.
The power of that one act of forgiveness set into motion a series of events that has led to sweeping transformation. Over 90 million dollars has been raised to help feed the homeless, assist the homeless in getting off the streets, getting on their feet, and in many cases, re-uniting with their families. Hundreds of thousands of people have been inspired to get involved in their local communities, to serve in shelters and to supply the homeless with life’s basic necessities-all from Debbie’s willingness to forgive Ron. Had she not forgiven him, he would have left her. Her forgiveness created an opportunity for Ron to stay. Their partnership in working together in a mission to serve the homeless opened the door for Ron to meet someone that Debby had seen in a dream, a homeless, poor, wise man who she was told could change a city.
Debbie’s forgiveness not only paved the way for marital restoration, but it opened Ron’s eyes to a bigger purpose for his life than his work, his notoriety and his material possessions. It opened his eyes to people in need. It opened his eyes to people who were different from him, who at the core, were just like him, hence the title, “Same Kind of Different as Me.” Forgiveness became the force that moved Ron to look outside of himself, to look outside of his needs and desires.
Forgiveness is powerful. Forgiveness transforms the pain and anger of the person who has been hurt into peace and healing. But forgiveness is for more than just the person who was hurt. It becomes a power for the person who receives it as well. When we are un-forgiven we are tied to and labeled by what we have done. When Ron was forgiven, he was released from the penalty of what he had done. The penalty for what he had done should have been that Debbie sent him packing. There is a biblical out for people in a marriage when unfaithfulness occurs, but God gave Debbie the grace to be able to extend forgiveness to Ron which freed him from the consequence of the marriage having to be over. She could have also forgiven him but asked him to go. She would have been within her biblical right, but she gave him the choice to stay or to go, and he chose to stay. Forgiveness opened the door for Ron to explore a better relationship with his wife which took him down the road of self-evaluation and total transformation.
Forgiveness is powerful because Forgiveness is biblical and God-like. God’s activities have weight, power, and authority.
“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).
As the Lord forgave you. That is power-packed. That is worthy of the pause button. That deserves some reflection. What does that mean, “As the Lord forgave you?” We bear the image of God, and the verses that explain what that means are encased in Genesis 1:26-28. You can look them up later, but in those three verses we read that the image of God enables people to have dominion, to reign, to have authority and the image of God enables people to reproduce, not just in the physical sense that people have children, but spiritually speaking, they can make disciples of Jesus by helping other people begin a right relationship with God and they can live a fruitful life. In other words, the image of God enables people to rule and have authority and to be fruitful and productive, both physically and spiritually.
But sin has messed up our opportunity to do both. Sin mars the image of God in us which changes our potential. I mean, when you are in a right relationship with God and the Spirit of God dwells in you in and power, God enables you to do the natural with excellence and confidence and the supernatural beyond that. Sin compromises our ability to experience the power of God moving through us.
Sin has also skewed what it means to live with control, power and authority. Sin has twisted and even perverted what fruitfulness and a productive life look like. So, because of sin, we can’t be who we were meant to be. We can’t exert the holy image of God in this life in the way God intends. We can’t occupy the places we were meant to with confidence and authority, we can’t produce the kind of fruit in our lives that God desires because the image of God is now tainted.
But God, who is rich in love and mercy, but God who is quick and generous to forgive, makes it possible for the image of God to be restored in us, enabling us to once again be who He created us to be through the power of forgiveness. And we are to forgive people AS THE LORD has forgiven us. Where sin takes life from people, forgiveness restores life to people. Where sin labels people by their sinful behavior, forgiveness frees people to become new, different, to become like Jesus. Where sin alters people’s potential and trajectory, forgiveness restores opportunities and life and puts people back on a path that is full of joy, praise and victory.
Ron’s adulterous behavior changed the intentions God had for Ron and Debbie as a couple. His obsession with wealth and his sinful behavior took him down a different path than the one God had for him, but because Debbie willingly forgave, that act of forgiveness became the gift through which Ron was able to be restored to her which put him back on the path to becoming the man God wanted him to become. Had they split up, he wouldn’t have worked in the homeless shelter. Had he not worked in the homeless shelter, he wouldn’t have met Denver. Had he not met Denver, he wouldn’t have had so many rough edges knocked off of him which was the result of their friendship and had they not become friends who became as close as brothers (Ron’s words) they wouldn’t have built a partnership that has taken them all over the country to speak to people about the transforming power of forgiveness and friendship and enabled them to raise over 90 million dollars to help the homeless.
Francis Frangipane said this:
“Forgiveness is the very spirit of heaven removing the hiding places of demonic activity from the caverns of the human soul. It is every wrong made right and every evil made void. The power released in forgiveness is actually a mighty weapon in the war to save our cities.” – Francis Frangipane
WHAT IF you can be the starting block for someone’s personal and spiritual transformation through the generosity of forgiveness? What if that person’s transformation leads to the transformation of hundreds and thousands more lives?
