Ron Hall

“But if you is lookin for a real friend, then I’ll be one. Forever”

“If you 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.”

“Bein' a friend is a heavy commitment. In a way, even more than a husband or wife.... Friendship to me means more than just somebody to talk to, or run with, or hang with.Bein' friends is like being soldiers in the army. You live together; you fight together; you die together.”

“Judge people less on their mistakes than on how they handle their mistakes”

“...he assured me that God didn't make cancer because cancer is not good, and he cautioned me not to blame God for something He didn't make.”

“..joined the circle and prayed with these men [homeless] who seemed on the outside to have nothing to give but had been giving, without our knowing it, the most precious gift of all: compassion.”

“She did have one other fear, though: missing the call of God.”

“I have learned that I cannot see into a person's heart to know his spiritual condition. All I can do is tell the jagged tale of my own spiritual journey and declare that my life has been the better for having followed Christ.”

“The pain of losing Deborah still brings tears. And I cannot mask my profound disappointment that God did not answer yes to our prayers for healing. I think He's okay with that. One of the phrases we evangelicals like to throw around is that Christianity is 'not a religion; it's a relationship.' I believe that, which is why I know that when my faith was shattered and raged against Him, He still accepted me. And even though I have penciled a black mark in His column, I can be honest about it. That's what a relationship is all about.”

“But sometimes we has to be thankful for the things that hurt us,' I said, 'cause sometimes God does things that hurts us but they help somebody else.”

“You was the onlyest person that looked past my skin and past my meanness and saw that there was somebody on the inside worth savin...We all has more in common than we think. You stood up with courage and faced me when I was dangerous, and it changed my life. You loved me for who I was on the inside, the person God meant for me to be, the one that had just gotten lost for a while on some ugly roads in life.”

“Ever man should have the courage to stand up and face the enemy,' I said, 'cause ever person that looks like a enemy on the outside ain't necessarily one on the inside. We all has more in common that we think. You stood up with courage and faced me when I was dangerous, and it changed my life. You loved me for who I was on the inside, the person God meant for me to be, the one that had just gotten lost for a while on some ugly roads in life.”

“Sometimes to touch us, God touches someone that's close to us. This is what opens our eyes to the fact there is a higher power than ourselves, whether we call it God or not.”

“There's somethin I learned when I was homeless: Our limitation is God's opportunity. When you get all the way to the end of your rope and there ain't nothin you can do, that's when God takes over. I remember one time I was hunkered down in the hobo jungle with some folks. We was talkin 'bout life, and this fella was talkin, said, 'People think they're in control, but they ain't. The truth is, that which must befall thee must befall thee. And that which must pass the by must pass thee by.”

“For the first time, it struck me that when Denver said he'd be my friend for life, he meant it-for better or for worse. The hell of it was, Mr. Ballantine never wanted a friend, especially a black one. But once Denver committed, he stuck. It reminded me of what Jesus told His disciples 'Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

“Money can't buy no blessins.”

“The Word says God put ever star in the heavens and even give ever one of em a name. If one of em was gon' fall out the sky, that was up to Him, too. Maybe we can't see where it's gon' wind up, be He can.”

“Wounded and nearly blind with fear, I clung to the Scriptures:'Ask and you shall receive...''Pray without ceasing...''I will do whatever you ask for in My name...'Grimly, I shut out another verse, this one from the book of Job: 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

“Good medicine always tastes bad.”

“You know, if you ain't poor, you might think it's the folks in them big ole fine brick churches that's doin all the carin and the prayin. I wish you coulda seen all them little circles a'homeless folks with their heads bowed and their eyes closed, whisperin what was on their hearts. Seemed like they didn't have nothin to give, but they was givin what they had, taken the time to knock on God's front door and ask Him to heal this woman that loved them.”

“The Word says God don't give us credit for lovin the folks we want to love anyway. No, He gives us credit for loving the unlovable. The perfect love of God don't come with no conditions...”

“When you is precious to God, you become important to Satan.”

“You know, you got to get the devil out the house 'fore you can clean it up!”

“If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.”

“I knew Denver was sincere when he told me that he would not want to trade places with me for even one day. His convictions became clear to me when I laid my key ring on the table between us at one of our earlier meetings for coffee.Denver smiled a bit and sidled up to a cautious question. 'I know it ain't none of my business, but does you own somethin' that each one of those keys fits?'I glanced at the keys; there were about ten of them. 'I suppose,' I replied, not really ever having thought about it.'Are you sure you own them, or does they own you?'That wisdom stuck to my brain like duct tape. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced we'd enjoy life a whole lot more if we owned a whole lot less.”

“Bein friends is like being soldiers in the army. You live together, you fight together; you die together.”

“I heard that when white folks go fishin they do somethin called 'catch and release.'Catch and release? I nodded solemnly, suddenly nervous and curious at the same time.'That really bothers me', Denver went on. 'I just can't figure it out. 'Cause when colored folks go fishin, we really proud of what we catch, and we take it and show it off to everybody that'll look. Then we eat what we catch...in other words, we use it to SUSTAIN us. So it really bothers me that white folks would go to all the trouble to catch a fish, when when they done caught it, just throw it back in the water.'He paused again, and the silence between us stretched a full minute. Then: 'Did you hear what I said?'I nodded, afraid to speak, afraid to offend.Denver looked away, searching the blue autumn sky, then locked onto me again with that drill-bit start. 'So, Mr. Ron, it occurred to me: If you is fishin for a friend you just gon' catch and release, then I ain't got no desire to be your friend.'I returned Denver's gaze with what I hoped was a receptive expression and hung on.Suddenly his eyes gentled and he spoke more softly than before: 'But if you is lookin for a REAL friend, then I'll be one. Forever.”

“I ran out of strong.”