Ep 16 ｜ Ron Hall ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 10 minutes
Words per Minute
174.9875
Summary
Glenn and Ron talk about their unlikely paths to becoming best friends and how they became best friends. Ron talks about how he almost didn t go to college and how he ended up at the University of Texas, while Glenn talks about his unlikely path to becoming a movie star.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Ron, your journey is perhaps one of the most unexpected.
00:00:23.600
Could you have planned a more bizarre path of your life?
00:00:28.640
Oh, Glenn, I'll have to tell you that if I read my books and saw my film, I would want
00:00:35.840
to call BS on it because, you know, if it had not happened to me, I couldn't believe anyone
00:00:41.560
else would have lived or survived what we went through in this friendship with Denver.
00:00:47.640
Let me go back before we get to you and to Denver.
00:00:52.440
If I summarized your, one of the main points that I got from this story is a good woman
00:01:11.180
Well, behind every successful man is a praying and good woman.
00:01:16.600
And I was privileged to be married to one of the all time best.
00:01:24.160
I think she will go down in history just through people that see our film and read our books
00:01:29.420
as one of the most inspirational women of America, a very unlikely, very ordinary woman, brave,
00:01:37.160
very brave, very brave, but not always that way.
00:01:41.220
It was, it was, uh, the last few years of her life.
00:01:46.420
I believe that God was preparing her for something that would ultimately impact our country and
00:01:54.840
And this is when I guess she was given an extra measure of bravery and, and maybe a bigger
00:02:09.880
Well, no, out, uh, say 80 miles South of Fort Worth.
00:02:24.320
I don't think people even think of cotton anymore.
00:02:30.980
So you grew up, uh, and left home, went to college.
00:02:40.760
Well, I didn't actually join the army when I was drafted.
00:02:45.880
I was, I got a knock on my, uh, fraternity house door one day saying, congratulations.
00:02:52.100
You have been selected to be an uncle Sam's army.
00:03:03.920
And that was just what the government was, uncle Sam was looking for, to, uh, to put a
00:03:09.920
rifle in your hand and send you off to Vietnam.
00:03:12.600
So, so, um, because you're, you're a very bright man, just a screw off.
00:03:19.080
I was majoring in fraternity and, uh, rich girls.
00:03:23.140
Because I had grown up so poor, I couldn't pay attention.
00:03:31.120
That's literally, that was my, I, I had no plan to, uh, for a future.
00:03:38.480
I didn't have, uh, uh, uh, any other goal other than to marry a rich girl and maybe go
00:03:50.520
That's just, I went to a high school when we're only less than 10% of our graduating
00:03:59.700
You know, just one day the principal made an announcement and said, if anybody wants to
00:04:04.180
go to college, you have to take a test and we're going to give it on Saturday morning
00:04:09.780
And about 20 people showed up to take the test and, uh, it was, you know, the ACT.
00:04:16.320
And, uh, the next thing I know, I went to the, uh, the principal and I said, I do want
00:04:22.120
And I said, what do you, where do you think I should go?
00:04:23.900
And he said, well, I only know of two colleges and it's called North Texas or East Texas.
00:04:29.800
And I said, oh, well, I said, I guess I'll go to East Texas because my mother had attended
00:04:34.980
North Texas and I didn't like Denton very much at the time.
00:04:39.240
And, uh, I've grown to love it now, but, uh, I didn't at the time, I just, I didn't have
00:04:45.320
So I went off to East Texas, never having been there.
00:04:47.880
And I spent a year there and then heard all the rich girls were at TCU.
00:04:51.500
All the farm girls were at East Texas at the time.
00:04:56.180
So that's why I decided to make my career plan and move to TCU.
00:05:00.620
And, and that's where you met your, I met, yes, Debra, your wife, my future wife, my
00:05:12.940
And, uh, I remember her walking across the campus.
00:05:16.180
The first time I laid eyes on her, she was in a military uniform because she was in a,
00:05:21.620
uh, an honor society called the angel flight where they wore air force blue uniforms, like
00:05:31.100
And, um, and her, she was a tall, dark and beautiful woman, but her name is said short.
00:05:37.240
And I thought it's an odd name for such a tall, beautiful woman to be short.
00:05:41.460
So I inquired about her and, uh, in a friend of mine, we saw her walking through the student
00:05:47.740
center and, um, a friend of mine named Glenn Whittington, uh, was coming.
00:05:54.080
Uh, he was sitting there and I said, that's the girl I want to ask for a date.
00:05:57.920
And so he just stopped her and he said, Hey, my friend, uh, Ron wants to ask you for a date.
00:06:02.540
And so she looked over at me and she said, if he wants to ask me for a date, he will call
00:06:07.540
Boy, I tell you as, as much of this story so far that has changed in time, that hasn't
00:06:25.480
This, um, you know, even though I went in search of, um, a rich girl, um, I found one with a
00:06:36.280
big heart and, um, and that was, uh, that was, I guess what I had thought I wanted.
00:06:59.180
But, uh, no, her spiritual journey came after we got married.
00:07:03.500
I guess when she realized that she had married probably someone without much vision.
00:07:14.060
So you, when you came back from the military, you became a Campbell soup salesman?
00:07:21.280
My father had sold Coca-Cola and, uh, he, he called on grocery stores selling it.
00:07:27.560
I mean, you would think who needs to sell a Coca-Cola.
00:07:30.720
But, uh, they had salespeople that would go out and sell and try to get you to do big displays.
00:07:39.580
It was, uh, first of all, he wanted me to be a veterinarian so I could take care of his
00:07:46.040
And then, um, when I signed up for chemistry and I dropped it, uh, right before the final exam with
00:07:53.740
the 13 average, I said, I don't think I'm going to make it into vet school.
00:07:57.980
So I had, I changed my, um, career path at the time.
00:08:03.520
The only thing I could think of to take was, um, to be an agriculture major because I loved
00:08:12.820
I had even tried bull riding and bronc riding and, uh, became a team roper and things like
00:08:18.300
So I thought agriculture was a natural path for me.
00:08:21.100
So I, I signed up for poultry 124 and, um, and I signed up for livestock production and,
00:08:33.540
Well, you know, I, and poultry 124, I discovered that's where, um, you know, chicken don't have
00:08:46.420
So you guys get married, you become a Campbell soup salesman.
00:08:52.540
Oh, less than a year until I was in a, um, the back of a Walmart, not, not a Kmart.
00:08:59.620
I was in the back of a Kmart when a case of potted meat exploded into my face and, and took
00:09:06.020
me down really when I, when I was covered in goo head to toe and, uh, I was in the east
00:09:12.760
side of Dallas and I had to drive back to Fort Worth with my heads hanging out the window
00:09:17.720
of my car because I smelled like, uh, spoiled potted meat.
00:09:23.220
And, uh, the next day I said, um, I read in the paper actually where they were looking for salespeople
00:09:33.460
And so I took this a hundred thousand dollar a year job and moved to San Antonio.
00:09:39.080
The job was selling, uh, insurance, uh, selling stock in a new insurance company that went
00:09:48.480
And I, they told me I had earned, uh, almost $10,000 in those first 10 weeks.
00:09:54.940
But when the company settled up with me, I got a check for $13 and 87 cents.
00:10:01.700
And we spent that $13 and 87 cents, uh, eating, uh, 10 cent bean rolls at Tecumolino in San
00:10:09.900
Antonio for three weeks till we could figure out what to do.
00:10:12.580
And that's when I said, I think I need to go back to TCU and get an education.
00:10:27.240
They just gave me this last year, the, uh, distinguished alumni award.
00:10:31.500
And I was the least likely person ever to receive this award because I did not have a
00:10:39.100
So you go into banking and you, how do you discover art?
00:10:44.940
Well, I discovered art because I was in Houston bidding on some water and sewer bonds.
00:10:50.780
I was, uh, a bond trader for, uh, the first national bank of Fort Worth and an underwriter.
00:10:55.920
So we would, uh, when cities and municipalities were issuing bonds, we would go bid on them.
00:11:03.000
And we had to have a certain amount of bonds in our portfolio.
00:11:06.980
So I was there bidding on bonds and I had about, you know, three hours to kill before
00:11:13.160
Would you actually had an auction for them back in those days?
00:11:22.980
And actually the bank hired me, someone I'd never even seen a computer to write the first
00:11:31.140
So, but, uh, so while I had about three hours to kill, I just wandered into an art gallery
00:11:37.260
that was near by where the bidding was going to be.
00:11:40.000
And this guy was telling me about his life and traveling all over the world and buying
00:11:44.700
and selling, uh, paintings and, uh, he had, um, he had just returned from Paris and I had
00:11:56.720
And, uh, and I thought, well, that sounds exciting.
00:11:59.160
It sounds like a better job than sitting here in Houston, waiting to bid on some water and
00:12:04.960
So, uh, and then go out to Fort Stockton, Texas to sell them or something.
00:12:11.680
So, uh, I asked him, I said, how do you become an art dealer?
00:12:14.840
And he said, well, uh, nobody's going to hire you to do it.
00:12:20.080
So he gave me, uh, he said, here's, here's something you can make money on.
00:12:24.340
And he showed me a painting and it was a Texas blue bonnet painting that had been painted in
00:12:29.940
And he said, he said, this is a $5,000 painting, $5,000, $6,000 painting.
00:12:35.420
I'll sell it to you for $3,500 and, um, you can make, you know, a couple thousand dollars
00:12:42.840
And I thought, wow, that's a great offer, except I don't have $3,500.
00:12:47.980
And, uh, he said, well, do you, are you an officer of the bank?
00:12:51.080
I said, yes, I'm an officer of the bank, but I didn't, haven't even received my first check
00:12:54.900
You know, we only got paid once a month and, and I hadn't even been there a month.
00:12:58.340
So he said, well, I'll, uh, you know, just, you write me a check and you go back to the
00:13:07.400
So this would have been half of my annual salary.
00:13:10.140
My wife was teaching school, making $300 a month.
00:13:21.060
They loaned me the $3,500 to cover my hot check.
00:13:23.920
And they said, if you don't pay it off in 90 days, you know, you will lose your job.
00:13:30.280
So I had to go to work to selling this painting.
00:13:32.980
And on the 89th day, I finally sold it for $5,500.
00:13:40.060
And then my mind was totally off of banking and, uh, had switched to art.
00:14:06.660
Well, within a year, I was making more than the chairman of the board of the bank where
00:14:11.680
I was, I was making more as an art dealer than the chairman of the board of the bank
00:14:19.120
You have sold paintings and art to all kinds of famous people, um, all over the world, all
00:14:26.080
You were going to Asia, Hong Kong, every, I was all over the world.
00:14:36.400
And it was not, uh, I'd have to say she was secretly enjoying it because, you know, we
00:14:43.380
were living in several million dollars homes and properties.
00:14:47.380
We had vacation homes and, you know, we were flying privately and things and it was a big
00:14:53.820
Uh, but you know, her heart was not, she, she in a way could secretly enjoy it.
00:15:02.040
But in another way, she saw that it was eating away at my soul because, uh, I say that we
00:15:08.860
both read a book called purpose-driven lives and I discovered, she discovered her purpose
00:15:14.260
in life was, uh, chasing after the almighty God.
00:15:18.280
And my purpose in life was chasing after the almighty dollar and a few other things.
00:15:23.700
So, uh, and you had some real rough patches, um, in your marriage.
00:15:31.020
Um, and she said, if we get therapy, we can put our marriage back together.
00:15:39.000
And at what point is she now when she's really, when this is happening at what, where are you
00:15:46.480
mentally with God and where is she at the beginning of this cusp that's about to change your life?
00:15:55.360
Well, um, you know, I, out of, uh, when we first got married, when we adopted our first
00:16:03.560
child in 1973, we both realized that we needed something spiritual in our lives because we were
00:16:11.680
just a couple of party animals, uh, that with now a new baby that we had adopted.
00:16:17.740
So, uh, you know, she began studying the religions of the world and she had decided that she thought
00:16:27.920
And along the way, I had decided the same thing, even though I became a believer in Christianity
00:16:35.000
So, um, but through this path, even though I was a believer, you know, I was a, uh, a
00:16:44.020
pew warmer in church and a check writer for certain causes, but was not active in really
00:16:52.900
To be fair, in many ways, you were kind of the typical Christian.
00:16:58.120
I mean, there's a lot of Christians that are like, no, I'm absolutely Christian, but
00:17:03.100
well, you know, you kind of go and you check in.
00:17:05.740
Well, I'll tell you a story about that later with Denver because he challenged me.
00:17:09.320
Well, I just said right now, the first day I ever met Denver, he asked me, he said, why
00:17:13.960
is it all you Christians worship one homeless man on Sunday and turn you back on the first
00:17:23.060
So, you know, that was the homeless and, and people that were actually turned out to be
00:17:32.280
And, uh, he told me one time, he said, uh, there's way too much Bible study and, and
00:17:43.400
So she is, she comes to you at what point does she come to you and say, Hey, we've got to go
00:17:50.880
down to this mission, which is the scariest place in Dallas at the time.
00:17:58.400
We went to the Fort Worth mission in downtown Fort Worth, but it will, you know, this was
00:18:02.660
actually 10 years after I had my affair and, uh, that she told me, if you will not do this
00:18:10.520
I write about it in the books, but it's a really, it was a turning point in my life because
00:18:14.620
I had, our lives had taken a totally different path.
00:18:17.700
I was ready to end the marriage and destroy a family.
00:18:21.380
And, uh, she wasn't quite ready to willing to give up on me.
00:18:26.120
And, uh, so when she, the, the day that I came home and admitted what I had done, uh,
00:18:33.880
she told me, she said, if you will not do this again, if you will seek counseling, I will
00:18:41.800
And she said, I will throw your sin as far as the East is from the West and you were
00:18:47.500
And I thought, wow, that's, that is a deal I cannot refuse.
00:18:52.280
So I said, okay, if you will do that, I will do anything.
00:18:59.300
And from that day forward, she never mentioned that again.
00:19:03.020
And we put our marriage back together and we had one of the most beautiful marriages in
00:19:09.160
And, and it was 10 years later, Glenn, that she asked me to do the very first thing that
00:19:17.680
The only thing she had asked me to be was be faithful after the, after my falling.
00:19:29.200
She was, uh, I wasn't, she was becoming involved in a lot of, uh, homeless and, uh, just working
00:19:35.940
with poor people where she worked with AIDS babies at Brian's house in Dallas.
00:19:40.340
And she had started a couple of do, uh, ministries, uh, uh, call, uh, that would had to do with
00:19:46.160
bringing in women out of prison and getting them resituated in homes.
00:19:54.940
I'm doing art fairs in every major country around the world.
00:19:58.140
And, and so I was not active in any of those things.
00:20:01.880
So, uh, it was, uh, in the year of 1998, we moved from Dallas.
00:20:09.280
We lived, lived in Highland park in Dallas, and, uh, we decided to move back to Fort Worth
00:20:13.220
to be closer to our ranch, which was on the Brazos river west of Fort Worth.
00:20:17.640
And, um, so at that first few days we were back in Fort Worth, uh, she had a dream and it
00:20:28.020
And she, in the, in her dream, she saw the face of a homeless man.
00:20:32.620
And the next morning she told me, she said, Ron, it was like the verse in Ecclesiastes
00:20:37.000
in the old Testament, uh, where Solomon wrote, there was found in the city, a certain poor
00:20:45.540
And she said, I think it's even more important, Ron, that our lives will be changed.
00:20:55.720
And would you go with me into the inner city to find this man in my dream?
00:21:05.460
She graduated with honors and she was there on an academic scholarship.
00:21:11.940
Was she somebody who claimed to have dreams before?
00:21:14.640
She had only had one other dream she claimed was spiritual and it had come about and it
00:21:20.540
And she discovered a year after she had the dream, it was validated that it was true.
00:21:25.360
So, uh, and that was a really exciting thing for her.
00:21:28.200
And this was only the second spiritual dream that she ever had.
00:21:31.400
And it was probably three or four years after that first one.
00:21:37.340
Well, the next morning after that dream, she asked me to go with her into the inner city.
00:21:41.620
So instead of going to my art gallery that day, I get in the car with her and we drive
00:21:46.280
into the inner city of Fort Worth and began driving, you know, very slowly around, uh, looking
00:21:57.340
Well, it did, except she was so absolutely certain that she would find him and that this
00:22:06.360
And, uh, so I was just being nice about it as I could.
00:22:11.540
I didn't really want to be there, but we drove around and we didn't see him.
00:22:16.140
Uh, oh, the people were looking at us like we were crazy because I mean, you know, when
00:22:20.320
you're driving a very expensive vehicle in a place that people are trading drugs and prostitution.
00:22:26.160
And you've got two white people looking around like, oh, let me see what your face looks
00:22:32.960
So, uh, we had, people were telling us to get out of there and, but we ended up volunteering
00:22:38.320
that afternoon at the Fort Worth union gospel mission.
00:22:42.840
And, uh, we'd been there a couple of weeks, uh, just, well, I'd say the, when I first walked
00:22:49.040
in, when you mentioned the mission, it was just a rundown old cinder block building that
00:22:56.400
And it's not a place that I had ever been in any place like that, that smelled so bad
00:23:05.560
People were looking like they were out of some horror movie that were there.
00:23:10.540
And, uh, so I asked the chef, I said, are there any infectious diseases floating around
00:23:18.080
He said, we tried to infect them all with love.
00:23:20.540
And I thought this wise guy, why would he tell me that?
00:23:25.160
But anyway, so we began serving at the mission that day and, um, and made a commitment that
00:23:32.240
we would begin, we would continue serving, uh, for the next, whatever.
00:23:37.820
And you're doing this on that day out of loyalty, out of respect, but kind of begrudgingly
00:23:54.120
And the subject didn't come up that I was doing it to pay penance for what I had done
00:24:02.780
But, uh, so, um, so I just, I just did it and said, this is something I have to endure.
00:24:09.960
This is Debbie and I owe this to her, but I'm not telling anybody else that.
00:24:24.840
He breaks down almost a door coming in and he's screaming at the top of his lungs.
00:24:35.260
And he starts turning over tables and he throwing punches.
00:24:39.740
And he's, and I look and here's this giant looking man with no shirt and no shoes and some raggedy old unzipped britches.
00:24:51.100
And, and, and there's blood and cursing and fighting everywhere.
00:24:57.280
The only thing I could think to do was take cover myself.
00:25:00.200
So I'm standing behind a stainless steel serving line, which was the safest place in the whole building.
00:25:06.340
And, uh, because we had a, I had a barrier there between me, but I saw there where we had taken out some pots and pans.
00:25:13.360
There were some holes where I could stick my head.
00:25:15.840
So I stuck my head under one of these things because I had taken a knockout punch in the golden gloves in high school.
00:25:22.360
And I never wanted to get hit in the nose again.
00:25:28.960
So I stick my head under this hole and, uh, all of a sudden, I still hear all the screaming and the pandemonium.
00:25:36.500
And I'm thinking, I wonder what happened to Debbie.
00:25:39.520
So, uh, so all of a sudden I, I was a self-preservation.
00:25:45.720
No, you are, you are not a white knight at any point so far.
00:25:49.060
So I stick my head out and I look and she is so excited.
00:25:53.100
She's jumping up and down like a cheerleader on the sideline of a football game.
00:26:00.240
And I said, that's who I reached up and I look right over the edge and I said, that's who.
00:26:08.480
And by then, of course, the whole dining room was filled with, uh, homeless men that were all fighting and trying to get away from the fight.
00:26:18.440
And she said, the one who's threatening to kill everybody.
00:26:23.100
And then she had to look down at me cause I'm still on my knees.
00:26:27.320
And so she looked down at me and she said, and Ron, I believe I heard from God that you have to be his friend and find out if my dream is really from God.
00:26:36.760
And I said, but Debbie, I was not at that meeting you had with God.
00:26:41.140
If I'm going to be friends with someone who wants to kill everybody, maybe I should go talk to God myself.
00:26:47.880
So, uh, so I asked one of the guys who was standing next to me in the serving line of a homeless guy.
00:26:54.880
He said, nobody knows his name, but he's been on the streets longer than anybody here can remember.
00:27:00.280
And he said, uh, most people refer to him as the lion of the jungle because he rules the streets with fear and intimidation.
00:27:09.660
And he said, uh, a lot of people just call him suicide because messing with him is really the equivalent of committing suicide.
00:27:25.000
That is really good advice that you're giving me.
00:27:27.260
As opposed to what my crazy wife is telling me.
00:27:30.380
And I have a feeling your crazy wife didn't care about that advice.
00:27:35.480
In fact, she told me every morning, um, well, the security guards and everybody, police, they came, they dragged him away.
00:27:45.800
And, uh, but you know, at her insistence every morning, she would ask me to please go into the inner city to see if I could get him in my car and take him to get coffee or something.
00:27:56.020
And so every morning, this is literally every morning I would drive into the inner city and look for him.
00:28:02.880
And I would usually see him cause I knew where he hung out.
00:28:05.200
He lived really by a dumpster, uh, close to the mission.
00:28:12.140
And, um, I would see him and he would see me and then he would take off.
00:28:20.520
I didn't have to meet him, but it was actually a couple of weeks later.
00:28:23.520
We saw him come through the serving line again.
00:28:27.800
And he was the last person that came through the serving line that day as we were about to shut down.
00:28:32.900
And so, uh, Debbie, uh, had made a promise that she was going to learn the names of every homeless person on the streets of Fort Worth and specifically pray for their needs every day, uh, and become friends with them.
00:28:48.400
And so he was one of the people that she had not learned his name yet.
00:28:52.080
So as he put two plates in front, which was against mission policy to serve two plates to one person, uh, I was trying to, uh, I said, you just get the rules, buddy, you know?
00:29:13.860
Now you just shut up and put some food on these plates and I'm going to get on out of here.
00:29:18.540
And I'll tell you, uh, the next thing I know, she leaps over the serving line, like a high jumper in the Olympic finals.
00:29:32.460
She chest butts him like two football players on the, on a, in a game.
00:29:36.780
And she starts tapping him on the nose saying, you are not a bad man.
00:29:41.460
You are in fact a good man that God has a calling on your life and you're going to live to see it.
00:29:47.100
His fists were doubled up like this and he was shaking.
00:29:51.520
And I looked down and my fists were shaking and I was doubled up like this and thinking, well, if he hits her, I'm running out the back door.
00:30:01.480
I'm not going to fight a man they call suicide.
00:30:03.660
So, uh, anyway, luckily he sidestepped her and left the building and, uh, but some, um, person that was standing next to me said, my, my, my, I never thought I'd see some little skinny little white lady tame the lion of the jungle.
00:30:18.600
And, uh, so that began a really serious adventure into a cat and mouse chase that lasted five months until I got him in my car.
00:30:49.940
We started doing a lot of things with the homeless.
00:30:55.100
We had a beauty shop day once a week where we would give pedicures and manicures and haircuts and styling and all these kinds of things.
00:31:03.360
Uh, Debbie was doing everything and bringing our friends into, to try to make a difference, you know, to, to put a new face on homelessness and make them look beautiful and elevate their self image.
00:31:14.160
So, uh, the, uh, in fact, my, my friend told me one time, Denver, after I got to know him, he said, you know, most people look at the homeless as a problem.
00:31:23.400
He said, but God looks at them as an opportunity for the faithful to show his love.
00:31:29.580
So we were taking this as an opportunity to show the love of God to people who consider themselves unlovable.
00:31:37.120
But, uh, so anyway, we were having a, we advertised, we were going to have a, um, a concert at the house of blues, not a house of blues at, uh, downtown Fort Worth at, um, uh, Sundance square.
00:31:53.360
So we announced we were having a concert and, uh, he actually got in my car though.
00:32:01.380
And, uh, that night he, um, I went to sit by him and, um, I, uh, he was sitting up in the, in the concert.
00:32:11.460
He didn't say anything to me when we were traveling there, but I go up and sit by him.
00:32:18.740
He grabbed my hand and threw it off his knees and man, don't you ever touch me.
00:32:22.520
And, uh, he scared me to death and then he got up and walked out.
00:32:27.120
So he missed the concert just because I sat next to him and I thought, this guy's crazy.
00:32:31.660
But on the way out, he was standing by my car and he was smoking a cigarette and he said, I want to apologize to you.
00:32:38.480
He said, you and your wife been trying to be nice to me for a long time now.
00:32:42.880
And he said, uh, uh, why don't you come by tomorrow, you know, by the dumpster where I live and, uh, we'll go over to the mission.
00:32:53.500
So I went by the next morning and, um, and picked him up and we ended up going to, um, to what was called the Cactus Flower Cafe in Fort Worth and had breakfast that morning.
00:33:09.240
His story is a very tragic story, but, um, his story is he was born on a plantation in Louisiana in 1937.
00:33:20.380
His mother was only 13 years old at the time and was not married and she gave him up to the custody of his grandmother who was, uh, the daughter of a freed slave who lived in, still in the slave cabin with, uh, a shotgun slave cabin on a plantation with no running water, no electricity or anything like that.
00:33:42.100
So his grandmother was raising him and a cousin.
00:33:46.160
He, uh, he watched his grandmother burn up in a fire when he was about seven years old and he tried desperately to save her.
00:33:53.460
He went back and forth into the house of the fire to save her, but she burned up and his cousin burned up in the fire as well.
00:33:59.580
And he went to live with his father, um, they found his father who was on another plantation.
00:34:05.980
And then a few weeks after he moved in with his father, his father was stabbed to death in a fight that Denver witnessed.
00:34:13.460
And so then he went to live with an uncle and, uh, who was a sharecropper and plowing behind mules.
00:34:19.820
So Denver was about seven years old and his job was rolling cigarettes for his, uh, for his uncle.
00:34:26.880
And, uh, but after, uh, a year of doing that, his uncle died of a heart attack plowing behind the mules.
00:34:35.220
So he went to then live with a step sister of his, one of his daddy's, uh, uh, uh, other half sister of his, as he found out on another plantation.
00:34:46.120
And, uh, and at 16 years old is an innocent young, 16 year old sharecropper is what he was.
00:34:55.360
Actually, uh, he was roped and dragged by the Ku Klux Klan behind horses for helping a white woman change a flat tire on the plantation.
00:35:04.020
And that day they, the Klan made him promise that he would never again speak to a white lady.
00:35:14.780
And he had kept that promise for all those years until I met him when he was 64 years old, living by a dumpster.
00:35:24.120
So he, when he moved to Fort Worth, um, he came, uh, he was actually going to California, if I'm not mistaken.
00:35:32.360
Well, he was, he, he hopped, he went into the man's store there.
00:35:39.900
He got credited a man's store for working on the plantation and, and the work was, was falling off because of all the machinery that was now being used on the plantation.
00:35:52.560
So he was not able to pay his bill at the store.
00:35:55.580
He owed $35 to the man, uh, for the groceries that he had acquired over that year.
00:36:05.000
So he walked out of the store and saw a freight train standing there.
00:36:12.240
And he asked Denver, ask him, where are you going?
00:36:16.720
And so Denver thought, well, I'm just going to get on and go.
00:36:21.480
So it just, he just got on the freight train and first place it stopped was Fort Worth, Texas.
00:36:28.420
So he gets off the freight train and, uh, starts wandering around and ends up, you know, getting a meal at the mission.
00:36:42.860
He can't get a job because he can't read or write.
00:36:46.260
He had never been given the opportunity to go to school.
00:36:48.560
You see on the plantation, there was not a black or colored school, they called it.
00:36:53.720
But, uh, so all the white kids were, uh, while they were in class, you know, he was working the cotton fields.
00:36:59.040
He started working at seven years old in the cotton fields.
00:37:02.200
Nobody told him that there was a school for him.
00:37:19.520
He escaped the plantation basically when he was 20 years old.
00:37:27.340
Well, yes, he, he had, he had another period here in his life.
00:37:34.880
But in 57, when he first arrived at 58, something like that, he, you know, he said, uh, Mr.
00:37:41.180
Ron, I've lived my whole life, not knowing what day it was, what time it was or, or anything
00:37:46.440
He said, and all of a sudden, you know, I've, I've had, uh, lived my whole life with no place
00:37:52.800
And now you tell me I got to be somewhere on time.
00:37:57.960
But, uh, he gets in a shootout in Fort Worth and some guy pulled a gun on him and tried to
00:38:07.140
The first night he was on the streets or first week he was on the streets.
00:38:13.120
He, Denver shot himself first in the leg and then turned around and shot the guy.
00:38:17.000
So he went and hopped a freight train that night and ended up in California.
00:38:22.020
So he spent a few years in California and that's, then he came back.
00:38:26.220
Well, he ended up and then ended up in prison in Angola state penetrator in Louisiana.
00:38:31.240
He served 10 years there for attempted armed robbery of, uh, of a city bus with a gun that
00:38:36.780
It was a rusted gun that had no even a barrel on it.
00:38:40.600
And, uh, he spent 10 years in Angola state penitentiary and he was released from that
00:38:46.980
And that's when he ended up going on the streets of Fort Worth.
00:38:50.600
And then it was 25 years later that I found him on the streets.
00:38:54.100
I find it fascinating that the first night he's in Fort Worth, somebody steals his shoes.
00:39:00.000
And the first time you meet him, he's talking about somebody stealing his shoes.
00:39:22.480
In fact, uh, he asked me on that morning at breakfast, he says, what is it you want from
00:39:27.840
He said, man, I've had no peace in my life since you and your skinny little wife showed
00:39:34.460
And I said, Hey man, I just want to be your friend.
00:39:39.080
My wife wanted me to be his friend, but I told him, I just want to be your friend.
00:39:45.440
And he had this incredulous look on his face for good reason.
00:39:51.880
He said, man, I'm going to have to think about that.
00:39:54.020
And I thought to myself, Hey buddy, you just looked a gift horse in the mouth.
00:39:58.940
I am a millionaire and I can do anything for you.
00:40:05.100
And if she wants you to have new clothes, I can do that.
00:40:09.960
I can even buy you a house, anything that she wants you to have.
00:40:14.000
I'm going to get for you because I owe this to her.
00:40:21.460
I didn't think this man had one thing to offer me in a friendship.
00:40:26.540
And so it was about a week or so later, I saw him taking trash out of the dumpster and
00:40:31.240
I pull up and I said, Hey, you want to go get some coffee?
00:40:36.180
We're sitting there and he thinks, he says, I've been thinking a lot about what you asked
00:40:40.300
And I said, what did I ask you that required any thought?
00:40:42.360
And he said, you asked me if I'd be your friend.
00:40:48.020
He said, well, there's something I heard about white folks.
00:40:56.560
And I said, I know a little bit about those things, but I don't even own a rod and reel
00:41:01.200
And he said, but I bet you can answer the question.
00:41:05.780
He said, I heard when white folks go fishing, they do this thing called catch and release.
00:41:12.420
I said, Denver, of course they do, because it's a sport.
00:41:18.560
Because back on the plantation where I grew up, we'd go out in the morning, we'd dig us
00:41:26.640
And when we finally got something on our line, we were really proud of what we caught.
00:41:30.540
And he said, we'd take it back and we'd share it with all the folk.
00:41:33.580
He said, so it occurred to me, if you just a white man fishing for a friend, and you
00:41:41.140
going to catch and release, I ain't got no desire to be your friend.
00:41:47.860
And he said, but if you fishing for a real friend, then you got one for life.
00:41:52.540
And my mind flashed back to Debbie's dream of this poor man who was wise, because what
00:41:58.940
he spoke to me at that moment was the wisest thing I had ever heard on friendship.
00:42:06.700
And I knew at that moment, if I ever heard from God in my life, it was at that moment
00:42:11.240
when I knew I had to take a chance and be his friend.
00:42:14.240
I couldn't go tell Debbie of this meeting and tell her that I had told him not to be,
00:42:20.740
But I have to say that that was the best decision I ever made in my life.
00:42:26.980
As an art dealer, God, all of a sudden, just repainted the canvas of my life and rewrote
00:42:33.540
You know, we all have these moments in life where you face something that will be life
00:42:39.820
And those decisions you make at that moment will forever alter your life.
00:42:43.860
And that moment, that catch and release meeting forever has altered my life.
00:42:50.740
Oh, Lynn, I enrolled in what I call Denver University the next morning.
00:42:56.900
I went by his dumpster because I was so enamored with this man and so fascinated with his wisdom
00:43:06.200
that I went the next morning and sat on the curb next to him on a busy Lancaster Street
00:43:12.860
and very busy in the most dangerous neighborhood of Fort Worth.
00:43:17.380
I sat there on the curb with him by his dumpster, stinking dumpster, and began asking him.
00:43:25.080
And he looked and he had this piercing look, laser beam lock on my eyes.
00:43:32.360
So I just decided to break the ice and I said, hey, man, tell me what's it like to be homeless?
00:43:38.200
I must have caught him off guard because he kind of looked at me and he said, well, I don't
00:43:50.400
He said, well, let me tell you something, Mr. Ronnie Ray.
00:43:55.040
Whether we's rich or whether we's poor or whether we is something in between, he said,
00:44:04.800
And he said, so in a way, we all homeless, just working our way home.
00:44:11.680
So this is the title of my new book, Working Our Way Home.
00:44:31.740
How did this guy, how did he have such peace and wisdom and he was the same guy who walked
00:44:54.720
You know, he acted angry and he would say, everybody that smiles at you ain't your friend
00:45:05.620
and everybody that screams at you ain't your enemy.
00:45:09.800
But he said, you know, you just got to discern.
00:45:13.260
He said, Miss Debbie could see through all of that.
00:45:18.720
She had Superman's eyes and she could see right straight to my heart.
00:45:26.320
And he said, so it was, but he had no friends, but he would spend every night.
00:45:37.760
And he talked to God like he knew him personally.
00:45:42.500
And he would, he would talk to him in conversations and have long conversations with him.
00:45:48.520
Um, and, um, so that's where he gleaned these things.
00:45:54.120
Uh, and, and he didn't, he didn't have any conversations except in anger and in a protective
00:46:02.020
But, uh, so that was, it was, uh, you know, one of the first few times I'm sitting at Denver
00:46:11.620
And, uh, I was starting to ask him questions about people in judgment.
00:46:17.720
And, uh, he looked at me and he said, Mr. Ron, look down the end of the street there.
00:46:22.440
How do you mean, wait, wait, how do you mean in judgment?
00:46:30.460
Or, you know, I, they'd come by and hit me up for a dollar and I said, I'm not going to
00:46:34.580
They're already too drunk or too high or something like that.
00:46:37.280
And, uh, so he looked down, he said, Mr. Ron, look down at the end of the street.
00:46:47.720
I said, well, you're talking about way down at the end of the street.
00:46:53.100
Let me tell you something, Mr. Ron, that courthouse is full of judges and God ain't looking for no
00:47:01.700
He said, if you want to come down here and spend time on me or with me on these streets,
00:47:07.360
you need to come and leave your judge's robe back in your closet and you come as a servant
00:47:13.300
and you and I are going to be getting along just fine, but you ain't going to come down
00:47:16.940
here and be judging my people here on the streets.
00:47:30.040
But he is the one that prophesied that or predicted it.
00:47:34.500
Well, a few, maybe five months into my Denver University education program, I was nearing a
00:47:41.060
PhD at the time because I was getting so wise and his wisdom was just coming in bucket loads.
00:47:47.980
So one day we're sitting having lunch and he looks very concerned that day.
00:47:54.940
And my life lesson for that day was, if the devil ain't messing with you, he's already
00:48:03.080
So after he began instructing me on that, he told me, he said, Mr. Ron, what Miss Debbie
00:48:09.740
is doing for the homeless, she has become precious to God.
00:48:14.340
He said, when you become precious to God, you become important to Satan.
00:48:20.240
Something bad getting ready to happen to Miss Debbie.
00:48:24.080
And three days later, out of nowhere, she was diagnosed with cancer.
00:48:28.980
And for the next 19 months, when we fought the battle of all battles, Denver is the one
00:48:38.040
that God chose to encourage us the most during those 19 months.
00:48:42.000
And the man that I once thought had nothing to offer me in a friendship for 19 months, every
00:48:50.600
day he would show up on our front door, knocking on it at sunrise or right after that, and bring
00:48:56.220
us a fresh, relevant message that he had heard from God in the night.
00:49:04.020
And I just marveled at how God chose the most, the poorest, most dangerous man on the streets
00:49:13.200
of Fort Worth to be the one that encouraged us the most during the darkest days of our
00:49:26.100
It's the humble and the meek inheriting the earth.
00:49:29.000
And, um, and on the last day of her life, he came to tell me that he was talking to God
00:49:37.640
And he said, he said, God told me to come tell Miss Debbie to lay down her torch.
00:49:43.480
And he said, so I need to go in and talk to Miss Debbie.
00:49:46.320
And I'd like to be that in private, if you don't mind.
00:49:49.480
So he went in, uh, she was lying in bed and he kneeled beside her on the bed.
00:49:55.680
And he said, Miss Debbie, he said, I was talking to God last night.
00:49:59.000
And he said, the only reason you've been holding on this long, Miss Debbie, is because he told
00:50:03.560
me, because you didn't know who's going to take care of the homeless when, when you pass.
00:50:08.660
He said, but God told me, he said, Denver, you go tell Miss Debbie to lay down her torch
00:50:12.980
and you pick it up, Denver, and you carry it the rest of your life for her.
00:50:17.880
He said, so that's what I'm going to do, Miss Debbie.
00:50:20.720
And he said, and I'm going to be here till God takes me and I'll see you on the other side.
00:50:26.180
And the man who had been made promise by the, uh, Ku Klux Klan never again to speak to a
00:50:33.520
white woman, kneeled beside her bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead and said, I'm going
00:50:41.320
And when he left her room, he came out, he said, don't worry, Mr. Ron, nothing ever ends.
00:50:47.320
And her final words to me were, Ron, please don't give up on Denver.
00:50:52.760
God is going to bless your friendship in a way that you can never imagine.
00:50:58.740
And, uh, a few hours later, God took her to heaven.
00:51:02.580
Three days later, Denver stood up and preached her funeral.
00:51:06.580
And he shared a message that all of these years of 25 years on the streets, how a lot of people
00:51:12.780
had given him a dollar bill and told him Jesus loved him and all these kinds of things.
00:51:18.000
But, you know, no one had ever stopped to find out his name and see behind the anger and confusion.
00:51:23.860
He said it was like an old song that they used to sing back on the plantation when nothing else
00:51:32.140
He said it was the love of Miss Debbie who said it was the, it was the love of Christ
00:51:39.200
And he said, and I'm here today to share that with you.
00:51:41.880
And Miss Debbie wanted me to share with you too, that she wanted to build a new homeless
00:51:48.220
And I know there's a lot of you skillionaires sitting out there, a lot of paper.
00:51:52.620
So she'd make her real happy if y'all build that new mission for her.
00:51:57.280
When he got through speaking, he got a standing ovation for more than a thousand
00:52:04.140
And by noon the next day, more than $500,000 came in from the people at the funeral.
00:52:12.660
We built this finest homeless mission in America in downtown Fort Worth.
00:52:17.600
And that year that we finished this mission, Denver was honored as the philanthropist of the
00:52:25.640
And as he stood to receive his award, he told the people, he said, a lot of y'all just thought
00:52:33.120
He said, but did y'all know that God is into recycling business?
00:52:57.760
But your new book is about what everybody doesn't know.
00:53:20.480
Did he, was he at a place before you all got together?
00:53:23.980
Was he at a place to where he was happy on the street?
00:53:33.020
He was the king of his kingdom and people would come by and they, they, they revered him and
00:53:48.100
And you had become comfortable in your billionaire lifestyle.
00:53:51.740
Well, it wasn't quite that good, but, but yeah, it, I was very comfortable with,
00:54:03.120
Well, truthfully, Debbie asked me, please do not give up on Denver.
00:54:11.280
After she died, he and I went to the ranch and we, we buried her at our ranch.
00:54:17.100
She wanted to be buried like the paupers on the streets.
00:54:19.900
So she, we put her in a simple pine box, just dug a hole, a grave on the highest point
00:54:27.980
I think this is going to only be probably done in Texas still.
00:54:36.200
So, and so she's in heaven, but I mean, but, uh, so Denver and I buried her there and,
00:54:42.140
um, and we, um, I asked him to, to move in with me and he said, no.
00:54:53.420
So I took off and went to Italy for about five months where I began, uh, pursuing a career
00:54:59.940
I wanted, I wanted just to get away from all the, the pain, the anger and find a different
00:55:08.320
So I spent about four or five months in Italy, a painting and making sculpture and writing
00:55:15.220
And then one day, um, this young Italian girl told me she was reading my manuscript of what
00:55:22.460
And she said, uh, I, she said, the real story you've left behind, this is not where you need
00:55:30.900
And so a couple of days later, I came back to Texas and went into the hobo jungle of Fort
00:55:38.980
Worth, Texas to find Denver and I found him and I asked him to move in with me.
00:55:46.100
But he, he said, I needed to do more important things for me to do.
00:55:49.260
And one was to repair my relationship with my father.
00:55:52.420
And he said, uh, you must do that before I'll even want to talk to you.
00:55:56.760
So I, I began repairing the relationship with my father.
00:56:00.400
And then we, uh, my, my children and I were living together.
00:56:05.080
Uh, they were all grown and out of college by then.
00:56:07.840
Um, so, um, we were sitting there one night and I'd been home about a month from Italy
00:56:13.880
and we're sitting there one night and I said, what would they, we were talking about, what
00:56:21.380
Well, of course, mom would want him living with us.
00:56:27.240
And so my son, Carson said, dad, I'll go get him.
00:56:32.780
So Carson gets in his car and my son was about 22 at the time, you know, small kid, almost
00:56:45.760
He drives in to the hobo jungle of Fort Worth, Texas and starts hollering, Denver, Denver.
00:56:52.580
And some, one of the, one of the homeless people, uh, in the jungle came up and said, Denver,
00:57:00.060
I don't know what you've done to, there's some bad white boy out there looking for you
00:57:05.580
And I don't know what you did to him, but he, he is, he's coming after you.
00:57:10.960
Denver said, I ain't done nothing to no white boys.
00:57:18.900
He said, Mr. Carson, what are you doing here, man?
00:57:23.460
And he said, no, my dad told me to come get you and not to come home without you.
00:57:27.000
He said, well, I'm going to go home with you just so you don't get killed here in the
00:57:32.440
But he came in and he, of course, Carson brought him home.
00:57:35.620
It was about midnight and I was waiting up for him.
00:57:39.080
Um, and, uh, Denver came in and he had one just garbage bag that was just a small garbage
00:57:45.920
And he had another shirt and change of clothes and a toothbrush back in there.
00:57:51.920
And I looked at him and I said, Denver, you did the rest of the stuff out in Carson's car.
00:57:55.920
He said, Mr. Ron, this is all I got in the whole world.
00:57:59.880
I said, this, in this bag is everything you own in the whole world.
00:58:06.600
And he said, yes, uh, he said, but let me tell you something, Mr. Ron, and maybe one
00:58:14.280
He said, you will know that you have something when you can finally thank God for nothing.
00:58:32.380
Well, that means that he knew in his life, he was content to be where God had him, but
00:58:43.480
And when he could thank God for his circumstances, even how poor they were, he could praise a God
00:58:55.040
And he could praise him for nothing because he had nothing.
00:59:03.380
I witnessed the miracle of a homeless man known as suicide who did not read and write, become
00:59:11.780
a number one New York times bestselling author and stay on the list for three and a half years
00:59:19.380
I witnessed a man who had never drawn a stick figure, been in an art museum or an art gallery,
00:59:27.060
become a successful artist and selling more than 500 paintings.
00:59:33.820
I witnessed a homeless man who was penniless when he moved in my home and had been living in cardboard
00:59:39.780
boxes and hobo jungles and, uh, dumpsters in Fort Worth, Texas, even in a grave.
00:59:46.400
He took up residence in a grave one time to get away from some of the confusion in the
00:59:55.280
I witnessed him become a millionaire at age 72 and then give it all away back to the homeless,
01:00:05.040
I witnessed a man who for most of his life disliked, mistrusted whites become a symbol for racial
01:00:14.000
unity in America, spreading a message that it's not the color of our skin or the language
01:00:20.320
we speak that divides us as the condition of our hearts.
01:00:23.560
And I witnessed a man who for years sat in silence by this dumpster, speaking to no one,
01:00:30.340
become a motivational speaker and get paid $10,000 for giving speeches and filling events
01:00:37.260
like the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, packing it out.
01:00:41.460
Uh, I witnessed a man who for, as a child was taught that the white house was only for white
01:00:51.080
I witnessed him become, uh, be honored by the Bush family at the white house.
01:00:59.920
Uh, and at a private luncheon, uh, when we were speaking for Barbara Bush's foundation on
01:01:07.600
literacy in Washington, DC, they had us and three other authors for a private, private
01:01:15.620
And, uh, but as we were leaving the white house that day, Denver starts laughing hysterically
01:01:22.180
and he had had some embarrassing moments in there.
01:01:24.560
It's right about him in our book, working our way home.
01:01:27.940
But, um, as we were leaving the white house that day, he starts laughing hysterically.
01:01:33.880
You just embarrassed the tar out of me there at the lunch table with the Bush family.
01:01:38.800
And, uh, he said, well, think about this, Mr. Ron, I done gone from living in the bushes
01:01:53.680
I saw the president of the United States of America walk up to Denver Moore in his office
01:02:01.920
and say, Denver Moore, what an honor to meet you, sir.
01:02:06.820
And I thought, wow, can you believe that the president of the United States knows the name
01:02:12.240
of what was the most dangerous, craziest, homeless addict on the streets of Fort Worth,
01:02:17.880
Texas, and God has transformed that trash into a national treasure now and using him to give
01:02:25.100
homelessness a new face so that people, when they see the homeless now, they will look at
01:02:30.900
them and think, what, not what's going to happen to me if I stop to help, but look at
01:02:35.920
them and think, what will happen to them if I don't?
01:02:39.140
Would that be a Denver sitting there that maybe will impact our lives and our nation?
01:02:44.120
And I can tell you, just as we are now at this Christmas season, and we are celebrating
01:02:52.220
and worshiping the most famous homeless family in the history of the world that impacted the
01:02:58.600
world, because Mary and Joseph were homeless that night.
01:03:05.800
In fact, homelessness is not about running out of money.
01:03:09.060
Homelessness is about running out of relationships.
01:03:14.120
When you've lost all hope, when you have lost your friends and your family, you might still
01:03:20.800
have some money, but without friends and family, you become homeless.
01:03:37.720
He was supposed to be with me at the ranch, and that day, he said he wasn't feeling like
01:03:44.720
being at the ranch, because he was not feeling well.
01:03:48.360
And we had been in and out of the hospitals so many, many times, back and forth to hospitals,
01:03:53.140
which are some of the craziest stories, how he would run away from the hospitals and what
01:03:59.880
I write about that in our new book, Working Our Way Home.
01:04:03.260
It's the craziest stories that you will ever hear.
01:04:08.240
But I went by to pick him up, and he said, no, I can't go today.
01:04:15.140
He had just moved out and moved into a motel where he got a smoking sweep because he had
01:04:20.200
set my house on fire twice by falling asleep and smoking in bed.
01:04:23.560
And I said, Denver, you either quit smoking in the house or you've got to go get a place
01:04:29.720
Well, so he found a motel that would rent him a smoking suite so he could sleep and smoke.
01:04:38.620
And then he spent all day at my house because his art studio was there, and he's got all
01:04:45.100
So it was not as if we weren't living together.
01:04:48.680
So that morning, I went by to pick him up, to take him to the ranch.
01:04:51.860
And he said, no, I don't feel like going today.
01:04:58.860
He had died peacefully, and just his lungs just stopped.
01:05:20.840
You know, I'd just say that I was a willing participant in something that I fought, but
01:05:32.660
somebody knew it was going to be the best thing for me.
01:05:35.620
And I think God just kept steering me in that direction.
01:05:39.600
Even though I fought it all the way, I finally gave into it because I started seeing lives
01:05:49.820
And there's so many people in this homeless world that want out.
01:05:53.280
I mean, there's a good number of people in the homeless world that don't want to break
01:06:00.840
But there are some really great people that want to escape it.
01:06:09.640
Denver told me one day when I was first sitting with him on the curb.
01:06:17.200
And I said, why do you think I'm down here trying to help?
01:06:21.240
And he looked at me and he said, trying to help?
01:06:24.500
He said, you mean to tell me that you think if you scoop some spaghetti on a metal plate,
01:06:32.920
We're perfectly capable of putting that spaghetti on the plate ourselves.
01:06:36.200
And he said, do you think giving somebody a dollar bill going to change their life?
01:06:41.980
Let me tell you what will change their life, Mr. Ron, is if you crawl down in the ditch
01:06:46.700
with them and you stay there long enough till they're strong enough to crawl out on your
01:07:01.880
Feel better about yourself because you probably ain't done nothing for nobody but yourself.
01:07:08.140
And so here you are trying to make yourself feel better.
01:07:11.060
But, you know, if you want to help somebody, wow, you know how to do it now.
01:07:19.980
I have a feeling that's what the judgment's going to be like.
01:07:33.660
And you're like, you must have felt like that big.
01:07:38.200
He told me, he said, you know, you never know whose eyes God is watching you out of.
01:07:42.300
And it ain't going to be your preacher or your Sunday school teacher.
01:07:45.260
He said, it might be a fellow that looks like me.
01:07:49.100
But it might be a fellow that looks just like me.
01:07:51.320
God's checking you out to see what kind of person you really are.
01:07:58.880
He said, sometimes you successful folks, y'all rise up so high trying to get y'all self some more stuff.
01:08:07.340
You don't even take time to get to know about God.
01:08:13.160
You can never stoop too low down here on the streets to help somebody and have God miss knowing about you.
01:08:26.780
And, you know, I say that, you know, although I became wealthy as an art dealer, which I'm no longer wealthy.
01:08:43.220
The first book, the same kind of different as me, the new book that talks about what happened after Miss Debbie went home, is called Working Our Way Home by Ron Hall.
01:09:00.320
Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people.