I’ve not been posting much here or anywhere else lately because most of my time these days is spent talking to people and stitching together My Friend Luis. For those of you who have missed this, it is a new, twelve-episode, story-telling podcast of one of my closest friends and how God has worked in his heart, and the friendship we share. I have two more episodes to finish up on my end. For you, episode six dropped today. It has touched me deeply, and I am blessed by everyone who has written me about this story and how it has touched them too. I’m so glad I could share it in this way.
Episode six completes the story that began in Episode One, the night Luis, as a twenty-one-year-old kid, tried to cross the border from Tijuana into the United States. This is the pay-off, and there’s so much that happens that night that has Father’s fingers all over it. It’s one of the best stories I’ve ever heard of God winning someone into his love. I don’t want you to miss it.
There’s a lot of that in this story, as it’s often easier to see looking back over a long story. My friend, Bob Prater, spends a lot of his days listening to people’s stories. He invites people out to breakfast or lunch with him, many he’s just meeting for the first time. When they sit down, he often asks them, “Tell me your story, and don’t leave anything out.” What a gift!
How many people are dying to tell their story to someone who will listen and care, and how rarely do they get the chance with someone who is not rushed?
I asked him one time what he’s looking for as they share. “I look for God’s fingerprints on their story, even if they haven’t recognized them yet. I liked to connect the dots.”
Some of the emails I’ve received from those of you already listening to My Friend Luis are how his story helps you connect the dots in your own story. I love that. There’s never been a moment in your life where God was not making himself known to you in ways that invite you into his love. Often we miss those moments because we are distracted by the world or our own guilt or pain. It’s so easy to ignore his approach or write off those serendipitous moments as mere coincidence. It often takes the compassionate eye of someone else to help us see the thread of God’s love stitched into our lives.
But it is there, whether you see it yet or not. I pray we all come to see more clearly his fingerprints, not only in Luis’ story but, even more importantly, in your own. Once you begin to see that, anything can happen.
My Friend Luis can be found at most places you get your podcasts, or you can listen to it directly from the website.
“How many people are dying to tell their story to someone who will listen and care, and how rarely do they get the chance with someone who is not rushed?”
For those wondering what they can give another in love, I say give them this. Thank you Wayne for this gift.
Thank you for you Wayne! I am so enjoying hearing how Father moved through Luis’s life…each episode leaves like a cliff hanger waiting to see just how Jesus was so there…I’ve some very strange but awesome ways He also brought me and my children through life an death experiences all inside a year and half time. He is sooo Amazing! ❤✝️👑🕊