Day Twenty-One: Our Story

I've been saving this story. It's one of my favorites. It's up there with the birth of my children and the day I gave my life to Jesus. I hold this story in my heart like a treasure. I've told it to all my friends, acquaintances and even complete strangers. My children ask me to tell this story at least once a year. It's one of their favorites too. This the story of how my latin man and I fell in love. This is the story of our romance.

I've alluded to this story before. I've told you about Louie praying for a wife when he was single and I've told you how I gave Jesus a year of not dating. But I want to give you the full narrative now. I want to fill in the holes, give you the back story and share the whole romance with you. I love telling this story and I hope you will enjoy it too. Maybe you should go get a cup of coffee and put on your pajamas. This is the kind of romance you curl up with and enjoy. At least it's the kind I savor. There's a handsome hero and quirky leading lady...as Iris says in The Holiday, "You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life." :)

In 1993 I moved to Los Angeles, California. It was a big move for me. I was looking for my life. I was a kindergarten teacher in Dallas, Texas and was in danger of living a normal life. I say this not to minimize a life of being a teacher, but I knew deep in my heart that I wanted more. God had called me to something bigger than myself and I had yet to find it. Los Angeles had the promise of adventure and I was up for an adventure. We are created to live by faith. We are asked to believe that there is more to life than living for ourselves. I wanted that so desperately. There were reasons for choosing LA for my adventure. It wasn't completely without it's safety nets. My mentors in Dallas had moved to LA and I was following them. In California I connected myself to an amazing fellowship. This fellowship taught me (and continues to teach me) what life on the Way is all about. My mentors invested heavily in me and I was growing in my walk with Jesus.

I lived with five other women and our house was the meeting place for a singles small group. This small group was different than any other I had ever been apart of. These people were your every day young professionals. And yet many of them lived for others to know Jesus. They were outward focused and I was excited to be around other people that wanted to serve Jesus. That first night of small group, after we had begun, the door bell rang. I went to answer the door. There standing in the doorway was the most beautiful Mexican man I had ever laid eyes on. Music began to play and...Ha! Just kidding. It was Louie at the door, but I really didn't notice anything about him other than the fact that he sat in a corner all night with his hands folded over his chest and a great big scowl on his face. Louie says he remembers me that night because I made a big fool of myself. We were to illustrate some verses in the Bible with some sort of creative expression. Our group decided to use a blues song to express our verses. It was not pretty.

Yesterday I gave you the story of how Louie came to repentance and belief in Jesus. He was so fun to watch in those first days of radical forgiveness. He was experiencing everything in a fresh way, grateful for his new life and enjoying every single thing about walking with Jesus.

During this time of Louie's new beginning in Jesus I was going through my own craziness. Jesus was cleaning me up and getting me ready for the life he wanted for me. I shared about my fast from dating on day eight. In short, I felt that Jesus was calling me to give up dating so that I could truly learn how to completely depend on Him to meet my needs.

In our singles' small group I shared that I was going to give God a year and not date. I did this for two reasons. I wanted accountability from my friends and I wanted to get the word out to the single guys that I was off limits. :) At this time in our singles group there was quite a bit of informal dating going on.

That night in small group Louie was surprised at my confession and commitment. He was just a baby in Jesus...maybe 6 weeks in the Lord at that point. But the idea of not dating for a year to learn how to better follow Jesus appealed to him. He didn't know how to go about the dating thing in Jesus and wanted a good year off too. So, you guessed it, he gave Jesus a year. He decided to follow my example and not date for an entire year.  He shared with our small group and they decided as a group to be our accountability.

That was one of the best years of my life. We had so much fun. Our small group did life together. We hiked, went to movies, went to the beach and hung out at Baker's Square until the wee hours of the mornings. We shared Jesus with our co-workers and helped each other reach out to those without Jesus. My roommates and I hosted a meal each week where the only requirement for joining was bringing someone who needed encouragement. Louie went to those dinners frequently.

That year Louie and I became best friends. We realized that we both loved hiking. We both spoke Spanish, loved asian food and The Gipsy Kings. We didn't do these things on dates but in groups of friends. There was no pressure to be perfect. We (all of us) learned the good the bad and the ugly about each other and it was what I imagine the first church was like.

Fast forward four or five months into our dating fast. Unknown to me, Louie began to think about what it would be like for he and I to date each other. He says that at our Christmas party that year he began to fall in love with me. I honestly don't remember much of that Christmas party or even seeing Louie much that night. He was parking cars and shuttling people so they could enjoy the party. I was one of the MC's of the party and was busy entertaining. By the way, that pretty much is the best example of our personalities. Louie is parking cars and serving while I am the center of attention.

He says that he began to think and pray about our future. He called me one night soon after that party and asked me if he could come over and talk. On the phone he sounded very strange. I was immediately put on the defensive and began to suspect something was up. It worried me to think that Louie would so quickly (we still had seven months left) give up on a commitment we had made to our Jesus. Yes, it was true that we were best friends. Yes, he was the person I talked most about that Christmas at home and yes, I couldn't deny that I didn't ever want to think about my life without him. But I didn't want to give up on our commitment to not date for a year.

I quickly told my roommates my suspicions and told them that Louie was on his way over right then. We (all seven of us at this point) stopped and prayed that Jesus would give me the words to say to Louie if he did ask me to back out of the commitment. When Louie arrived they all waited in another room praying for me and our conversation...

...To be continued. :)

Love from the islands,
Twyla

P.S. Ha! Sorry about that. :) I have always wanted to stop a story right in the best part...this was getting too long anyway. I'll finish it up tomorrow.