WHOA That's Good Podcast - How To Know if They Are ‘The One' | Sadie Robertson Huff | Louie & Shelley Giglio
Episode Date: August 23, 2023Louie and Shelley Giglio from Passion City Church join Sadie to give some of their BEST marriage and spiritual advice. How do you know you've met "the one?" And why it IS important to marry the right ...person! Shelley encourages us to not focus on the ways we're not like our spouse, but think of the differences as complementing each other! Sadie wants to hear about how Louie and Shelley first met and fell in love, which then leads to them detailing how they started working in college ministry together at Baylor University. Louie remembers the exact moment he saw a picture of "Passion" but both he and Shelley acknowledge that their annual conference — which has grown exponentially since it first began — is nothing without God! And is there a better way to encounter the Lord than with a group of peers? The Giglios, Sadie and Christian can't wait to see you ALL at Passion 2024 at the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Get $20 off your ticket with code WHOA when you register at https://passionconferences.com/. https://give.cru.org/huff or text HUFF to 71326 — Get a free copy of Sadie's book "Live on Purpose" with your gift! https://magicspoon.com/WHOA — Get $5 off right now with code WHOA! https://drinkag1.com/whoa — Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D & 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Friends, I am so excited for a passion conference this year. It is going to be incredible
We are gonna be back and their Mercedes been stadium and let me just tell you there is nothing like worshiping Jesus in a
stadium full of people 18 to 25 years old just with hearts passionate about Jesus
It's life changing and change my life changed so many people's lives
Because not because of passion, but because of Jesus And I just hope that you get in that room.
But let me tell you something.
I have a code for y'all.
I've never been able to do this before and I'm so excited that I can give you a
code.
If you use the code, whoa, WHOA, you can get $20 off your ticket for passion this year.
So make sure you share it with all your friends.
We want the whoa that's good fam to fill up that Mercedes-Benz stadium.
Use the code, whoa, at passionconferences.com
when you check out with your ticket,
WHOA, get $20 off,
make sure you tell all your friends about it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh What's up fam welcome back to the WoWdatskob Highcast. Happy Wednesday everybody. I hope you're having a great week. It is about to get better because I have two very special guests on the
Highcast and I can't wait to get to know their story more because I'm going to ask some fun questions. Maybe they're not used to answering. So without further ado, welcome Louie and Shelley Gigglyo to the podcast. Hello. Hey, what's up, everybody?
It's so good to be here.
Totally a treat.
I'm so excited to have y'all on the podcast.
You know, I do always ask everybody,
what's the best piece of advice they've ever been given?
And I don't want y'all to miss out on a chance
to answer that if y'all prepared for that.
But also, I would love to hear some good marriage advice
from the two of y'all
if y'all have any tricks up your sleeve, if you will.
Oh, man. I don't know. What is good marriage advice?
Lately, you surely have some good advice.
I think the best marriage advice that you can give to anybody is marry the right person.
That's good.
And that, you know, a lot of times people are already down the road going, hey, we need some
help. We need some marriage advice. Can you give us some good advice and it's like ah you married the wrong person
So it's gonna be hard for me to give you
Advice at this point and I know that sounds fatal
But just make sure that you're listening to God that you're listening to your family that you're listening to the circle the
Spiritual influencers around you and you're listening to the people who love you enough to tell you the truth.
And that's going to help you make a decision to marry the right person.
And I think starting by marrying the right person is the biggest step that you can make
towards obviously having a marriage that lasts.
And Ophorchelle and me, you know, one of the things that we didn't honestly know that we
did, but that we, by God's grace of the things that we didn't honestly know that we did,
but that we by God's grace did was that we married complete opposites.
And Shelley's, you know, over here and I'm over here, and somehow the beauty of our different strengths
has really allowed us, I think, to have an incredible life together.
And I always say to people,
I'm a good starter, Shelley is a phenomenal finisher.
I'm an idea guy, Shelley is a,
let's figure out how to get it done person.
And without her, I would have just been sitting
on a big pile of great ideas on my life.
And I think without me, she might not have gone on
quite as many rollercoaster rides that she wanted to. Yeah, less adventures.
It's good.
I would say too, just I think when when Louis saying just about, you know, strengths, being
a compliment instead of something to fight against.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes when you look at somebody that's different or opposite than you, especially
in a marriage where everything is scrutinized and you're very up close to the person all
day every day, and every minute of your life is kind of under a microscope a little bit. I think
it's important to start seeing the differences between you as complimentary, complimentary instead
of as competition. So your way better or my way better? Is it better to do it this way or is it
better to do it my way? My way is always going to be better because it's my way. Instead, I think what we did well,
if we've done anything well, is to start leaning toward maybe your way has something to
that's a compliment to my way. And maybe actually your timing, although it's later than mine and
it's different than mine, could be actually something that's helpful to me. And I think as I lean that direction what I learned is there's usually a middle ground
in there somewhere where God really longs for us to live.
And it's not necessarily our way and in our timing and the way we want it.
It's actually something more toward the center of the both of us.
And I think for us we've done a good job trying not to be so determined and set in our own
ways that we miss the opportunity to live in the better way.
So that's a lifelong goal.
We'll be working on it forever, but it has definitely made a big difference.
Oh gosh, I love that.
That is such good advice.
What a great start to this conversation.
And Y'all just had an anniversary, right?
Was it 30s?
How many years?
Seven, 30s, seven,
one of these seven.
I was about to say 37.
I was like, could Dave be old enough to be very,
about 37 years?
That is.
And we dated for three years before that.
So totally, it's 40 years of life together.
And that's a marker, I'm telling you,
that's, you know, 40s is an important number
Yeah, in the economy of the kingdom and the thing that we've been dating slash married for four decades
Wow, I had to go back and check how old I was to make sure that was possible
Well, that's why when I was about to say I was like, I don't know if that's possible
But that's awesome that is so cool and y', I know, Shelley looks too young for that.
Hey, that's what I was thinking.
That is exactly what I was thinking.
That's why I didn't say it.
No.
I didn't want to hitchhow with the 40 years.
And y'all say, what in the world?
We're not that old.
But no, y'all's life is such a good example.
And I love that advice too.
Just marrying the right person
because I do think that sometimes people get so desperate
to just be married just for the sake of being married that they forget. Oh, it's not just
having a ring on your finger in this picture of marriage. Like, you're actually becoming
one with another person and you're about to do your whole life together. Right. That's
who you're going to have your kids with and all the things and it's just it's a huge deal.
It's besides making a decision to follow Jesus, it is the second biggest decision you're
going to make.
And so I love that you said that it's such a good advice.
And as far as your differences, I mean, you know, me and Christian are like so different
too.
And hey, that's one reason we learn a lot from y'all and love to be under y'all because
we see a lot of ourselves in y'all
that we are so different,
but seeing those things and how they compliment each other
is very beautiful.
We spoke to our youth group the other night
and it was pretty funny because, you know,
they're asking us questions
and even in our answers, it's just so different.
And I'm kind of one of those people
that I'm answering it and like,
it's always gonna have like a good spin.
It's always gonna be pretty positive, you know,
it's gonna be encouraging.
I'm gonna probably be smiling when I say it.
And Christian is so straight up and straight forward.
And so he's answering these questions
and I'm looking at him and I was like shaking my head like,
wow, like that is so intense.
Like the way he was saying it.
And he looked at me, he said,
are you shaking your head?
And I was like, yes.
I was like, but not because I don't agree.
I'm kind of with you.
I'm not.
I'm with you.
I'm just like, well, this is intense.
And it was just so funny.
And I was laughing.
I said, I know, I'm a pretty expressive person.
But what was really cool is I have a saying
how powerful it was that we
were getting to reach like all the different kids in the room because some were
like me and some are like him and the the guys when he would talk were just
leaning in you know they were listening everywhere he was saying and then when
I was talking the girls were leaning in and we just got to kind of play off of
each other's strengths and our differences and I don't know we were so
encouraged leaving there about how different we were and how
good it is that we're a team.
So, I love that you all said that.
That is so good.
So take us back 40 years ago.
How did the two of y'all meet?
Wow.
Yeah, that take us back 40 years ago.
Let's just start with that.
What kind of world was it?
I posted a picture, Sadie, of us coming out
from our wedding to get in the limousine to go to dinner.
And we had changed into our going away outfits.
And this was long before you had weddings that started,
you know, at six o'clock and lasted till midnight.
We got married in the afternoon,
so it's blazing hot, Houston, Texas.
And here we come, and it's Blazing Hot Houston, Texas. And here we come.
And it's a freeze frame.
And I'm just like, what generation did we get married in?
I mean, hey, my dad's in the photo.
My dad passed away a long time ago.
Shelley's dad is right near my dad in the photo.
Shelley said I went to heaven earlier this year.
Shelley's grandmother, who's been gone for a long time,
was next to her dad in the picture. One of the guys on my board, who's still one for a long time, was next to her dad in the picture.
One of the guys on my board,
who's still one of my best friends was in the picture.
And I was, but the way it all looked,
it looked like you were watching leave it to be,
or something like that.
I'm not saying how old are we?
It's crazy.
But it was a summer of 1986 when we got married
at the summer of 1983 when we met.
And I'll let Shelley
tell a story.
But I went to Houston, Texas from Fort Worth where I was in grad school to be the summer
college intern at Shelley's church.
And hello, Shelley was in the college ministry that I was going to be the college intern for.
It all happened at the last second.
So I know it was the Lord.
I was not planning on taking that job for the summer
They already had a collagen turn that person flaked out at the last minute and one of my friends in seminary and Fort Worth said
Hey, I'm gonna be the high school intern at this church. They need a collagen turn. It's an amazing church
Why don't you come with me for orientation weekend today? And I was like, uh, I don't know anything about Houston, Texas. And I don't know what I'm going to do this summer.
But I ended up going with her and I ended up falling in love with the church. And Shelley says that the first time
that first weekend they were having a concert that weekend, she was there with her boyfriend. And they were about to enjoy the concert when this new kid comes rolling in from
Atlanta, Georgia via Fort Worth, Texas. Wow. I'd never seen anybody look like
Louis in my life. He came walking across the auditorium and I said to my friend,
I was sitting next to my boyfriend on one side and my friend was on the other and
I said to my friend, fortunately not to my boyfriend, hey, who is that? And she said, I think he's the summer college intern.
And I said, I have never seen anyone in my life that looks like that.
And you know, we know Louis is Louis now, but in the moment, I was like, who, it looks
like he dropped down from Mars.
He had on some interesting clothes, things that had never seen guys from Texas where he
had on.
I didn't really have any Wranglers and Roper.
No, he didn't even have a situationanglers and Roper in the situation going.
I had some clothes I got at the go-round if anybody knows what that is.
You can have to go Google that to find that out.
But that's probably where my outfit is.
I don't know.
Anyway, he looked completely different than anyone I'd ever seen before.
And there was just some immediacy to my interest.
I literally was like, I don't know him.
I don't know what the story is.
I obviously don't need someone else to date.
There's someone sitting next to me to date,
but I just was curious.
Like I'm interested.
I want to know more about him.
What is your favorite food?
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And for some people all over the world, that is their reality.
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But there's one thing lots of these Christians need
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addresses only.
And we met later that night, I think, um, and we had a few days later.
Yeah, it was a few years later.
Shelley, as soon as we met, I said something to her, she gave me this really smart response.
Like, woo, and I was like, okay, girls got some spark you know and a little
bit of spark and I liked that you know I was immediately attracted to her because of that
but here's the thing Sadie and I've told this story a couple times but the year before
there had been let's just say some things that happened among the interns that weren't
great so the pastor called all the interns in the first week into this big conference room and there were like 15 or 20 interns at summer has us all around
this big table. Now this pause for me, Shelley has boyfriend, I don't have a
girlfriend, I haven't dated my entire first year at seminary, I'm not interested
in dating, I'm not looking for a girl, I just want Jesus in that great. And so
that's where I am. And we're sitting around this big table. He goes, guys, I love you.
So glad you're here.
But we had some things happen last year.
And as a result of that, here's the ground rules.
You can't date anybody.
Not in your age group.
So that for me, you can't date anybody in the college ministry.
You can't date anybody at this church.
Because we just want to focus on our ministry
and we want to set a great example.
And I leaned, oh, but then he said,
but I don't want to quench the Holy Spirit.
So if God moves, you come and talk to me.
And I leaned over to the girl who'd got me to this job.
And I said, oh, I'm sure I'll be down in his office
in two weeks, you know, ha, ha, ha.
I am not interested in dating anybody. Well, two weeks oh, I'm sure I'll be down in his office in two weeks, you know, ha ha ha. I am not interested in dating anybody.
Well, two weeks later, I'm sitting in the pastor's office.
Hell yeah.
And I say to him, well, Pastor Schuch, and he goes, well, let me see.
I think her name is Shelley Graves.
And I was like, how do you know?
And he and Shelley was, you know, a leader in the church and a leader in the youth group
and now a leader in the college group.
And I don't know, somehow worded, got out quick that, you know, that I was interested
in her.
And he said, she's a great girl.
She comes from such an amazing family.
And just make sure you keep the focus on Jesus and do everything right.
So we did.
And we started hanging out a little bit.
And then Shelley's dad put the quietus on the whole relationship because I was 25 and
she was 18 and I was in grad school and she was sophomore at college and he was like,
nope, this is not going to happen.
But then Shelley persuaded him.
I did.
And he had to change her heart.
Yeah.
He gave the kid a chance.
And the rest is history.
That's pretty much true.
That is incredible.
Honestly, I've known you for a while.
I actually did not know that whole story.
And so that is hilarious.
That when you showed up, you were sitting by your boyfriend and
turned to your other friend I just love that and then I just love that you're
like yeah I'll be there. God bless them wherever he is today. Guys there's so much so
many good things and funny things about that story that's so awesome so I had to
say so y'all obviously both were a tragedy each other there is an interest from
both of y'all but when you talk about marrying the right person,
when was it that you knew like,
okay, this is the right person for me.
Other people might say this is the one for me
or however they say it,
because I think that sometimes, you know, that is a wrestle.
And I would hate for people to overthink
is it the right one when it clearly is
or you know, not question that when it's clearly not.
And so how do you kind of look at your relationship the right one when it clearly is or you know not question that when it's clearly not.
And so how do you kind of look at your relationship and come to that confidence to know this is
the right person for me to marry?
Well I know for me I think Shelley agrees you know we got married going back to that moment
right before we walked out of that church in that photo. By the way we got into the limousine
and this was you you know, 40 years
ago before this was kind of a thing and it's full of balloons, I think we get in and we take
off from the church and we're going down the road and turns out there's a high school
kid from the high school ministry under all the balloons. So he kind of pops up out of the
balloons and he's in the limo with us and so we got, we got to turn around, we got to
go back, we got to get him out of the car, but then some other cars follow us and so we got we got to turn around we got to go back we got to get him out of the car but then some other cars follow us and we're not going very far and we're going to dinner
and so I'm we're on the freeway and I'm looking around at the cars and I'm like you know
are they are we losing them well it's literally 105 degrees outside and I get car sick really
easy and car sickness comes on really fast and all of a sudden I went oh no I'm car sick
and car sickness comes on really fast, and all of a sudden I went, oh no, I'm car sick.
We get to the restaurant, I'm just sweating,
and we get to the table, I'm trying to hold it together
and I say babe, I gotta go to the bathroom.
So I go in the bathroom, I take my jacket off,
my shirt and tie off, I'm just sweating,
I'm trying not to throw up.
I sit down on the floor where the air vent is,
and I'm just leaning up, so we'll go by the air vent.
Blowing over here, guys coming in and out of
the bathroom super nice restaurant in eastern and I'm just on
the floor like I'm good I'm okay don't worry I'm good like 20
minutes later I come back to the table and I'm like I don't
think I can eat anything so that's how our relationship started
it was pretty awesome how our marriage started that's hilarious
when I got to Houston I was living with families for that whole. So I would live with a family for a week and they'd be kind of
enough to take me in or maybe a family was on vacation and they'd let me stay at their
house and health sit. And I did that all summer long. And the first family that I stayed
with, they didn't have kids at home. So it's just me and mom and dad. And maybe the second
night I was there, we're sitting in the den. We've already had all the small talk you can have. And we're just sitting there.
And I might hear some kid from Atlanta by way of Fort Worth. And I'm at, you know, their
house sitting in their den. And we're going to be here for a while. And the doorbell rings.
And the business hammer gets up and goes to the door. And I hear a commotion out on the front porch.
And she says, Louis, they're asking if you're home. They're asking for you. So I get up
over to the four year and there's about 10 college students standing on the front
porch and they're like, hey, you're the new summer college intern. I'm like, I am.
They're like, do you mind if we come in? I was like, no, come on in, Mrs. Hamer.
Do you mind if the 10 college kids come in? She was like, no, come on in, Mr. Tamer, do you mind if 10 college kids come in?
She's like, no, come in.
They come in, they don't even go in the house.
They sit on the stairs that go up to the landing
and then on up to the little walkway
that most normal Houston houses have at that time.
And they say, hey, we just want to come by tonight
and meet you.
And we want to come by and just have a small chat.
We have all been at Baylor together
for this past year and we have had our lives
revolutionized by Jesus.
And we have been learning about who we are in Christ.
We've been learning about our new identity in Christ.
We have had revival this year at school.
And we just need to come and ask you,
like what are your plans for the summer?
And do you know about our new identity in Christ?
And can you teach us more about our new identity in Christ?
Because we're not really interested in going to the lake.
We're not really interested in going to water skiing.
We're not really interested in having to cook out.
We just want to know more about our new identity in Christ.
And we want to grow deeper with the Lord.
Can you help us do that this summer?
Wow.
And I'm just sitting there going, oh yeah.
Oh yeah, I do know a lot about our new identity
in Christ because I just had that revival myself two years ago in college when I was in Atlanta.
And I totally want this thing to be all about Jesus.
And I wasn't sure am I coming here to like, you know, create a social calendar or lead
people into a new, environment place in their walk with God.
Well, sitting right in the middle of those 10 kids
was this girl right here.
Wow.
And I could just see it on her face.
I want to know Jesus more.
And so we just started, Sadie, into like the slipstream
of hunger for God.
And we would say to each other, I know it sounds, you know,
kind of corny, but we would say to each other that summer a lot. I love you, but not as much as I love Jesus. Jesus is first,
Jesus is first. And that became sort of the banner over our relationship. And we just
ride in the car that summer sunroof on my old Toyota Corolla with the crank sunroof open
with early CCM music.
And we were just seeing it at the top of our lungs
because we were in love with God.
That's so cool.
He was definitely our priority from the get-go.
He was what we wanted.
And I think a lot of times people are looking
for what they think they want,
but they're not actually looking for the person
that they need the most, which is Jesus.
And I laugh when people say to me in relationships,
well, I didn't meet the person I was gonna marry
until I really fell in love with Jesus.
And I'm like, doesn't that make sense there?
Yeah.
Because the person you're looking for
and wanna be really in covenant with
as far as marriage goes,
as somebody who's leaning in that same direction.
And so when Louis started and he said,
you know, what the most important thing is who you marry,
it makes total sense because you don't want to be
in a covenant with somebody who's pulling
in the other direction from where you really feel
like your life is headed.
And so for us, it was, we did love each other
and we were very attracted to each other
and we knew we wanted to spend our lives together
but we really, really, really wanted Jesus,
both of us as the priority.
And as a result, I think the relationship between us could move together in alignment toward
God.
And we didn't have to fight whose, you know, whose wheel is stronger and how is it going
to work, but we just knew together that we were going to make a move toward God.
And it's been true ever since.
That's our highest value still 37 years in.
That's what we care about most.
He's the person we love the most still.
I love Louis more every day, literally every day.
I love him more, but I will never love him
like I love Jesus.
And he knows that and he's good with it.
And I think that kind of makes the difference
in what our relationship feels like.
good with it. And I think that kind of makes the difference and what our relationship feels like.
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Yeah, while we're throwing it back, Sadie, and then I'll, we'll move off of this, but
there was a band in the day called Farrell and Farrell.
So if they're out there still, we love you.
Shout out.
You made it out of the, out of the, Gargages into the modern world.
We all made it together.
They had a song called, Having Jesus for my first love.
So maybe somebody's going to go search that on Spotify right now.
If it's on there, they put it on there from a cassette tape.
And we would sing that song at the top of our lungs.
Having Jesus for my first love makes the darkest day shine.
That's the only lyrics I remember now.
But it really, so back to the kid in the car
and me getting sick and having to sit on the floor
in the bathroom, before we ran out that door
in our going away clothes to the rainbow lodge,
we knew one thing and that was it.
We didn't know what our future was really about.
We didn't know what our jobs were gonna be.
We didn't know what our career paths look like.
We just knew
standing on that altar, we want to make Jesus known in our generation. That's all we
knew. I know everyone listening to us today is at different places on their faith journey,
but I really do believe that purpose is the key to successful marriage.
And it can't be her purpose and his purpose or my purpose and your purpose.
At some point there has to be our purpose.
That's great.
And lots of different things can fold into that.
Different career moves, jobs, seasons, family can fold into that.
But the part, what is your purpose?
Why are you getting married? And
if it isn't because the two of us can more can can more powerfully make the name of Jesus
known than the together than the two of us separate, then not really sure.
Wow. Gosh, that is so good. I just want to encourage those who are listening like,
go back and listen to what they said again.
And I'm going to pull out a few things
that you all said that I thought were just extremely powerful.
Shelly, you said you don't want to be
in covenant with someone that's going in the opposite direction.
And I just want to say that again and make sure
that everyone heard that because that was a really big deal.
And then you go on to say,
we just knew like coming together and aligning together,
we wanted to make Jesus known.
And you look at two people who had this purpose
in their marriage to make Jesus known
and look at them 40 years later,
what they've done for a generation.
And if you're sitting here listening in your 18 to 25, or you were once 18 to 25
and have been to passion conference
or you've gone to passion church
or you've had anything to do with the things
that these two have put out and their churches put out,
then you know how powerful it is
when two people come together and align it
with wanting to make Jesus known.
And of course, not every couple has to go start a church
or go start a conference and touch people
in the way that they have,
but what a powerful thing and impact that they have made
on so many lives, including my life,
my family's life, so many of my friends' lives,
and that's what happens whenever two people come together
and align it for the same goal to make Jesus known.
I think that is just so good, and Louis, I love how you said.
When we stood on the altar that day, we didn't know anything about anything about our future
or what was going to happen or what next, but we knew this.
And that really is the most important thing that you can know.
And I think a lot of people get so stressed out about the what, where, who, how, this,
that.
But if you can just be confident on your purpose and what that looks like and that this
is what we're gonna do
And it can be as simple and yet as powerful as making Jesus known that should be all of our purpose
Man that'll lead you and guide you in and of itself and so that was just so good everything you laid out
I just feel like that's gonna be so helpful for people so since I mentioned passion
I do want to ask y'all when did that come into the picture of y'all's relationship?
Was that something that was always on both of your hearts?
Who kind of threw it out there?
If y'all even remember and how did y'all even get started with something as big of a vision as passion?
If y'all even remember, you've done us a little steer.
No, I'm like, I don't know. Sometimes even. I'm like, who said that?
Did you say that? Did I say that? The story gets a little fuzzy.
I love it.
It does, for sure.
I think for us, the story of our life,
and I think if there's a young couple or some people
who are on the way to getting married,
or you're just married, having plans is awesome.
And I think there's nothing against planning,
but it's very rare that you see God give us chapters and chapters of our life story at one time.
God gives us a promise that he's going to be in every page of our story.
And for Shelley and me, the beauty about passion is we didn't see it coming. The beauty of the ministry we had at Baylor University
for 10 years with college students before passion, we didn't see that coming. And me going
to that internship, I didn't see that coming. And obviously she didn't because she's got
you know, six foot eight basketball player or six foot ten or whatever he was sitting
over here, you know, next to her. So we start dating. I graduate seminary, Shelley Stillett-Baler,
I go to Baylor, but I do this summer internship, say, not that one year, but I did it also the next
year and the next year. So I was like the permanent summer college intern. And by that third year,
I'd moved to a different church in Houston, because Shelley's I had moved to a different church in Houston, Kachellei's family had moved to a different part of town.
And there was a girl in our college ministry who loved God.
She was a tridelted baler.
She was just full of Jesus and full of faith.
And she was a freshman that year at baler going into her sophomore year.
We went to our end of the summer college retreat on whatever that river is in central
Texas. It is in Wimbrily Texas. And Wimbrily Texas said this wonderful family's house that they
left these college kids come to for the last who robbed the summer. And Kay knows that I'm coming
to Baylor to grad school the next few days. And she looks at me across the table at the end of lunch and she said, Louis, you know God is bringing you to Baylor for a reason. And say to you in the
words came out of her mouth, I just was arrested by the clarity that yes,
Chely and I had been dating for these couple of years now. I'd spend a lot of
weekends at Baylor, sleeping on guys' couches and sleeping on guys' floors
and going to church and Sunday school with Shelley
and going to all the places at college kids go to
and going to the football games and doing all the stuff
and walking on the campus.
But so I knew Baylor, I knew these kids from the summer
and I knew them in their real life.
I saw them at summer college in turn zone
and I saw them on a, oh, now it's school zone
and you're over here acting crazy.
I had seen it all and I knew Baylor needed Jesus.
Baylor's a great school by the way,
has a great history, but in this moment in time,
I would say Baylor was full of religion
and needed a lot more of Jesus.
And when she said the sentence, God's bringing you to Baylor for a reason, I went, oh, wow,
this whole thing, me, Shelley, me coming to Baylor, me going to grad school, me getting
a degree in the church state studies department or pursuing a degree in the church state studies
department.
Wow. And so we start praying. And us, K, and a handful
of other students. And a month or so later, we started a Bible study in an apartment clubhouse
on the campus of Baylor. And 10 years later, 1500 college students were showing up every Monday night.
And we had seen the spiritual climate and landscape of
Baylor change in a decade just by saying yes,
and long, long story short, but most of that time,
my dad was disabled.
He'd become disabled seven years into our 10 years at Baylor,
or three years into our 10 years.
My mom was taken care of him here in Atlanta.
My dad became physically and mentally disabled because of a brain virus overnight.
And we've been asking God, we need to go help mom. We need to go help mom. Mom is we're losing mom. Dad's doing okay, but we're losing mom. And we just kept getting to know, stay where you are,
stay where you are, stay where you are. I'll take care of dad. But then finally we got a yes.
And at the end of 10 years, we said goodbye to choice Bible study, goodbye to Baylor,
goodbye to our team, prepared at the end of the spring semester to transition, moved
to Atlanta just to help take care of my dad.
And Sadie on the Monday that was going to be our final Monday night Bible study after
10 years.
Thank you, Louis and Shelley. Our whole board came back.
A lot of former students came back May 1st, 1995 Monday night.
They had that celebration, but we weren't at it because we buried my father that same day
in Atlanta, Georgia. My dad died of a heart attack on Friday.
And we buried him that Monday. And shelling
and I looked at each other, I was just crushed. We were broken hearted, losing my dad.
But we were like, what have we done? We just left our whole lives behind to come to Atlanta
for a purpose that doesn't exist anymore. But we feel like we're supposed to keep coming
to Atlanta. So we did and we moved to Atlanta, no job, no purpose, no nothing, no income.
And I was flying to speak in Dallas, Texas about a month and a half later, sitting on a
plane, reading a magazine, and I don't know what happened, but I went away somewhere.
And I saw a picture in the picture that I saw absolutely took my breath away and it was more college students than I had ever seen before in one place or
Could count and they were on their faces on the ground
praying for spiritual awakening in their generation and in all of a sudden I was back at my seat looking at this magazine ad and
I was like, oh
What was that? And I didn't say anything to Shelley for about
two weeks. I was so stunned by it. And I was thinking, this is something God is pushing us
to. But I don't know what it is or where it is or how to get to it. And finally a couple
of weeks later, I said to Shelley, babe, I had this picture flying on the plane the other
day. And I think it's something that we're supposed to go toward and I described it all to her and Shelley's person of faith and she just said,
let's trust God and let's move toward it and that was 27 or 8, I don't know, years ago
and here we are still on our way to passion.
Wow.
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That's so powerful. I love that that let's move toward it because sometimes I
think that we see this vision or we have this thing and we're like how do we how do we make it happen?
You know and that feels really overwhelming because how do you go from where you're at?
To to that right, but I love that just let's move toward let's move towards it and one step at a time
How we get to get there but to speak to what happened and the timing of your dad and all of that that's so hard
But I was preaching this message recently
and I had this analogy in it that I think is really special.
God was kind of showing me this through honey the other day
and you know, you just start to see God and everything
when you have the eyes to see it.
I was putting honey down for a nap,
we had just gotten to Florida.
And she was so excited because Florida to her is her grandma's house. Okay, it's not the state is Sheree and Chandler's
house, that is Florida. And so she was like, we in Florida, when we got there and she was
so excited. And then it was nap time. And I was like, we got to go take a nap. And she was
like, so like, what? Like, no, like we're in Florida. She had no one take a nap. She's
crying. And of course, also when you're in a new place,
putting a kid down for a nap is even worse at home
because they're in a place they don't know,
they don't recognize.
So I'm putting Honey and her little sleep sack
and I'm getting her lami and bringing her in the bathroom
where the pack and play was.
So a little bit scary and shut the door, turn off the lights
and I just stood outside of the door
because I knew she was probably gonna be upset
because this is not a place that she's used to.
And she starts crying, and she's crying, crying,
and then she starts going,
Mommy, Mommy, come get me, come get me, Mommy.
I'm just kinda sitting there,
and I have this thought, like,
why am I not just getting her, right?
Like, why am I not just going in there and getting her?
And I was like, because, like, I know this is where she's supposed to be.
And I know that even though it feels crazy and it doesn't feel right, like she's supposed to be
in Florida, she's supposed to be playing with her grandparents. Like this is an important time
for her to take a nap because later we're going to go play and we're going to go to dinner and
she's going to have so much more strength later whenever she wakes up but she has to be here right now. And so as a good
mom, I didn't go in there and get her because I knew that's the place she needed to be.
And I thought about that as the perspective of God, like sometimes we're in places that
we're like, why would I be here? God, like I'm supposed to be in Florida. Like this
supposed to be fun. This is this was the purpose that came here
for why am I taking a nap. And the whole message is like, what
if you're not stuck in that place, what if that's not, you
know, such a bad thing that you're there, but what if you're
actually position there for a reason? And there's something
in that place that feels scary, that feels even wrong, that
feels purposeless, that God is doing internally in you strengthening
you reviving you for what's to come later.
And so hearing your story is really amazing in the sense of yes, that's so horrible and sad
and why did this happen?
But you were positioned in Atlanta, you know, you are positioned in that place to get that
vision and to move towards something and what he was doing and was giving you strength for later.
And so just have had that on my heart and hear you say,
that's just so cool.
You see the hand of God and the whole story.
So I'm sure, you know, the vision you got on the plane and now looking at,
I'm just thinking about all the Instagram posts that have been happening lately of passion,
20, 24 and Mercedes-Benz and then you're looking
all the years past, like, did you ever really think
that it would look like this?
Like, did you ever think from that vision,
it would actually get to be like 60,000 college students?
But does that still like blow your mind?
It totally blows our mind.
It seems almost surreal sometimes when we even are working so difficult, you know,
in through difficulties and trying so hard to do what we think God wants us to do.
And we're, you know, in the endurance part of, okay, we want to do what God wants,
but it's going to take some effort on our part to get that to happen.
Even in those moments sometimes, I literally look up and think, how in the world are the two of us sitting here leading a team
full of people toward this beautiful goal?
And how has God been so faithful to us
to let us do it year after year after year?
And every year, we lay it down.
We really get to the end of passion every year
and say to God, if you're done, we're done.
Because we didn't ask to hold this to start with.
It's your idea.
I certainly don't want to hold it and grip it
as though it's mine.
I want my hands to be open, God, and I just want to say,
once again, we do, this is your first, God, this your idea.
And we are certainly just stewards of the idea.
And so if you want to take it and be finished with it,
then let us know because we're happy for that to happen and
You know so far I feel like God has handed it back to us and said I'd like to do it again
But every year is sort of a renewable lease
It's yeah literally like I I don't want to hold this unless you want to hold this guy
Because a it will crush us if it's just us. Yeah, and so I don't want to be a part of holding something like this that you're not actually
holding us in.
And so it's beautiful to watch God do it.
And he continues to blow our minds.
I think the beauty of it is we're never not grateful.
When we walk in Mercedes-Benz, it doesn't feel like we have a right to be there.
It feels like how in the world are we here?
What in the world is happening
that we get to be a part of this?
God, thank you for the invitation
to stand on the front row of something you're doing
like this.
And I think that also frees God.
It frees us to be thankful
and to be grateful for what he's doing, but it frees God to continue
to pick and use people whose eyes are on him and not what he's doing.
So, we're grateful that he's doing what he's doing, but our eyes are not on what he's
doing.
You're not just wowed by Mercedes.
Wow, how amazing.
Look at God. We're looking at the God
who's doing Mercedes saying we are following you, Jesus. Wow. If you want to keep doing this,
then we'll keep doing this. But unless you do, we're done. So it's a pretty interesting process
to be a part of that it really is beautiful in so many ways. I love that. That is so powerful.
but it really is beautiful in so many ways. I love that, that is so powerful.
And you know, from when the vision happened
to when passion started, which was January 1st, 1997,
in Austin, Texas, was a year and a half, obviously,
from that March or May.
So a little over a year and a half
to just take the first step, really, Sadie.
So we didn't go out like the next week and go,
hey, we're going to do something. We saw a huge picture. It was tens of thousands of people. We're gonna do that
We just were like Lord. We're just moving with you
So we finally open the doors January 1st 2000 college student showed up. We were blown away
Blown away Mercedes-Benz proportion blown away
stunned in awe humbled blown away. Mercedi's bins proportion blown away. That's stunned.
And awe humbled.
We said it was a four day conference.
It was so powerful at the end of it.
We said, we might be back next year.
We'll let you know.
We made a decision to come back.
The next year, 5,000 college students came.
Wow.
The next year, we had to move out of Austin.
We moved to Fort Worth, Texas to an arena there. 11,000 students came. The next year we had to move out of Austin, we moved to Fort Worth, Texas to an arena there.
11,000 students came.
The next year we said we need a bigger place. We don't know of venue big enough.
We're gonna do it in an open field.
40,000 college students came and
for a gathering called one day and they literally put their faces on the ground and cried out for awakening in
their generation.
And when that happened, we were thinking that was it, that was the picture, that's what
we saw.
So, in 2001, we didn't do anything.
We thought we were done.
We wanted to be a fuse, a Sadie, and not a monument.
We didn't want anybody to bring their kids to say,
hey, look at the passion monument. I was a part of that. We wanted to be the fuse on the
front of an explosion of God's spirit that touched an entire generation, and when things
explode, no one goes and looks for the fuse. So we just wanted to be the fuse. And,
you know, after 2001, we're looking at each other and our team like,
well, and the Lord just gently said, there's a whole new generation of freshmen coming through
the door right now. And we went, oh my goodness, we got to go reach them. And so we have just
had a, you know, one year renewable lease with God and the question came up the other day
because you have to play in ahead on these things. What about passion 2025? And I was like,
yeah, we're not really there yet. We're not really asking that question yet. We're just trying
to follow the word. But no, we had no clue that 20 something years later we'd be sitting
here just a few months away from a gathering like we're gonna experience
at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
And so crazy. So January 1997 wasn't quite boring yet. Six months later, June 1997, I was
born. And here you are, you know, the last 26 years doing this. And then a couple of years
ago, you invited me and Christian in to have a voice and to
you know get to talk about the vision of this and I think that is really powerful and says
a lot because y'all believe in the next generation and obviously like you wouldn't be doing
passion if you didn't and y'all keep throwing this conference for college students but not
only do you all do that but you've actually invited college students,
like we were that age and everybody all invited us in
to have a voice.
And I just think that that is like says so much
because obviously we do not know everything there's no.
We have so much to learn, we have so much to grow in.
We have not, you know, we're always,
I don't know that you ever arrived,
but we have such a far journey ahead.
And yet, right where we're at,
at what was, I guess I was probably 19 the first time
that I even spoke at Passion Church,
you just invited me and where I was at.
And I just think that says a lot about who you are,
and you're all heart for students.
And so can you just speak a little bit?
Because I do feel like students and this generation,
you just hear a lot of older people say a lot of negativity
over us, right?
It's like, oh man, we are lost, we're crazy,
we're confused, we're this, we're that.
And maybe some of that is true, you know?
And you certainly see that.
And there is an aspect too, it's that that is true in.
But there's also a lot of really good too.
And there's a lot of really good that you are calling out
and you are pulling out.
So can you just encourage this generation a little bit
while y'all keep showing up inviting us in,
but leaving impassion in the first place?
Because I think that's been something
that's very encouraging to Christian and I,
and I think it encouraged a lot of people too.
Well, I think, you know, Sadie,
going back to the heart of it all,
that crossroads of being 19, 20, 21 years old, whether you're in college or whether you're not in college, really doesn't matter. It is the crossroads of life. It's when people are making big
life-shaping, arc-defining decisions. It's when you decide, let's just talk about
arc defining decisions. It's when you decide, let's just talk about career. It's typically when you decide, okay, I always thought I was going to do this, then I kind of thought
I was going to do this, but now that I'm 21, I'm kind of zeroing in on the fact that
I think this is my length. I think this is what God is calling me to do. It's typically
when you meet the person that you're going to partner with in life. And as Shelley said,
be in covenant with in life. It's when you forge those friendships, the ones that you're going to partner with in life. And as Shelley said, be
in covenant with in life. It's when you forge those friendships, the ones that
you're going to have those people around when your kid graduates from high
school. And all those decisions are really set in motion in that little window.
And the most important one, I think, is about faith. And most people have a
faith crisis at 21 years old.
And it's the best thing any of us can do
because it's the moment where a lot of us say,
wait a minute, and I Christian because I was born in Louisiana
or I was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
What if I was born in another part of the world?
Am I a Christian because my parents were Christians?
Am I a Christian because I was raised in church?
Am I a Christian because I went to a Christian school?
Or is this what I believe?
And I think that crisis of faith
is the best thing that happens to us
if it pushes us to investigate Christ for ourselves.
And then to come that to that decision,
I love my mom, I love my dad, I appreciate my church,
I appreciate that I was born in America,
but I'm a Christian because Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead.
That's why I'm a follower of Jesus.
And I love my parents, but this is not their faith,
this is my faith, I love my youth pastor,
but this is not his faith, this is my faith.
And if that crossroads is that essential
for setting the course of people's lives, then why not
stand at that crossroad and say consider Jesus?
Great.
And we did that at Baylor for 10 years, and I loved it because we were able to say, hey,
I'm not talking about your church.
I'm not talking about your denomination.
I'm not talking about where you grew up.
I'm talking about Jesus.
Yeah.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, you can read the eyewitness accounts of him.
What do you think about him and his claims for you, for your life, and for your future?
So that's why we're standing on that corner. And yeah, there's negative about this generation.
There's negative about my generation. There's negative about every generation.
The opportunity in this generation, the positivity, the hunger that is in this generation, the authenticity
that they are seeking out. Man, there is such a huge upside and seeing them catch on fire for the Lord.
Yeah. And knowing the potential of them them changing the world for God is just so
exhilarating and to think that we could serve in any small way toward that end is a huge privilege.
Absolutely, the truth. It's great. It's so good. I mean, I love that, the potential. And just,
I think the thing is, everyone has a chance when there's a hope of Jesus, right? So everyone has the potential to change the world for God through the hope of Jesus.
So it doesn't matter how far lost you are listening to this podcast,
you have a chance with the hope of Jesus, you know, with the blood of Jesus.
It doesn't matter how far gone you are.
If you're a senior in college and you've just kind of blown it the past two years,
like you have a chance with Jesus.
There's grace.
There's truth. There's Jesus. There's grace,
there's truth, there's love, there's a future. And so I just think, you know, going into
passion even this year, like for me though, I think about it's like there are people that
are going to come there, going to show up who don't think they have a chance, you know,
who think they just blew it, who think this is for everybody else who's looking around,
but like if they get a hold of the truth of the gospel and understand the power of it
and receive that in their life, like they will be the one going out and changing the world
for Jesus.
We're talking about this at the youth the other night.
We were like, some of you, you know, you think you messed up, you're too far gone, whatever.
We're like, you have your whole life ahead of you.
Do not believe that lie now.
And we were talking about the your whole life ahead of you. Do not believe that lie now.
And we were talking about the power of the blood of Jesus.
And we were like, you know, people might make funny
even say, you're talking about Jesus, well, yesterday,
you were doing this or last week you were doing this
or last year you were this.
And I was like, and that is the power of your testimony.
That was what was dead is now alive.
I was like, think about Jesus.
What are people like, weren't you the dead guy?
Like, how cool is it to say yes,
and now I'm the alive one?
And so that's the same thing spiritually.
It's like, weren't you the dead guy?
It's like, yeah, and it's so cool that now I'm alive.
Like, that's a miracle.
I'm walking in that miracle, the same power
that raised Jesus from the dead.
And so thinking about that for students,
it's like, you can show up the dead person,
but you can leave the alive one.
And that is miraculous. So, I'm so excited for students. It's like you can show up the dead person but you can leave the alive one and that is miraculous. So I'm so excited for passion this year. I get
excited every year because I know the change that can happen in people's lives.
I hope it can bring. So this year we are going to be in the Mercedes-Benz
stadium again which is crazy and there are still tickets left. Can you speak a
little bit about just calling on heaven
and what this year is,
what are y'all kind of praying into for this year?
Yeah, I feel like for me, you know,
we've seen so much revival happening in these last days.
It feels like God is moving.
The spirit is really stirring people up.
And in the best ways. And I feel like
when Earth gets harder and harder, the move of God becomes more and more apparent.
Yeah. And these days are full of a lot of the move of God. And we're seeing it. We've
been a part of things like Asbury and seeing what God's done there. But we've seen that
happening all over the country. We baptisms, hundreds of people being baptized at a time places.
I mean, just beautiful things going on
in the kingdom of God in these days.
And so what a great time for us as his followers,
if you are one, to be united in an arena full of people,
saying, Jesus, you are our hope.
You are our only hope.
There is no hope apart from you.
But you are with us and you are
in us and you are empowering us to be your ambassadors on earth for this season. And then this time,
and I just think the privilege of that is just crazy that God would unign us in that way. And so when
I think about people who are considering coming or thinking like, is this my year, should I go? I
don't know. Is this the time I can figure out how to make it work? or thinking like, is this my year, should I go? I don't know.
Is this the time I can figure out how to make it work?
I'm like, why wouldn't you be in that place calling on heaven?
The name of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit for your own life to revolutionize your life.
Yes.
But to look around at your generation and think of the possibilities of earth with all the people
in this arena coming alive in the
same way.
It's just unreal that we get to do that and to worship him to tell him that he's worthy
of all of our praise.
I mean, just such a privilege.
So for me, it's like, I want to say to people, why wouldn't you be there?
Not why?
Why are you coming?
But more like, why would it you come to be a part of something that beautiful?
Yeah, I loved. I was talking to JP Jonathan Piclute a few months ago.
And I was asking him that question, say, do you live all the way in Texas?
Why would a student that lives out in Texas or Oregon or California or Illinois
make this long journey to Atlanta, Georgia?
And he was like, because there's nothing like it.
Yeah.
And that's not a, you
know, saying that passion is anything. There are big gatherings that happen all around
the world. Passion is just a grain of sand of what God's doing on earth. But there are
not many things that I know about on earth that are age specific to Gen Z where tens of thousands of people fill a stadium for the
famo Jesus. And it's something that it's just hard to put words around it. And you
in Christian obviously have been on the journey and helping steer this thing
with us. And it's just hard to explain. It's not another conference. It's not just a
bigger festival. It's not, oh yeah, it's this. And another gathering.
No, it is something truly special when heaven and earth collide in a moment like this. And
when we say call on heaven, I think for me this year what we're just, what we're saying is God,
we're desperate for you. There's nowhere else to look and there's nowhere else to turn. And
there's nobody else to call on. Yeah. And obviously when we say call on heaven heaven is a person. It is a place but
heaven's a person. His name is Jesus. He moves by the power of the Holy Spirit
to honor the Father. And we're calling on heaven because there's no one else
we can turn to in this generation to bring freedom and truth and deliverance
and purpose and meaning and
transformation. And we're going to see all of that happen in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And I am
full of expectation for what God's going to do. And yeah, we're going to knock on a lot of
doors, Sadie. You know, last time we were in the bends, we knocked on doors like crazy. I mean,
literally went around America knocking on doors like crazy. I mean, literally went
around America knocking on doors. I showed up at a Bible study at Grand Canyon University
on a Tuesday night, unannounced, walked into the back, said, hi, I'm Louis. This is Brad,
he's a pastor at our church. Would you mind if we just invited people to passion and they're
like, come on, all right. And so we walked into this Bible study, didn't know if anybody
would even know who we were, or ever cared about passion,
and just said, hi, everybody,
we could just take the last five minutes.
We, part of a movement called passion,
and we'd like to invite, you know,
the antelopes from Grand Canyon University,
to come and be a part.
And so we are gonna knock on a lot of doors this year
and do a lot of inviting,
but I would just encourage the,
whoa, that's good, podcast family.
Mm-hmm.
Come. Jonathan said at the end of our conversation, that's good podcast family. Come
Jonathan said at the end of our conversation, she said,
Louie, let's all go and I went, oh my gosh, that's the new banner over Mercedes-Benz.
Let's all go.
But I would love it if you would not only go,
but if you would bring a tribe with you, bring the least likely person or the most likely person.
It's good.
And watch what God will do.
That's so good.
Let's all go.
I love it so much.
I love that call on heaven.
I've been reading Exodus and when God chose up to Moses and he's like, I heard your people's cry.
You know, I heard your people's call and he showed up and that just made me so excited because I was like God responds to that, you know, he responds to that cry
of the people. And thinking about that many people calling on heaven, crying out to God, like
he responds to that. That's so exciting. And well, that's good for him. I know y'all
show up. I've seen y'all show up. Y'all show up week after week to listen to this podcast.
And like Louie we said invite everyone and
invite them most likely the least likely one of my best friends now was the least likely person to go to
Passion a few years ago she got invited she went her life radically changed for Jesus and
Now she's one of my very best friends and I just I love that was the least likely. And now she's on fire,
leading worship at our church actually. So so powerful, what can happen in that room. You all
want to be there. Lu and Shalei, thank y'all for leading the charge. Thank y'all for y'all's
faithfulness over the many years that y'all have just believed in this and trusted God with it.
Thank y'all and a marriage putting God first and the impact it's made on all of our lives. know we could probably if we could turn the mic on to everyone listening y'all had a lot more thank you
And a lot of hugs but on behalf of everyone thank you all and I'm excited for this year
I can't wait and I'm grateful to get to do it alongside of y'all
I love you Sadie love you and Christian
Thank you for being a part Sadie. Thanks for picking up passion and carrying it with us
And not just coming and speaking but actually helping lead and shape what happens or something special obviously on your life and you in Christian
Have been a really big part of what guys done in the journey these last few years
So thanks for having us on the day loved it loved it. Loved it. Incredible. Thank you.
Yes, we love you guys.
Thank you all.
you