"Magic doesn't die; it is always reborn"

How could I hope to match what has been written by others (especially my dear wife, Rae-Jean). My relationship with Wayne went through many phases, first as a college student, reading his books and admiring this celebrity from afar; then as a student at SBTS, in the waning months of the good ole days, soaking up as much as I could in the seminars he continued to offer; and finally as a friend, as he guided and worked with Rae-Jean and I in planning both our wedding and our marriage. One of the most striking memories I have of that last experience -- when my wife and I experienced THE Wayne Oates firsthand as a pastoral counselor -- was the simplicity of our conversations. He didn't inundate us with the collective wisdom from the disciplines of theology and psychology he knew so well. He just TALKED to us: about life, about what made sense and didn't make sense in marriage, about schedules and 'daily updates' with one another -- imagine that! It was a simple gift that I'll never lose.

I guess, in a sense, all of us who related to Wayne as a friend, teacher, or pastor came expecting that we would "learn" from reading his books, listening to his lectures, and heeding his counsel. We had assumed that all the compassion and wisdom distilled in his writings and presentations were simply skills and bits of knowledge that could be learned, assimilated, and applied, not unlike what we might learn, assimilate, and apply knowledge from an appliance owners' manual. What I have learned, and hopefully in some small way applied in my own life, is that what Wayne shared with us came from somewhere deep within, from his own joys and pains of growing up, and being a husband, father, teacher, and person of faith. What Wayne taught me, ultimately, is that you can't learn of life's mystery from reading books, attending lectures, and sitting through counseling sessions. You have to learn life by living it!

The years has taken me from away from the pulpit and ordained ministry into the business world; but everything I learned from Wayne is still with me, if sometimes in the background, reminding me that life is good, and that there is the possibility of renewal and healing in every encounter in life. This is every bit as true in a tense meeting with corporate officers and directors, as it is sitting and listening for the voice of God in a pew on Sunday morning. The magic and the wonder we learned from Wayne and the entire SBTS community in years gone by will never die -- it will be reborn again and again when each of us take the opportunity to reach out, heal, and be healed.