What if the way to heal our divided world starts with simply walking with people?

In this inspiring episode of The Collide Podcast, we sit down with Carlos Whittaker to talk about what it means to truly connect with others—even when we don’t see eye to eye. Carlos shares his passion for bringing hope and humanity to the forefront of our conversations and challenges us to live out empathy in action. From stories of kindness sparked by his “Instafamilia” to moments of faith and vulnerability that have shaped his journey, Carlos reminds us that walking with people in love and grace can change lives—ours included.

Meet Carlos Whittaker

Carlos is an author, podcaster, and global speaker on a mission to bring hope to humans everywhere. Known for his authenticity and compassion, Carlos has built a massive online community that rallies around doing good and living connected. Whether he’s writing best-selling books, leading meaningful conversations, or dancing to Beyoncé with his family in Nashville, Carlos brings joy and purpose to everything he does. His motto—“Don’t stand on issues, walk with people”—beautifully captures his heart for unity and understanding in a divided world.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• How walking with people (not standing on issues) can transform relationships
• Why empathy is the key to healing our communities
• The power of showing up authentically, even when it’s uncomfortable
• How faith fuels Carlos’s passion for connection and hope
• Practical ways to bring more kindness and courage into everyday life.

How This Episode Will Encourage You

If you’ve ever felt weary from the world’s division or unsure how to make a difference, this episode will lift your spirit and renew your sense of purpose. You’ll be reminded that the greatest impact often begins with one small act of love—and that when we choose to walk with people, we walk closer to the heart of God.

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Hey there. This is Willow Weston, and I'm so glad you hopped on the Collide podcast. We put out new episodes every single week.

So if you haven't yet subscribed, make sure that you do that so you can get it in your inbox.

Then it's good to go when you get on that treadmill or in your car and you can just press, play and collide with Jesus in all the ways that bring you hope and healing and transformation and make you think. And today's episode is going to be no different. I just interviewed Carlos Whitaker.

He's an author who's written so many books, a podcaster, a global speaker. He's well known for dealing hope. He's a hope dealer.

And I hope that you walk away from this episode with a little bit more hope than you have have right now. Check it out. Carlos, it's so good to hang out with you today.

I'm so excited to be hanging out with you.

Willow, you're sweet. You are backed by this huge Instafamilia, and I might have just joined the train actually this year.

But just explain for people listening, who's Insta Familia? How did that come to be? Like, let's talk about them.

Yeah, let's talk about the Insta Familia. You know, I, they're, they're kind of like my, you know, digital, digital family. The, the, you know, I'm. I'm kind of.

A lot of them call me like their uncle, like Uncle Carlos, you know, on Instagram. You know, it's kind of a group that has accidentally formed. I never set out, Willow, to be a quote unquote influencer.

I never set out to, like, you know, this is what I want to do is what I want to be. I just kind of started following God's call in my life, and I ended up writing a couple of books and then I ended up, you know, speaking.

But then I found that man I am. I'm really good at telling stories on my phone.

And so I just started telling more and more stories via my phone and more and more people started showing up. And, you know, it was.

It was the normal usual suspect when it comes to Instagram and, oh, you know, here's somebody that is telling stories or sharing things about his faith or whatever it may be.

But where the Insta Familia was formed and why they're called that, that's my Instagram followers, is I started kind of every once in a while I would find a need and I said, well, I've got a couple thousand people following me. There's somebody in need. I wonder if we can take care of that need.

And so I think there was somebody that was an Instagram follower of mine that needed a seizure alert dog.

And.

And I found it was a GoFundMe page, and they'd had their GoFundMe for, like, I don't know, two months, and they'd raised $5,000 and they needed $30,000. Um, and so somebody sent me their account, and I said, huh?

So I just posted it on my Instagram, literally thinking, maybe we can give them another $5,000. And I think in a matter of 20 minutes, we'd raise all $30,000. And all of a sudden, that was the first clue to me going, like, wait a second.

And this is different. This feels different than just people that are following me to see what. What's happening in my life.

So I started to more and more begin to ask of them whenever a need would come by. And over the course of two years, I think my.

The Insta Familia has raised over $1.7 million for whatever different people in need or a piano player in the airport or a Waffle House employee or whatever it is. And so suddenly it became this, like, family, right? And so, you know, we. I gave us a name, the Insta Familia. Now we wear our.

We've got our bumper stickers and our shirts, and people are proud members of this. Of this space on the Internet, this space on social media that is not a space of vitriol and not a space of rage.

I think people love to come by this little corner of the Internet because they feel like they can take a breath.

Hmm. It's so interesting because you say you got into this accidentally, and as you describe, you know, you're sharing a GoFundMe page.

I mean, heck, if I shared a GoFundMe page, I don't know if I'd raise $500. But there has to be something different you're doing.

Are you telling story because you said you're good at telling story, where you're rallying people around what's going on with humans? Because clearly, people don't want to come to an Instagram page that's just constantly asking them for money. So what's different, what you're doing?

Yeah, well, I think I. I rarely, if ever, unless it's my. I have a book coming out. Ask people to buy anything of mine, so. So whenever I'm asking people to give or to donate, it's really rarely me.

I do actually a. A lot of kind of mentoring up and coming influencers. And I tell them all the time, like, when you have an audience, you are either depositing or.

Or withdrawing from your audience. And listen, like, you need to be depositing 95% of the time into your audience and only withdrawing 5% of the time.

And so I really feel like that's something that I've done well also. I mean, here's the deal. Like, I'm 51, right? So, like, I. I've. I've been on this. On this kind of social media train since its infancy.

I was blogging before that. I've got a lot of people that have been following my journey for a long time. And so what that's done is it's actually created trust.

It's created trust maybe in deeper reservoirs than a lot of people have.

And so since people have been following my family and me for 15 or so years, when I say, hey, I think we need to do this, there's a deep trust, a deep well of trust where people really don't think twice anymore. They're just like Carlos says, do it. I trust him. Let's go. And there hasn't been a reason that they don't do that anymore.

So I think trust is a big deal. And again, I just think that I'm tapping into this reflex of rescue that all humans have that they want to use.

People want to be part of being Jesus, hands and feet. And there's not a lot of ways to do that. And I seem to have found a way to help people do that.

Hmm. So interesting. When I hopped on your Instagram train, um, I don't know. Am I a part of your instafamilia?

You are. You are.

Definitely. So I think definitely. I actually don't scroll a ton. Don't. Don't love scrolling a ton. And you weren't just sharing stories. You were inviting me. Us.

I say me just because I can speak from my own perspective into your own story. When you were sharing about your dad, and my dad was also dying. My dad did pass away this year.

And I'm sorry.

And there. Thank you. I'm.

I know you, you know, but I know we have very different stories, but that's what drew me into you, was you really being so vulnerable and real about your everyday life with your dad. Why?

Yeah.

What motivates you to do that? Because you. I mean, you had us, like, in the room with your dad as you were watching him sort of, you know, get sicker and sicker and.

Yeah, yeah. I think that. I don't think everybody is built that way.

So I need to go ahead and just put that out there that, like, that this isn't something that is some sort of. Some sort of thing everyone needs to kind of yearn for or become. I just feel like I am built that way.

And because I'm built that way, I'm a. I'm a storyteller. I love to invite people in.

What I found many years ago is that when I share parts of the hardest parts of my story, so many people feel like that is giving them some semblance of, oh my gosh, he sees me. There are so many, especially with dementia and Alzheimer's. Like, nobody talks about that.

And so when I was going through it, there was hardly anybody that I could find that was sharing their experiences. The amount of dms from people Willow that I was getting, oh my gosh, Carlos, like, I went through that. I'm going through that. Thank you so much for.

I feel like you're giving me a voice.

That's why I do it, because I feel like it gives people a voice that maybe would have never had that voice and would have felt lonely in their journey. Now, all that being said, you know, I did share some, you know, intimate moments on my journey, and I do share intimate moments on my journey.

But, you know, the truth is, is I'm really only sharing like 1% of my life, right? Like, I get to pick and choose the angle, the moment, whatever it is. And so, you know, but even that 1% is giving people. There's power in testimony.

I mean, there just is. And so when, when you share it, somebody's going to hear it and they're either going to think, man, that sounds like me, or that could be me.

And so, you know, I think that's why I choose to invite people into some of the more sacred parts of my journey.

You're a self described hope dealer. Tell us a little bit about that and how you see our world needing it so big time right now.

You know, hope dealer, when I used to sit on airplanes and I'd travel somewhere and people would ask me, what do you do? I would always depend on the season. I'm like, well, right now I'm an author, or I guess I'm a Instagrammer, or I'm a worship leader, or I'm a.

And I never really had a phrase ways. And so I came up with hope dealer because that's what I try to do every single day.

If I can be a respite, if I can be a place where people can come even. And I'm not saying avoid the hard things, I'm not saying avoid the hard topics.

I'm like, even if I'm going to talk about the hard things, let me do that in a place and in a way that lets people leave even if they disagree. Feeling a little bit of hope.

And even the hope may be, wow, Carlos and I disagree, but I don't hate him, you know, like that may be the hope somebody needs, like somebody made, need to think, you know what?

I'm going to be able to disagree with this family member or this friend of mine without it turning into rage, without it turning into no longer speaking. And so I just feel like I want to deliver hope. And again, my hope because of, you know, my worldview, the way I look at the world is through Jesus.

And so, you know, I try to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I spend the majority of my time when I go out and speak speaking in secular environments, in non faith spaces.

And so I'd say only about 10% now of when I go out and speak is in a faith space. 90% I'm in front of attorneys or doctors or lawyers or, you know, you know, it depends. I was in a, from a bunch of car salesmen a couple weeks ago.

And so here I stand on these stages, quote, unquote, inspiring these people with my stories and all these things. And then inevitably they will come up to me afterwards and like, gosh, I just feel so much hope. Like, can you tell me more?

And boom, I'm like, ah, now, now I get to tell you about where it's coming from. Right? And so again, that hope dealer thing, I'm, I'm just dealing the hope, but the hope is actually coming from Jesus.

And you know, I try to do that as well as I can every single day.

I have so many things I want to ask you, but when did Jesus become real for you? Someone that you want to follow and give your life to live like all the things. Because you grew up as a pastor's kid, right?

Yeah, I did, I did. My dad was the pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Pico Rivera, First Bilingual Baptist Church in Pico Rivera east la.

And yeah, so I, I Grew up, you know, in the church. Had a great, you know, great childhood in the church. Knew every hymn, was sleeping on the pews. Jess was there 24, 7.

But I think, you know, I got to college and, you know, it was a little bit more than the typical, like, Christian pastor, son goes to college and rebels.

Like, there was a little bit of, like, even more of an angst inside of me that I was like, I don't need any of that stuff, you know, and probably that the first few.

It took about the first few years of my marriage even for me to get to the place where I had this epiphany that I knew everything about God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, fruits of the Spirit, all the scriptures in my head, I knew them all. I could get up on stage and spit the best sermon you've ever heard, but I was 18 inches away. My head and my heart were 18 inches away.

And all of a sudden it freaked me out that I thought, oh my gosh, I may be 18 inches away from heaven and hell, like, I may have it all right here, but it's not here. And so it was the beginning of my marriage that I started to really move it down from my head to my heart and through a lot of work, a lot.

And I'm still. Ain't done yet. We've been married 25 years. I'm still trying to figure it out.

But if there is one thing I know that I know today is true, beyond true, is that Jesus came to rescue me and he rescued me and he continues to rescue me. And so, yeah, so, you know, that was a, a long process of sanctification, a long process of figuring it out.

I mean, even in this year, you know, we just talked about our, our father's dying.

Even in this year since my father's passing, there's been so much healing in my life that's happened in therapy through, you know, going back to my childhood, things about my childhood, not with my parents, but other things that I needed healing from that I didn't even know I needed healing from. So it's like we are these never ending souls in need of Jesus to continue to come and help us heal.

And so, yeah, I think for me it was the beginning of my marriage with Heather and it's just continued on since then.

Well, I love that your hope obviously comes from Jesus. I love that. And I know you're not just saying that.

And I've watched people of hope, people of Jesus, people who've had faith, who are getting so full of bitterness and hatred and anger, and they're getting calloused and they're losing. They're not being people of the light. They're. They're just. It's like I'm hanging out with some of my friends, and it's the biggest bummer ever.

Like, they're just sitting around talking about how everything sucks. And I'm curious, like, what's your advice to. For us to keep holding on to hope and not let it go, even when we're surrounded by hard circumstances?

Yeah.

Well, I think the first thing I would say is, just so that everybody doesn't feel crazy, is, yes, it does feel, quote unquote, like, this is the most divided we've ever been. It does feel like. Like they're. Like, it just. It doesn't end. Like, it's just one punch after another after another.

But here's the thing, and this is something, Willow, that I can honestly say I'm an expert in. Unlike a lot of things in my life, this is one thing I can say I'm an expert in.

And the expertise has to do with these phones, and the expertise has to do with these screens in our hands.

And the reason why I say I can be an expert in that is because I'm the only person I know, honestly, on planet Earth that has spent two months of their life in a row and never looked at a single screen.

So I, you know, I did this two and a half years ago, spent two months of my life, didn't look at a screen, didn't look at a phone, didn't look at an Apple Watch, didn't look at a iPad, a TV, nothing. And in those two months, can I tell you that the rage and the. And all of the. The world is falling. The.

You know, the world's more divided than it's ever been. It completely vanished. It went away.

And I came back, and I realized very quickly that it's these screens in our hands that are the things that are convincing us that the world is more divided and that there's so much negativity.

And so what we have to do is get to a place where we no longer keep consuming all of the rage and all of the kind of darkness that these things are putting out. And so, you know, the oxymoron is here, people are probably listening to this on their phone right now, right?

So what I like to tell people is the phone is an evil. The phone actually isn't the drug. You're not addicted to your phone.

The phone is the needle that is injecting whatever drug it is that you are partaking of into your body, into your soul. And for a lot of people, it's rage. For some people, it's anger. For some people, it could be anything.

So instead, today, while people are listening to this, they're actually injecting some hope into them through the needle that is the phone. So I think what I would say is this.

If you walk down the history aisle at any local library, okay, wherever you're listening to this, if you're in Portland, if you're in Spokane, wherever it is, go to your local library. Walk down the history aisle, pick up every.

The data is there, but what is different is we have more access to the pain than we've ever had before. So since we have more access, we're feeling the weight a lot more.

And I know I'm getting a little preachy here, but I promise you, this is so important.

You've got to reduce the amount of time you're injecting this darkness and this despair into your heart, and that's going to be by lessening the amount of time you're staring at these screens. When I spent two months and I didn't look at a screen, I came back.

I took all of these tests with the doctor, all these mental tests, these cognitive memory tests. I was legitimately 100 times better than I was when I started the experiment.

And so, yeah, that's going to be my push to all your listeners, is to reduce the amount of time that you're injecting a lot of this rage into your ethos.

Do you ever want to go back and spend more months off your phone? Like, do you ever just crave? Like, let's go back there?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And we do. I've become so.

When I was there in those two months, I lived with monks for half the time, and I lived with Amish farmers for the other half, and I've become really close Friends with these Amish farmers up in Ohio. And I go visit farmer Willis Gosh every two months. And I go up there and my phone doesn't work and I. I'm there for like three days.

And here's the thing, like you don't have to live with monks or go with the Amish in order to pull this off. Like all it takes. What this is a practice that I've done is I made the decision to spend one 24 hour period a week and never look at a screen.

So that could be Saturday morning to Sunday morning, that could be Thursday morning to Friday morning, but I take one 24 hour period a week and I don't look at a screen. And then I've reduced my screen time two hours a day. So I was at seven hours. Just go to five. Whatever it is, listen to this. This is crazy math.

If somebody does this, okay, if you do that for an entire year, take one day a week, don't look at a screen, take two hours a day and lessen your screen time, you will gain back two and a half months of living a year. A year. That's how much time. It is insane.

So if you just take a 24 hour period a week and then reduce your screen time by two hours every day, you will gain back two and a half months of joy a year, which is crazy. So that's what I've implemented back into my life. Post Amish and post Monk, that has really helped my mental health.

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So if you just take a 24 hour period a week and then reduce your screen time by two hours every day, you will gain back two and a half months of joy a year, which is crazy. So that's what I've implemented back into my life. Post Amish and post Monk, that has really helped my mental health.

Friends. You just gained two and a half months of your life listening to this podcast. You talk about the lost art of being human.

I know that part of that is this phone thing that you're talking about, but how do we get it back? What are some like practical spiritual Disciplines. There's lessening the phone.

Are there other things that you discovered where you want to invite us into what it looks like to be human again? Or how can we know that we've lost it? Because I bet you a lot of us that have lost it don't even know.

Yeah, you don't know. And that's just it, Willow. Like, I didn't know I'd lost it until I found it. Right? You don't know what you don't know until you know.

And so, yeah, there's a whole bunch of. I've got, like, 25 different ways to recover the lost art of being human in my book, reconnected.

But some of the ways that I would say really quickly, people can do that is there's the lost human art of a meal. Like. Like, when I say a meal, I'm. I don't mean eating. Okay? I mean a meal. What does that look like?

When I was living with the Amish, their meals lasted so long. Like an hour and a half for breakfast. I'm like, why does it take so long to eat a meal? And that's how they connected with each other.

I think wondering is something that we no longer do anymore. When I didn't have a screen, I couldn't find the answer for questions that I had in the moment.

I don't think God created us with the capacity to know everything at any given moment. And so, gosh, I loved wondering. I loved not knowing the answer. So, you know, that's something else that I've done.

One more thing I'll tell people, and yes, this has to do with their phone is you. Most people can gain back an hour. Just. I said to reduce your screen time by two hours a day.

Most people can get one whole hour a day by just charging their phone in another room when they go to bed.

Because the data shows that Americans spend 30 minutes before they go to bed at least, and 30 minutes after they wake up at least scrolling on their phone. You want to gain back a whole hour back, Charge your phone in another room. And what does that do?

That just gives you, again, more capacity to be more human. We're feeling all of this rage. We're feeling all of this infighting.

And I feel like the reason why is people don't have the capacity to have patience anymore. Why? Because we're just constantly consuming more information than we were designed to consume. So those are just three things.

But I mean, we could spend the next four hours and I could just keep unpacking all of these different ways, lost art forms of being human that I rediscovered during that experiment of mine.

Well, I know people are going to want to grab your book and read more about it. You're known. You have this kind of mantra that I've heard you say over and over again that you don't stand on issues, but walk with people.

Tell us how that came to be something you're known for.

Like all of us collectively as humanity went through global trauma together. And I seem to be a guy that started talking about some of the things that were in, in current cultural context back then that were happening.

So whether it was a march or whether it was something in the government, whatever it was, I was trying to have these conversations in very grace filled ways. Now when I say grace filled ways, that simply meant I was talking to people that vehemently disagreed with in, in a kind way.

And it was so crazy to watch my following continue to grow with people that didn't agree with me. And they were like, man, Carlos, like, I just, I, I really don't agree with anything you're saying, but I, I really enjoy listening to you.

And I think a friend of mine, it was a pastor friend of mine that told me this. He goes, carlos, you know what you're doing is you're walking with people. You're walking with people and you're not standing on issues.

The problem most people fall into is, is they stop walking with people that don't look like them, think like them, vote like them, believe like them, and they just stand still. We weren't created to just stand as humans. We were created to walk.

So what you've decided to do is start walking along people that see the issues differently than you. So, so became kind of a phrase where I started saying, you know, this is, I think what we should all do more of.

Don't Stand on issues, but walk with people. That does not mean you don't have an opinion on an issue. That doesn't mean that you don't care about issues.

It just means that you are going to walk with people that view the issue differently than you. And so, yeah, the last four or five years, I've been trying to actively help my insta familia do that.

And it sounds like a catchy phrase, but it is one of the hardest things to pull off as a human being.

So true. I mean, how do you feel about cancel culture?

I mean, here. This is how I feel about cancel culture. Every single person listening to this is going to do something in their life that is cancelable. So, like.

Like, if you want to cancel somebody, it's coming back at you. I am not a fan of cancel culture. I think of my life. I think of. I mean, there's.

There's 30 things I can think of right now that if anybody knew, they'd cancel me for. Right? Like, we all have. We. We all have cancelable things in our lives, right? And so. But God and his redemption.

I'm so grateful that Jesus wasn't a f. Cancel culture. That he was like, nah, redemption culture. That's where it's at. So, like, I'm not a fan of cancel culture.

Of course I'm a fan of, like, you know, there's consequences. There's always going to be. I tell my kids all the time, hey, listen, the reason this is happening isn't because I want to punish you.

Like, because I think that punishment leads to performance. And so I think that's what cancel culture does. Cancel culture will just lead to somebody performing a different way so that they don't get canceled.

No, what we actually need instead of performance is repentance. And what we need instead of performance is, you know, restoration. And so cancel culture doesn't allow restoration to happen.

So I'm not a fan of cancel culture. I'm a fan of letting consequences teach somebody to make them better and then bring them back into the fold, you know?

And so, I don't know, I just think, man, if people got the other 99% of what my life is that I don't show on my phone, I get canceled every single day.

Well, I hear you. I mean, I grew up. I grew up in a religious house, unchurched family, single mom, but she owned this cafe. And it gathered.

I mean, it gathered like tree huggers and rednecks and Democrats and Republicans. And it was my living room. Like, I grew up meeting with the coal miners and the teachers and the hippies. And I learned so much from that experience.

I wouldn't change a thing. But I.

Now that I've become a Christian in my adult life, it's been really interesting to see how we often only get together with people who believe the same things as us, value the same things, who vote the same way, who look like us, and it's so limiting. And then when I start to take cues from Jesus, I'm like, wait a second.

I look at the gatherings he went to, the parties he went to, and he was totally, I mean, crucified for it. I mean, people came at him because he was gathering with, you know, gluttons and drunkards and sinners and taxes collectors.

But if you look at that, that's where they got curious about him. That's where they were transformed by his presence.

Because he showed up in spaces with people who believed and valued things that were not what he necessarily believed and valued.

No, it's. It's. Oh, my gosh, it's so true. And, you know, even if we look at our own churches, like.

Like, are we just gathering people that agree with us and people that, you know, believe like us? And so, you know, I just. I'm a fan of the local church. I'm a fan of my local church. I'm a fan of what we do.

But I just think that, like, my role in the Kingdom is not primarily based on being a good Christian and going to church. It's based on going to the places that Jesus was hanging out with, going to people that maybe have been canceled. Like, man, find me.

Find me somebody that's been canceled. I'm going to go be their best friend, because I just feel like that's what Jesus would have done.

And so, yeah, I mean, you're preaching the choir, Willow. This is so good.

How do we hold on to things that we believe are, like, tenants in the faith? Things that, you know, we read God's Word, we're committed to God's Word, and we.

We don't want to feel like, you know, we're going to go down a bad path and start believing things that are crazy. How do we hold onto our own beliefs while loving and walking alongside people who believe different things than us in a healthy, helpful way?

Yeah, I think. And again, this is my perspective. Some people are not going to agree with me. Go figure.

But the way I approach situations like that is I believe in the Bible, right? Like, I open up the Bible. I read it every single morning. I wake up at 5:30am, I spend 30 minutes, Lord, what do you have for me today?

And the word of God literally is what leads my day, right? So that's what I believe. So I'm gonna run across people that that's not how they structure their worldview.

What I have to remember is that God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit all serve different roles in our lives. What has happened?

When you look up scripture, scripture literally says the role of Holy Spirit is to convict the world of its sins. That's literally what the role of Holy Spirit is. But what do we feel like we have to do? Because we all have cameras and microphones now.

Well, you know what? I'm gonna convict the world of its sin. I'm going, no, that's literally not our job.

Like, our job is to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to love people ridiculously, to pour Christ's love on them, and then as you continue to love on them, continue to believe what you believe, allow Holy Spirit to do the convicting. I promise you, when you allow Holy Spirit to do the convicting, you don't have to take the baton from Holy Spirit.

You can allow Holy Spirit to continue to do the convicting while you continue to love. Now, I'm not. Again, I'm not saying we can start parsing out. Well, what does love mean, Carlos? All this.

Listen, if there's any conviction that's happening right now, it is to me. Again, it's the Holy Spirit going, hey, Carlos, just remind them and remind yourself that I've got this.

Just keep telling them that Jesus is the way, showing them how much you love them, and let me do the convicting of the sin.

So many things to think about. Carlos, I have to ask you. You've written. I mean, reconnected. Get your hopes up. How to human Enter the wild, kill the spider. Moment maker.

You've built instafamilia on Instagram. You're speaking to car salesmen and all sorts of other people. I'm so curious.

When you rewind back to being that college kid, you said this pastor kid that left at college and rebelled and did whatever you did. Are you ever just blown away at how God has unfolded these opportunities for you to be used to bring hope to other people?

I am constantly dumbfounded, blown away to the point of tears. My wife's like, gosh, you turn 50, you're just crying all the time.

Because I just am overwhelmed at the goodness of God in my life and, and what he's allowed me to do.

And in spite of me, in spite of, you know, all of the ways that I've hurt so many people and myself and all the things that the Lord is like, you know what?

I'm still going to use you, you know, and so, like, there are some times, Willow, that I think to myself, man, like, you know, if some were to come up, you know, and, and. And say, Carlos, like this, you.

You know, because I can think back in my life of, like, may, say, seasons in my life where I was like, you know, spitting the words of God out with one side of my mouth, but then, you know, addicted to this and the other side of my mouth or whatever it is.

And, you know, sometimes I think to myself, well, maybe the Lord, you know, maybe it was just a farce that people were being moved by whatever it is that God was creating through me. And sometimes God's like, what are you talking about, man? Like, look, in scripture, I use. I can use a donkey if I want to use something.

Like, so don't ever think that just because you weren't living, quote, unquote, exactly the way you felt like you needed to be, that I can't use you. And so I just.

Yes, I step back, I look at my life, and I think, if my life is not the picture perfect example that God can use anybody to literally change one person, let it be my story. And I'm just grateful. I'm grateful that I had this opportunity to talk to you.

I'm grateful that I have this opportunity to, you know, I'm gonna speak at an event that you do, like, all of these things. I am so grateful every single time I get another opportunity or somebody puts a mic in my hand just to share the hope of Jesus.

Well, thank you for dealing us all hope. We're so grateful for you and the way the Lord's using you in the world.

And I know there's gonna be people who wanna hear more about spiders and monks and you're growing up. All the things. How can they do that?

Yeah, if you follow me on Instagram, you'll find all the things. It's Loswit. L O S W H I T I've got a website but who goes to those things anymore?

Just jump on the instafamilia train and you'll find everything over there.

Awesome. Thank you so much Carlos.

Absolutely.

Friend. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Carlos. He gives us lots to think about for sure.

And one thing I do know and mentioned earlier is that he truly drew me in to his story when he was inviting us to walk alongside his journey of his father dying. And I just appreciate his authenticity and his willingness to allow his story to impact ours.

And I hope that you can be encouraged that your story can impact other people's story, that God can use you. Just like he said God can use donkeys, he can use total nitwits man. He can use me.

So certainly he can use you to bring hope to all the people that you collide with. So go deal out some hope this week and we'll catch you next week.