Someone in a group on Facebook asked about our Conversion Story. I haven’t shared mine in a long time so I thought it was time to put it out there again. Feel free to contact me if you wanna talk about it!
I grew up in a small town in Southwest Virginia. My mother and father were churchgoers until I was about five years old, then my dad quit going for various reasons. For a while, my mother would drive us to church alone but then began to stay home with dad as well. When I was fourteen I had what they would have called a mountain top experience, and gave my life to God in an altar call at a Christian lock-in. I began to live out my Christian faith as a Southern Baptist, eventually joining a more Pentecostal church and tried to make Sunday services weekly. I lived, though, according to a teaching that I could do whatever I wanted, as long as I believed in Jesus; and I did just that.
Years later after many years of doing whatever it was I wanted, my life began to fall apart. My wife at the time left me for the third time. My job was sinking into an even deeper mire and muck. My house was literally falling apart. I would sit in front of my computer during the winter as the mice ran around my feet and the wind blew through the floorboards, wondering why my faith had not made everything perfect. Then I fell in love with this beautiful girl I met in Chicagoland. There was only one problem, she was Catholic!
Months went by, and soon a year. I fell in love with her and we married. I began the long and arduous task of converting her out of the Catholic faith! I knew that if I could just show her the errors of her belief I would be able to turn her into a Baptist, a Methodist, anything but a Catholic! So I began to study. I would try to argue with her and she’d tell me, “Find out.” So I would. It wasn’t long until I began to have more questions for myself than for her.
I began to argue with Father Tim Siegel as well, who would sit patiently with me and listen to all my questions and point me to where I could find answers. I joined RCIA, and just as quickly, dropped out. Then we baptized our daughter. I stood up with the rest of the congregation and said: “I promise to raise my daughter as a Catholic.” I knew then that I at least needed to know genuinely what they taught. I began to study even more. This time actually going to Catholic sites, Catholic books, the Catechism, instead of Anti-Catholic sources.
It was a few months later when Pope Benedict announced he wanted the Parishes to offer up 60 hours of adoration. I heard Father Tim talking to his secretary and it seemed he was going to have to cancel it. Not enough people had signed up. So I offered, as a friend to Father Tim, to sit in the room as a ‘warm body.’ I had just had back surgery and had nothing better to do. So, Father Tim, had the secretary put me in any spots they needed. I checked the schedule the next day; I was signed up for more than 50 hours of adoration.
I prepared myself for this new experience by packing a satchel full of books, puzzles, games, and magazines to read. I needed something to pass all these hours and keep my mind occupied. I knew what the church taught about adoration and the Eucharist. I was wrestling with it, on the verge of believing but not quite there. On the third day though, I ran out of things to read. So I pulled out my trusty King James Bible and began to play bible roulette. I placed the Bible on the bench next to me, flipped it open, and pointed. I looked down at the verse that God had revealed to me.
Psalm 46:10: Be still and know that I am God.
That was my first real experience with Jesus in the Eucharist, the first time I ever got on my knees during adoration and gazed at God in the Blessed Sacrament. I then joined RCIA with the right disposition, began to work with my wife on our annulments, and that very next Easter had our marriage blessed and entered the Roman Catholic Church. Now though still a sinner, I strive to live a life of prayer, of devotion, and to be the man God wants me to be. I can truly say that even though I am doing it imperfectly, I am indeed raising my daughter to understand the Catholic faith. He offers the same to every single person, a chance to live a life in Christ, through the Sacraments. It won’t always be easy or pretty, but he will always be there in the Church, in the Eucharist, to offer you the grace to find joy and peace no matter how tough life gets!