Growing Up Catholic

Tim Lott

My name is Tim Lott, as a boy growing up in Louisville, KY, my life was centered on attending a Catholic grade school and a Catholic high school. Most everyone I knew were Catholic; our family attended mass every Sunday just as everyone else did. I was taught religion all through grade school; our whole school even went to mass every morning during the first and second grades. Grade school was an important time because we started to make our sacraments at this age: Communion, Confession and Confirmation. As I entered high school and my college years I still practiced going to church every Sunday, however, I did start to question a few things such as the transubstantiation, the priest turning the wine and bread into the body and blood of Christ and how did Mary ascend into heaven without dying?

In my working years, still single, I found myself starting to feel more and more disconnected from church. I felt like a robot doing the same thing, repeatedly going through the motions. I started to skip mass more often. I was filled with so much religion but a void existed within me but I could not understand why. I figured it had to be the every day stresses of life and work. I would pray to Mary asking her to take my prayers to Jesus.

I met my wife in 1989 and she introduced me to her church, it was a Protestant church, which made me feel very uneasy at the time. When I would attend church with her, we would sit in the back row because I felt a bit more at ease there. As the next nine years past, I was still a “back seat Joe” person. I thought that I had everything under control in my life, besides; I had grown up Catholic, which was who I was, so there was no need to change. I was not letting go of my heritage or my faith. I already had a relationship with Christ and been baptized as an infant. Nevertheless, that void deep down still existed and again I put it off to stresses of life, marriage and work. Then I walk into the house one afternoon and find a note from my wife explaining that she is leaving. During the years of our marriage, my priorities were out of order. I sought to improve our life style through financial gain. I wanted to prove to my wife that I could be successful but in doing so, I became a failure in our marriage after eight years.

I loved my wife very much, she was my world. The void that had been with me for so long now grew even larger. Obviously, I was not doing life right and wanted a better way to live. I turned to my Catholic faith but there was nothing to hold onto. I was filled with sacraments, Catholicism, tradition and religion but not a true relationship with Christ. With all my heart, I started to pray asking God to help me. I got a deep feeling that I needed to call the church office and speak to the senior minister. After telling him my story, I asked, “What can I do to get life right?” He said, “You need to get on your knees and sincerely ask Christ to come into your heart. Go to God and confess your sins and ask His forgiveness.”

That day in the pastors’ office changed my life around. I got down on my knees right there and did as he asked. A month later, I was re-baptized. It has been almost nine years now since that day in December of 1998 when I was baptized – my life has not been the same. Nine years ago I would have laughed at you if you were to say, “Tim, you will be working on staff at a church and you will become an ordained minister.” Yet that is exactly what has happened. It has been a wonderful ride and I am still buckled in and holding on tightly. By the way, one year after my baptism my wife and I started our life together again with a foundation centered on Christ and not man made beliefs or traditions. I take my prayers directly to God, my Father in heaven and my priorities are in order.

Website: www.growingupcatholic.net