Rob Brull tells his faith story during launch of Sharing YOUR Faith Story DVD at Sacred Heart Books on live GRN broadcast with Nancy Ward and Dave Palmer, KATH 910 AM

by Rob Brull

Growing up in a devout Catholic family, faith was just a way of life. Mom was the spiritual head of the household, dedicated to praying the rosary herself and making sure all in the family participated in the sacraments. Dad was a little bit more lax in the rules of the church, but fully supported Mom in making sure we did what we were supposed to do.

As seems so typical with many of my generation, when I went off to college I drifted away from my faith. The evil one convinced me I did not need my foundation of faith any more. These were new and exciting times. I had secular goals to strive after – wealth, success, and most of all impressing those around me.

Throughout my 20s, the only time I would go to Mass was when Mom and Dad were coming to visit or I was going home to visit them. In my early 30s, God sent someone to me. A friend-of-a-friend asked if I would accompany them to church for Easter Mass because they really wanted to go, but did not want to go alone. While I never accompanied this person to church again, after that one trip I felt drawn to attend each week. This began a decade of attending Mass weekly but not doing much else. Getting me to Mass was the first step in God molding me.

Catholic Answers

While I was attending Mass in my 30s, I remember a gentleman from Catholic radio visiting the church encouraging us to tune into the new Catholic radio station. At times on my way home from work, if I was really bored with sports talk radio and other news talk radio, I would tune over to the Catholic radio station. Catholic Answers was the show being broadcast, and they mostly would be talking about the interpretation of different versus of the Bible. But I was Catholic and thus considered the readings at church to be more than sufficient for what I needed to know about the Bible. However, God was planting a seed by nudging me to consider a deeper faith.

In my early 40s, I hit the most trying times of my life. I experienced the death of both of my parents, I lost a long-time job, and I had a considerable amount of savings tied up in a real estate market that continued to plummet. In addition, my oldest son could not attend pre-K4 because of disabilities related to fine and gross motor skills, and my marriage was probably not as good as it had been. At this point, God finally had my attention and I was ready to let him mold me further.

In his infinite wisdom, job God gave me a much longer commute to work for my new. He then led me to inspirational radio personalities that fired me up about my faith. Through these radio personalities, God convinced me that the answers to my struggles were not in the secular world, but in prayer. After a period of time, I even started looking forward to my drive home in traffic just so I could learn more about the Bible from Catholic Answers.

Return to confession

I ended up going to confession for the first time in 23 years. I also bought my first Bible, and read through it completely, which took almost a year as I contemplated so many things along the way. And I continue to read through the Bible every day. It is part of our family bedtime routine along with the rosary, which I can still vision my mom praying when I was young.

These difficulties of my early 40s seem so long ago now, even though it has only been three years. Today has its own challenges, but it is such a different perspective to know that I do not face them alone. I rely on the intercession of the saints and the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father and his Son.

The molding of my new self continues to take shape, and always will, as I strive to understand God’s will for me today and for the future.

Rob Brull is a member of St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Dallas, Texas. Rob and his wife Sara have four children. He has participated in many pro-life activities in the Dallas area, and most enjoys teaching the faith to his children. Rob is an electrical engineer by degree and works as a product manager in the healthcare industry.