|
My Testimony
How should I explain my early life growing up in south Florida on 10 acres of land. I would say my years before I went to school were great. For the most part I played alone on our 10 acres with my best friend along side, my dog. This seemed to allow my imagination to run wild being out there playing cowboys and Indians, Army, building forts and exploring my mind for what I could think up.
Also at this time we would attend church each week. The church we attended was the local Baptist church. In my mind it was just understood this is what we did, every Sunday we would go to church. This was fine for me as I got to see my friends and play and run around the church having a great time. I remember one nice man there that if you would go up to him and sake his hand he would give you a piece of gum. He was a very nice man always there with a smile and of course a handshake and a piece of gum. So life at the church was grand.
As I grew older and finally went to first grade things changed. I realized that the grown ups and other kids at school didn’t seem to be so loving. They seemed more to be into their own interests and not at all interested in others around them. This was very difficult for me as I was always around those that loved me and the thought of not being around loving people was very shocking to me.
It seemed as time went on and I grew old the selfishness of people grew stronger. In an attempt to try and “fit in” I wanted to become aware to what others were interested in and one thing that caught my attention was the music of The Beatles. It must have been around 1964 that I first heard and saw the Beatles through the music I heard coming from my sister’s bedroom. It was then that I saw a little booklet about the Beatles and as I was looking at it I thought, yeah, I want to be like these guys, they looked cool.
As time went on I heard more music from the Beatles but my interested still were in playing football and at the age of 9 years old in 1966 I started playing on my first peewee league football team. It was fun and I felt right at home playing football. For the most part it was organized and we all wanted to play as a team rather than do our own thing and fight amongst each other as I often saw and felt school was like. During this time I was still going to church with the family, listening to music when I heard it and playing football. School was a necessary that I had to do although I found it very difficult academically as well as socially to cope with.
At sometime around 1970 a change happened. I was starting in junior high school and my interest for girls was starting to go through the roof. To me at that time the cool people were more and more seeming to be the rock stars of the time, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and such groups and the idea of going to church started to seem boring. Also a few years earlier my father stopped attended church and had always been a big influence on me and he was my biggest encourager to play football. So sometime around then I decided I don’t want to go to church anymore and I just stopped going. That decision I later found out was the beginning of the end for me.
From 1970 to 1972 I continued to go to school play football and try to fit in with the kids at school. During this time as well my father was diagnosed with colon cancer and in 1972 died from the illness. At that point I was alone. I didn’t know it at the time but I was very alone. My father, my mentor, my encourager was gone, who would lead me now, who would encourage me to keep trying to stick with it? I didn’t have an answer I just wanted to try and experience all I could at the young age of 15 years old.
The year my father died was the last year I played football. Not that I didn’t love the sport I did and still do love the sport. But at that time I was being groomed to takeover as the varsity quarterback the next year. This was hard for me as all during my sophomore year in high school I trained with the varsity head coach and varsity quarterback. I didn’t know if I would be good enough to takeover the following year but I did my best. Also the younger brother of the senior quarterback was going to be a freshman the following year and I felt that he would compete for my job since I was hearing that he was better than his older brother. I couldn’t take that kind of rejection so instead of giving it my best shot I just did not go out for football that following year and I gave up all those dreams that I had to play college football and maybe, just maybe, be good enough to play in the NFL. I know if my father we around he would be encouraging me to get good grades in school so I could go to a good school and also play football and get that chance to play in the pros. But I couldn’t do it on my own, I was too afraid so I just quit.
After quitting football I needed another activity that I could pursue and after seeing the attention that musicians got and the kind of girls that gravitated to them I thought that would be a good activity to pursue. So in the summer of 1973 I and a friend decided we were going to be like The Beatles and start a band. So we both bought acoustic guitars and went to the music store in the mall and started to take lesson. The teacher said well if you are going to have a band one of you should play bass. Bass? What’s a bass? I said. The teacher explained and since I wanted a band so bad, a team all working together like in football I said “I’ll play bass”. And so from then on I was the bass player.
As time went on now being a musician I needed to get involved in the culture of musicians and need I say more than sex, drugs and rock and roll was the battle cry for the next 5 years. I was Jimmy and I’ll take all that you will gimmy. Well in 1978 I decided enough was enough of this a change needed to happen although the change wasn’t what I expected.
In 1978 a musician friend of mine said he was going to go to a meeting one night and I asked what it was and he said something to the effect of a place for self improvement. I thought boy do I need that. I asked if I could come along and he said sure. What I found out was it was the local Church of Scientology and I checked it out, it seemed like it could help and before I knew it I was enrolled in a communications class three nights a week. It all went well and I really enjoyed it and when I was done I thought thank you very much. There idea was let’s get you onto the next class. Next class? Well for the next 10 years I was playing large sums of money to take self improvement classes. After while my self didn’t seemed to be improving and so I said enough is enough and in 1988 stopped taking classes and 1990 decided I did not want in further involvement with the organization.
At this point in 1990 I had survived 12 years of prison, I mean school, stumbled my way through sex, drugs and rock and roll in the seventies and escaped the clutches of Scientology in the 1980’s. I was pretty lost and felt that the world really didn’t care about me so I just thought if the world doesn’t care about me then I don’t care about the world. I’ll just do what seems right in my own eyes.
From 1988 to 1993 I went back to playing music in groups wherever I could and I started my own club band playing bars in the local area. All was fine except I felt I was getting older and didn’t have much to show for it. Sure this would be fine if I were 20 years old but I was reaching my mid-thirties and when most men my age were buying homes, having kids and living the good life I was working a menial day job, playing music at night and sleeping around with women. So in 1993 I said forget it. The life of a rock musician isn’t what I thought it was so I just quit everything.
At the time I was living with a woman that loved me and accepted me, that was very important to me. She had a family that, although they bickered with each other, they all seemed really close, I longed for that all of my life. As time went on I realized that her family was very much involved in church. I certainly wasn’t interested in that as it was un-cool in my opinion to be a church going kind of guy. But from time to time I would go to church hear the sermons agree with much of what was being said but that was about the extent of it. As time went on the things that I desired had something to do with what I was seeing and hearing in and around these church people.
It seemed haunting almost. I remember one time watching a football player after a very inspiring and important game talk to the interviewer and the interviewer asked to what he attributed the winning of the football game and the playing just crying said “I attributed all of this to the Lord Jesus Christ”. I thought dang theirs that Jesus thing again. I thought I want those kinds of victories in my life but I did not want “Jesus, in my life”. Well I went on a while longer struggling on my way until that fateful day in August 1996.
I had left the house with the woman and the Christian family as she said if we’re not going to get married then we shouldn’t live together. I said okay, I’ll leave and I left. I went and rented an old trailer in the country and just figured I’d live out in the country and to hell with the rest of the world. Well me being me I met a nice lady and thought, she’s a nice lady I could enjoy having a long relationship with her. So we had a relationship and I said I’m going to be the best partner I can be for this woman and I was. I was very responsible, very loving to her and here two children and doing all I could to be a good mate. But as time went on I wasn’t feeling the love, she seems more and more distant and I came to find out she had interests for another man. I was devastated. I left and felt I was at the end. I was ready to leave everything and go live as a survivalist in the wilderness until I died there.
Well the previous girlfriend I had been living with said I should go talk to her pastor about my life. I thought at this point what could I lose. I spoke with him; he was very kind and understanding of me making excuses for my sinful life. Then he asked if I was ready to receive Jesus Christ into my life. I was broken, I had tried everything and everything failed. I was ready and willing at that point and I gave my life to the Lord on August 7th 1996.
At that point I was at church every time they had service. I remember hearing the worship team for the first time and I thought, “This is church music?” “This is kickin”. Then I heard the voice of the Lord say “I want you to play your music”. Within a month of being saved and joined the worship team at church where I played for four year.
Now I had a family of carrying individuals. Now I had a father, a heavenly Father, a mentor, someone who loved me. Things were starting to make since and as I continued to give more and more of myself to the Lord the one area above all areas of my life that I wanted was soon to be fulfilled.
As I was learning to know what this new found relationship was all about I had for a number of years put together in my mind what the ideal woman would be for me. I knew what she looked like and how she would be and what her interests would be as well. Well finally a few months after being saved, I saw her. There she was, in church praising the Lord. Soon we met and two years later in 1998 we married and it’s been a blessing ever since. In 2001 we had a daughter and soon we are to have a son, all great blessings to my life.
I realized at some point that as a child I had a great earthly father that cared about me. But that father died and I was left alone. I wandered in my wilderness for 24 years until I was drawn by the Lord to his throne where I laid it all down and said I am yours. When I gave my life away to him he gave me himself and his love for me was so great that he has given me his best every since. Now my life is abundant and the only thing in my way of my life is me. The more I give the more he loves me and blesses me and what a wonderful life it is in his presence.
Now my life is dedicated to being his messenger to the lost, urging them to reconcile with the father and receive the gift of salvation paid for by the Holy Father’s son Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. He died that we might have the righteousness of the father and fellowship for eternity with him. What could be better than that?
The Lord will bless you in this life if you surrender to him, but greater are the rewards in heaven. If that be the case I can’t imagine how that will be in heaven when my Lord is so good to me in this life.
Make your next step to the Lord. It is his desire that none should perish. All you have to do is call out to him and salvation and his love can be yours.
If you would like help in knowing the Lord please feel free to contact me and I as an ambassador for him will help you find your new life in Him.
And may your life never be the same. Ian Garrott |
||
|
|
|
|