She wasn’t searching for God.
She was studying nature.
As an author and illustrator, Lauren Giordano spent years observing the beauty and complexity of creation. But the deeper she looked, the more she saw what she now calls “God’s fingerprints.”
That realization began an unexpected journey.
Lauren found herself strangely drawn to the Catholic Church. As an atheist, it surprised her to discover not only that God is real, but also how He gently calls each of us toward Himself. When she mentioned it to her husband, miraculously he said he too felt the same pull.
Lauren’s story reminds us that God’s invitations often begin with a growing sense of wonder, an unexplained longing, and an unexpected peace.
Whether you’re discerning an important decision, wondering how God speaks today, or simply looking for encouragement in your own faith journey, Lauren’s testimony will inspire you.
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In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How God often speaks through a holy longing and an unexpected sense of peace.
- Why your talents may be clues to God’s unique plan for your life.
- How to discern God’s voice amid the opinions and advice of others.
- What it means to let God “reconstruct” your life around Him.
- How serving God can strengthen your entire family.
Are you wondering?
- How can I tell if God is calling me to do something?
- How do I know if I’m hearing God’s voice or just my own thoughts?
- How can I discern God’s will when other people are giving me conflicting advice?
- What does it mean when I feel a strong longing to get closer to God?
- How can I figure out what God wants me to do with my talents and gifts?
- How do I know if the peace I feel about a decision is really from God?
Key Takeaway: Take time this week to prayerfully inventory the gifts God has given you, ask how they can be used for His glory, and pay attention to where He is leading you through lasting peace, spiritual fruit, and a deeper relationship with Him.
⏱ Chapters:
02:04 From Atheist to Catholic: Lauren’s Conversion Story
03:41 The First Sign of God’s Call: A Holy Longing
05:44 Why the Catholic Church?
07:04 The Peace That Confirmed God’s Will
09:28 Discovering God-Given Gifts and Purpose
11:53 How Your Talents Reveal God’s Plan
12:23 Rebuilding Life Around God
13:58 How to Know When God Is Speaking
14:48 When Christian Advice Isn’t God’s Will
17:56 Why Discernment Takes Time
19:40 Letting Go to Follow God’s Plan
20:37 Finding God in Everyday Life
22:13 Serving God Without Losing Family Balance
23:49 Raising Children Who Love the Catholic Faith
25:32 Why Parents’ Joyful Faith Inspires Children
26:46 Why Gen Z Is Searching for God
29:20 Helping Your Children Discover God’s Calling
Excerpt:
Lauren: I came into the church a year and a half ago. I had never been baptized before, so I received all of my sacraments at the Easter Vigil. But it had been about a year before that that God started speaking to me, just sort of nudging me toward him. And because before that, I honestly didn’t believe in a divine creator at all.
But honestly, through my work, which as an author and illustrator, I mostly focus on science and nature. And through researching nature and writing about it and illustrating all these different things that are in creation, I started realizing God’s fingerprint. I started seeing that this could not have been an accident. This must have been by design.
And he was using that to speak to me. So I decided, wow, I believe in God.
And I told my husband, I said, “I think I believe in God.” And he said, “Me too.” And I said, “What?” And my husband had been slowly, God had been revealing himself to my husband separately from me.
So after about a year, I decided, okay, I think I need to go to church. I’m hearing this voice, like go to church, go to church. I was longing for it. And so I finally worked up the courage. I told my husband, “I think we should go to church.” And he said, “Me too.”
Terry: I’m going to interrupt you for a minute. I just want to highlight something that you just said. You had a longing for it.
Now, that’s something that happens to all of us when we are trying to figure out God’s will, even if we’re not conscious, if we don’t, even if we don’t pray, Lord, help me to know Your will in something. You know, the longing, it’s not something that we generate on our own. It’s supernatural.
Lauren: It’s supernatural. Yes. And I was not praying. I didn’t I don’t know. I didn’t know how to pray. So I guess I should back up for a second.
I was raised Southern Baptist and then non-denominational. And then I sort of just stopped going to church when I was around 11, 12 years old. And I never really felt anything in those churches. I didn’t feel the Holy Spirit. I didn’t feel any sort of power or any sense of peace. It just felt like a bunch of people getting together in a building and talking and then we leave.
And that’s not to take away from anybody who does have a spiritual experience in that setting, but it never spoke to me. And so I didn’t look fondly on church. It wasn’t something that I felt drawn to. It wasn’t something that I felt was very spiritual just, because of my own experience. And so to have a longing to want to go, a yearning to be there was very strange. And then, you know, to tell my husband.
So, we have two children. They’re in middle school and high school now, and we had never brought them to any sort of church service. They’d been to a funeral and a wedding, but they had never been in a praise and worship setting. They certainly had never been to Mass. I had never been to Mass. So it was all very new. So I told my husband, “I want to go to church.”
And he said, “Me too. I’ve been really feeling like I want to go.” And he goes, “What church do you want to go to?” And I said, “Well, not the one I was raised with because I didn’t really feel anything there.”
And then he said, “Well, why don’t we go to the church that Jesus started?” And I said, “What? Jesus started a church?” And he’s like, “Yeah, the Catholic Church.” And I had no idea.
So in my family, my dad is number 11 of 13 children. My grandparents were Catholic. They raised everybody Catholic and everybody grew up and left the faith. And it was something that you just did not talk about.
I would ask my dad questions about being Catholic, and he was very anti-Catholic; he didn’t answer my questions, just said no. But the ironic thing is when we would travel a lot, we would visit Catholic churches just for the architecture and the history and the beauty. But he wouldn’t permit me to sit through a Mass. He wouldn’t even allow me to take communion until I was 11 or 12, right when we left the Church.
So it was interesting. It was like, “He who shall not be named, that which you cannot talk about or ask about.”
And I just never did the research on my own to learn about the history of the Church and what they teach and the differences between the denominations.
But anyway, it’s Christmas Eve and my husband brings me to Christmas Eve Mass. I had no clue what was going on, obviously, but I just sat there and took it all in and absorbed it, and I didn’t want to leave. I said, “Can we just live in this building?” Because I felt such a peace, such an overwhelming blanket of peace just on my head, on my shoulders, and I did not want to leave.
So I went back the very next day, and then the next day I signed up. I called and signed up for OCIA so that I could start faith formation. So it was very quick. That peace is definitely — I don’t want to call it a sign that this is what God wants you to do, but it’s like a fruit of entering into God’s will.
Terry: It’s a different kind of peace, isn’t it, than, “Okay, I’m having a peaceful day because there’s nothing stressful going on.”
Lauren: Exactly. It was a peace like, I belong right here, right now, in this pew. This is exactly where I should be. And I didn’t even know what was going on. I didn’t understand the significance of anything, any sort of, you know, from the Bible, from tradition, from nothing.
I didn’t understand anything, but I still knew this is right, and this is beautiful, and this is sacred, and this is exactly where I’m supposed to be, which is an amazing feeling.
Terry: Yes, yes, and part of that, your experience, was that it wasn’t logical.”
Lauren: Yes….
📚 Visit Lauren Giordano’s website: chickieandroo.com
Connect with her on Instagram at
instagram.com/chickieandroo
and
instagram.com/kindred_gathering
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This episode is a companion to Terry Modica’s workbook “Knowing God’s Will and Doing It Well“.
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