The Message That Changed His Heart Around

On November 12, 2019, the Wisconsin State Legislature overwhelmingly passed a resolution declaring the week of thanksgiving to be National Bible week.

State representative, Paul Tittl, sponsored the resolution.

“It was first done in 1941 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We wanted to do this as an encouragement to people all over the state of Wisconsin to actually read their Bible.”

But years ago, Paul was the least likely candidate to be pushing a Bible resolution.

“There wasn't a day that I didn't drink,” Paul recalls.

Paul was brought up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, the youngest of four children in a devout Catholic blue-collar family

“I was kind of an introvert as a child. I kept to myself, kinda always been a little bit heavier, so I didn't have a very good self-image. I didn't really think of myself as much. I didn't think of myself as-as worthy of anything.”

Despite being in church every Sunday, Paul never felt connected to God, so when he became a teenager, he left religion behind.

“It just didn't feel real to me. I wanted something that was solid, something that wasn't just being forced upon me. I wanted to live and party and escape.”

Paul soon discovered that drinking gave him confidence.

“I was very outgoing then and I got out of my shell it was – it was different. I was not the same introverted person that I was.”

By the time Paul reached his twenties, he was still in his hometown, selling vacuum cleaners and living in an apartment down the street from his parents.

“I was unhappy with my life, and I was not doing very well. And the type of sales that I was in, if you didn't sell anything, you didn't eat. But yet, I always seemed to find enough to get that high every night.”

But now drinking wasn’t the escape it once was—it was something Paul had to do.

“It just becomes old. Waking up every day with a hangover, going through the day, waiting for the end of the night so I could drink.”

Miserable and depressed, Paul tried to stop drinking. At twenty-five years old, he felt his life was hopeless.

“Anything that I did wouldn’t – did not last, and I couldn't do it on my own. It was about as low as I could get. I was looking for more meaning to my life. I knew that I needed more knowledge. I didn't know what to do.”

It was then he came across a Christian tv program that would become his source of hope and encouragement: the 700 Club. 

“I knew that 700 Club was there, and they had the knowledge and I – and I was yearning for it,” Paul recalls.

But Paul still wasn’t sure God really cared about him. That changed one day in February of 1986, when Pat Robertson seemed to speak directly into his life:

“Ladies and gentleman, I want to tell you right now, there is hope. There’s hope in Jesus. And he can work out the problem.”

“And at that point I said, ‘Okay.’ I said, "Lord, if you want to do something with this life, the first thing you've got do is take care of this drinking,"’ Paul recalls. ‘“And I opened up my Bible and my eyes immediately fell to Proverbs, chapter 20, verse 1, it says, ‘Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.’ And at that point I knew God was real. And I knew he was listening to me. And it was life changing. God wanted to do something in my life. And I was excited about that.’”

Paul prayed to ask for God’s forgiveness and give his life to Christ.

“The biggest thing that I understood after watching the 700 Club is that Jesus Christ would have died for me if I was the only one that needed dying for,” Paul says. “And that was real. I knew all along that Jesus died for the sins of the world; but I never understood that he would have done it just for me if I was the only one that needed it. And that's real personal. And that's real. And that's the real that I was looking for in my life. I felt insignificant. And Christ made me significant.”

Paul says he never had the desire to drink again.

“He healed me, and that emptiness is not there anymore because it's filled with Christ. Every aspect of my life has changed.”

Now going to church wasn’t a chore, it was a joy. The following year, he left door to door sales and started his own successful vacuum cleaner business. He later married before getting into politics in 2004 and being elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2012. 

Since that time, he has organized the first Bible study in the Wisconsin State Capitol.

“He is right there with me, each and every day. He gave his only begotten son for me. And for you. And that's huge. God wants to do something with all of our lives if we let him.”