DEMONSTRATING THE MEANING OF GRACE.

What does grace mean? It's unmerited favour. On New Year's Eve, 1977, this concept was aptly demonstrated for me by a janitor in the mens' room of a bus depot.

From my upcoming How I Was Razed memoir, here's how God used a stranger to help me when I needed it desperately.

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Throughout my stay in Mexico and the journey home, I suffered from constipation. Some of the Bible school passengers periodically admonished me that I should be bubbling over with joy as a "good Christian" ought to. Hoping to cheer me up, they sang several rousing choruses of Count Your Blessings" while the driver negotiated the streets of downtown Calgary.

As soon as they let me off at the Greyhound bus depot, I strode into the mens room to deal with what really made me feel miserable. As with well-intentioned fools, I despised pay toilets. These required a dime for admission and I, not wanting to soil my clothes by climbing under the stall door, hesitated as I held a quarter in my hand. The bathroom door opened and the janitor bustled in.

"Do you have change for a quarter?" I said quickly. "I've just come from Mexico and I need to go real bad."

"That's all right," he said as he took a ring of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

"Thanks," I gasped as I held out the coin.

"No, you can keep that," he said as he turned and began scrubbing the sinks.

I thanked him again and gratefully used the toilet. He was gone by the time I finished. "Thankyou Lord for helping me so quickly," I prayed as I washed my hands. As life's situations rarely worked out so neatly for me, I knew God must have orchestrated the janitor's timely entrance.

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How I Was Razed is the testimony of the way I was mislead by a cult church, how I turned my back on God after I felt he perennially failed to heal my eyes, and how he graciously brought me to my senses.

My previous books, When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) and Deliverance From Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School), are now available online by clicking here or by clicking here to e-mail me directly.