While on a skiing trip, I received a phone call from my stepfather. There was a family tragedy and I had to go home as soon as possible—my grandparents had been murdered.

Someone went into my grandparents’ home and killed them with a metal pipe. They stole my grandfather’s guns and truck and left a piece of paper with the names of my brother and me on it. The police took the written piece of paper as a threat towards my brother and me, so we were ordered to live with the police and have bodyguards with us when out in public.

Poverty

As a child my family was extremely poor and my grandparents were the ones we went to when we needed food to eat. My mom wasn’t my father’s wife so she started off raising us as a single mother, which wasn’t common back in the 1960s. She later married my stepfather, who had anger and alcohol problems. In British Columbia, Canada, we lived in a half-built house in the forest. It was a concrete basement shell with blankets stapled from the ceiling for walls. We didn’t have running water or toilets so we’d only take a bath once a week in laundry tubs filled with water. Every week my stepfather would drive my brother and me to town to go into the garbage bins to find food. We’d take anything we could, from rotten fruit to vegetables to moldy bread.

Feeling sorry for myself and lost at the same time, I used my grandparents’ tragedy as an excuse to rebel. I partied and drank and partied and drank. Although I didn’t know God at the time, there was a part of me that just knew he wasn’t pleased with what I was doing. It was as if I knew this in the back of my mind yet ignored it.

Later, I attended the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and graduated with honors in power engineering. I got a job at a power plant by the Banff Springs Hotel and continued partying at the hotel while bathing myself in free golf and fat paychecks. Life was great on the outside. But within, it was empty.

My brother told me that he had become a Christian and took me to church. I’d love to say that I believed in Jesus Christ and everything was perfect again, but that didn’t happen. I did become a believer, because I knew that Jesus Christ was the only one who could fill the emptiness in my life. The only problem was that I was ashamed and embarrassed of my new faith. The pastor at the church gave me a Bible that I took back to the hotel but I was afraid that people would know that I was reading it. Although I believed in God, I did not want to leave the life I already had and I was still living to please my friends and coworkers.

Disaster

One day, after reading my Bible in secret, God told me to leave my job and lifestyle because it was becoming damaging to me and deep down, I knew I was not happy. He had better and greater plans for me, but I felt that I couldn’t give up the job I had. I was making good money and having a good time with all my friends there. I finally told God that the only way I’d leave the job is if there was a natural gas leak in the building.

Perhaps my faith was still weak, because I did not expect God to answer so quickly! Right when I tucked my Bible in a drawer and shut it, I heard a BANG and suddenly all the alarms were going off. A block fell off the 60 feet high ceiling, causing a gas leak. I didn’t know what was scarier—the gas leak, or God responding me so immediately!

Everyone evacuated the building, expecting it to blow up, and it should have blown up. But I felt I had to go back in and find another way to turn the gas off. Not allowing myself time hesitate, I ran back into the building, went down a huge tunnel, opened the toolbox and turned the gas off.

God spoke to me in a very loud way that day. He doesn’t always do that or need to, but he chose to do that with me. I gave up my job and lifestyle and followed Jesus, and the journey continues today. I have the privilege of coming up with different inventions and putting them on the market. It was a hobby that has now become my career. I found my joy, fulfillment and grace from God. I have forgiven my father, my stepfather and the man who killed my grandparents. I find my strength in Jesus and have a relationship with him. There is no denying that God is real. He gave up his Son on the cross to die for all my sins so that I could be his child.

Nothing is an accident

If you’ve ever felt as if life is unfair, you are not alone. Sometimes life doesn’t feel like it’s worth living so we seek out things in life that the world tells us to, such as money and pleasure. Your life is precious and you are not an accident. God created you and wants you to have the life and plan he has for you. You can know him and have a relationship with him through Jesus Christ his Son.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Amen.