In the fall of 1979, in Gainesville, Florida, I was walking down the street when a two-man foot race captured my attention. Being curious, I quickly joined the pursuit until I caught up with the trailing runner as he was trying to catch his breath.  Asking him what happened, he said he owned a health food store up the street and that the man he was chasing had shoplifted something from his store.

     “Hey,” I said, “If I catch the guy, will you give me a job?”

The winded man, already accepting defeat, looked at me as if I were crazy before responding, “Come to the store tomorrow and we can talk about it.”

The following day, being a hungry writer and desperately needing a job, I knocked on the door of his closed store. The owner stepped outside and it soon became clear that he didn’t have a job for me, but when I mentioned that I was having mystical experiences, he quickly pulled me off the street.  Locking the door behind us, he proceeded to warn me about the occult and Satan’s involvement in the supernatural.  I no more believed in Satan at that time than I did in fairytales.  Near the end of our conversation, the store owner handed me a book and said, “Read this.”

With the new gift in hand, I walked to the local university library.  Now at the second stop on my morning agenda, I searched their catalog for books on spiritualism. I was soon seated with a title in hand.  I finished the first chapter and without student credentials to check out the book, I looked for a discreet location to place it for an easy future retrieval.

At that moment, on that providential day and for the first time in my life, I had a book on the occult in one hand. In the other, for the first time in my life, I possessed the newly gifted book from the store owner.  Both couldn’t remain in my life. They were at war with each other. In one hand, I held the book on the occult; in the other—The Great Controversy.

 …and the rest is history.