Called! A Longshot's Story

Book excerpt: This delayed coming-of-age story intimately recounts Gordon Postill’s life from 1970–1980, a decade that pivotally shapes how the rest of his life will unfold. Initially a story of failure, self-loathing, addiction, and deceit, it’s ultimately a story of grace, faith, hope, and transformation. After a three-year debauched romp of sensual delights, he flunks out of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1970, and over the next several years becomes increasingly dispirited, feeling irreversibly mired in existential despair, promiscuous sex, ignominy, and jobs ranging from nickel miner to security guard. But in October 1976, he receives an astonishing call to ministry. Jaw-dropping serendipity subsequently enables this long-time non-churchgoer to enter seminary eleven months later as a candidate for the ordained ministry. Trusting his call to ministry, even in times of immense self-doubt and debilitating anxiety, sets in motion an unexpected restorative process. A wide array of blessings along with his significant personal growth wondrously culminate with this longshot’s ordination by the United Church of Canada in May 1980. After thirty-five years of fulfilling ministry, primarily as a hospice chaplain, he retires in November 2015 to care for his beloved wife, Robin, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Personal, transparent, and engaging, Called! A Longshot’s Story will inspire and warm hearts, evocatively prompting readers to truthfully examine their lives through their own spiritual lenses, and hence might come to realize some additional faith and hope, courage and clarity, gratitude and generosity which had previously eluded them. Game on!