"Grace is never ending. . . and redemption doesn’t often come as quickly as we wanted it to come."

That's a pretty summary of the Christian life from a recent interview with G.P. Taylor, the former "all around sinner" turned policeman, vicar, and bestselling author.

A couple of other choice bits:

• "The clergy take themselves far too seriously. I think we’ve got to learn to start thinking how everybody’s taking a piss on us behind our backs, and that we are quite humorous characters."
  
• 
  "I’m not in a position of power. I’m in a position of weakness, and vulnerability. If God wants to take this all away from me, He can. And, having been very ill over the last year, I realize how fickle life is. So I would never deem to put myself into a position of power. Power is quite a negative thing, and especially for me as a Christian."
  
• (on how his former life--as a teenaged runaway and police officer, shaped his ministry.)"It showed me that nothing is clear-cut. There were a lot of gray areas in people’s lives, and that God is a God of gray areas. I’m an evangelical Christian but it’s broadened my theology to show me that God often operates ninety percent of the time outside the church, and ninety percent of the time He uses non-Christians rather than Christians."
  

For more from GP Taylor, check out this Dick Staub interview from last year.

Or, wait till next fall, for the book on Taylor's life to come out.