Best-selling author Malcom Gladwell recently shared that while writing his latest book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, he went to Winnipeg to visit a woman named Wilma Derksen. Thirty years ago, the Derksens experienced every parent's worst nightmare—their daughter, Candace, was abducted and murdered.

Gladwell was amazed by something that Wilma said at the time: "We would like to know who the person or persons (who murdered Candace) are so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people's lives." She continued, "I can't say at this point I forgive this person," but as Gladwell noticed, "the stress was on the phrase at this point." As he writes, "I wanted to know where the Derksens found the strength to say these things … Where do two people find the power to forgive in a moment like that?"

The answer was their Christian faith. It's a power that Gladwell, who grew up in a Christian home, was familiar with but had gotten away from. As he put it, "I have always believed in God. I have grasped the logic of the Christian faith. What I have had a hard time seeing is God's power." Sitting in Wilma Derksen's garden, he saw that power. He realized that "the louder claims of material advantage" and life's and the world's ideas about power had him looking in the wrong places. Seeing God's power in action led him to rediscover his Christian faith.