Thirty-eight years ago, on roughly this day of the month (I do not know the exact day), I had an experience, call it an encounter, a profoundly remarkable encounter that changed me and my life forever.  It was an encounter that undergirds everything I believe and do, guides and explains every part of my life and that, among many other things, leads me to contemplate and write this blog.
     Let me explain.  Thirty-eight years ago, in the wilds of Canada's Jasper National Park, after many years of wandering and wondering about the meaning and purpose of existence, I found the answer I was looking for, the answer that addressed and resolved all my questions and inquiries, the answer that then, now, and, I expect, forever, explains and encapsulates everything I need and want to know.
     In a remarkable flash of a moment many decades ago, I came to realize that in the person of Jesus Christ I had found--and continue to find--the fullest and most absolutely complete picture of what life and existence mean, in this life and the next.
     I share an excerpt from my book, Imagining Eternity:  A Journey Towards Meaning, in which I recount this moment, a moment at which I arrived after a lengthy and tumultuous journey of angst, quest, and adventure, a journey of revolutionary fervor, mountain sojourn, and countercultural glory, a voyage of what seemed like several lifetimes rolled into one (for details, you'll have to read the book!).
     At the end, however, I found what most mattered:  lasting meaning.  Here's the excerpt:

     "I couldn’t believe it.  Even as I talked, I heard everything in me answering “Jesus!  Yes!  Do it, do it!”  All my hopes and dreams, all my longings for meaning and meaningfulness, transcendence and eternity, purpose and destiny had come down to one word:  Jesus.  I was amazed.
     "I couldn’t resist myself.
     "'Okay, Jesus,'" I heard myself saying, slowly and carefully, “'I’m here, alone and apart.  I’m at your mercy.  You’ve finally got me.'
     "'I’ll stop running from you, Jesus.  I’ll stop ignoring you.  I’ll give you a try.  I’ll say yes.  Come to me.  I want you to.  Come now.'
     "The world didn’t come to an end.  No fireworks, no sudden surge of warm air, no exploding stars.  My clothes didn’t burn up, my hair didn’t fall off.
     "But things were different.  I knew.  Even as I spoke, I felt a tremendous release, as if a dam had broken deep within me and a rich and warm peace, like a new born river in spring, was flooding deeply and gloriously through me, filling every part of me, all at once, with a calm and serenity exceeding all I had ever known.  It was a calm that surpassed that of my most wondrous mountain days and nights, an incredibly brilliant tranquility of mind and soul that seemed to fulfill and answer the deepest longings of my heart, the deepest yearnings of my being, totally and forever.  I felt as if striving and struggling for meaning were no longer necessary, that in some amazing and mysterious way the vision was here, all of it.  I had found it.  Nothing more was needed, nothing more was required, nothing more was desired.  Everything was here.
     "'I’m free,'” I’m whispered, “'I’m really free.  Meaning, sweet and wonderful meaning, is finally mine.'
     "Something had indeed happened.  Without a doubt.  And I knew that it was not something I had consciously tried to create.  It had come upon me like a flash flood.  Total surprise.
     "Jesus was real.
     "No one was awake when I walked down the hill and returned to camp.  I entered my tent, crawled into my sleeping bag, and fell asleep.
     "I awoke to a cool and clear morning.  The mountains across the river still looked like multicolored crystals, sparkling beneath the dawning light.  The river was still flowing by, moving smoothly and easily to the north.  The world was as it had always been.
     "Then I felt my heart breaking.  I couldn’t believe it.  I had an overwhelming urge to read the Bible."

(From Imagining Eternity:  A Journey Towards Meaning, copyright 2008, William E. Marsh)