My dream back in 1969 as I headed off to college was not to become rich, but to make enough money that I could live in a mountain hideaway – I pictured myself someday sitting in front of a fire crackling in a moss-rock fireplace, with snow coming down through the pines outside the bay window, skis against the wall by the door.  To get there I was studying accounting to become a CPA and so to eventually open my own accounting firm in a nice little place like Aspen, Colorado.

Unfortunately for this dream I was plagued by “Purpose”.  I felt an emptiness when I thought of a job keeping track of people’s money so I could live a life of comfort and pleasure.  The feeling would come in my dorm room at the University of Denver at night and I’d shake my head in doubt.

I continued to go to church when I got to college – I grew up going to Sunday school and church.  But there, too, I began to question, “Do I really believe this stuff is true – that Jesus really is THE Savior of the world – true not just for me but absolutely true?  Or am I just going to church because I was brought up that way?  If I’d grown up in India wouldn’t I be going to the mosque or Hindu temple?”

During lone late night talks, reasoning and arguing within myself, I concluded that Jesus was real; he really died; he actually rose from the dead.  And I came to see the death and resurrection of Jesus as peaks towering over the ups and downs of history declaring loud and clear, “There is a God who gives a rip about us measly people on this earth!” 

But this led me to a conclusion I didn’t know what to do with.  If this is true, then it’s the most significant thing that’s ever happened in the history of the world and the most important thing that’s ever happened to me!

Sometime during the struggles of that first year at university a man named Don Orvis introduced himself to me in the dorm lounge.  He was a campus minister; his job was to introduce people like me to Jesus the Savior.  He visited me regularly throughout that whole year.  But I’d always put him off much like you’d put off a friend who keeps telling you you should see this doctor when you feel you’re perfectly well.

Finally, in the Fall of my sophomore year, I saw something I’d never seen before in my years of church-going.  I went to a Friday night meeting of the student Christian group Don Orvis led.  I saw in those students people who really acted like Jesus was the most important thing in the world!  They were excited about him.  They talked about him.  They talked TO him as people talk to a close friend.

On top of that, as I walked into the room where the get-together was held, I felt love, like a tangible thing in the air of the room.  When it was over I didn’t want it to be. 

Seeing what health was, I finally knew I didn’t have it.  I was ready to see the doctor.  I was puzzled, though, because if the doctor was Jesus, I thought I’d had him all along.  I believed that Jesus had died and that his horrible death on the cross somehow purchased my pardon before God.  I thought that that was all there was to it.  But after seeing those students I couldn’t figure out how to get what they had, or how to be what they were.

I found out at the next meeting.   The speaker was some 4th string quarterback for the Denver Broncos who happened to be a Christian (later my friends told me he was a lousy speaker).  But I was listening with ears attached to a hungry seeking heart.  He spoke about one thing I remember to this day – to really be a Christian is to declare Jesus Lord of your life.  As soon as he said that the light came on, the question was answered.  I knew that was it.

Immediately, while he continued speaking (I can still picture myself sitting cross-legged on the floor in that room bowing my head) I prayed, “God, take my life and do whatever you want with it, because you can do more with it than I can.”  He did. 

And that was the beginning of it all.