Quest

AJ and I met during our freshman year at MHS. We were in the same study hall and our friendship developed through out that first semester. AJ came from a hunting and camping family. He could play guitar and wrote some of his own material. My background was citified with no musical talent what so ever. Our common ground was founded on a love of good books and the joy of a good debate. During lunch hour and after school we would spend hours in friendly arguments that ranged from politics to the environment to finally religion.

AJ it turns out was an atheist. In my short life he was the first person I had met who professed a disbelief in the existence of God. As for myself I was born and raised in the Catholic church. Upon reaching high school I had begun to question some of the tenants of my religion I never questioned the existence of God. Rather than driving a wedge into our newfound friendship our different religious backgrounds allowed us to have many spirited but friendly debates on the subject.

AJ was by his own description somewhat of a Darwinist. He believed in evolution and natural selection. He professed that the only explanation for the existence of the universe was the big bang. His favorite subjects were all scientific in nature. Upon graduation he planned to go on to college and study medicine with the intention of becoming a doctor.

However as often happens on the road of life, the best-laid plans have a way of swerving off course into entirely new directions. For AJ the slow approach of change began in our senior year.

For most of high school AJ had been an all books no nonsense type of guy. His focus had prevented him from becoming seriously involved in any social activities including dating. That was before he met Teri.

AJ and Teri found themselves in the same class first semester of our senior year. They began spending time together at school. Studying in the library, eating lunch under one of the oak trees and saving seats for each other before school events. AJ was smitten and it appeared that love would soon be blooming. That was before fate played its trump card.

Prom season was just around the corner and AJ planned on attending and asking Teri to be his date. One obstacle remained for the hopefully so to be happy couple. Through out the many hours of conversation during our senior year they never once discussed religion. When AJ finally asked Teri to the prom that proved to be the topic that would make our break their relationship.

Teri has it turned out was a Jehovah's Witness and regardless of her personal feelings her parents would not allow her to date outside of her religion. She explained that the prom was to soon for him to be accepted. But if he began to come to church with her they would eventually be able to date.

AJ had always been sure of his beliefs when it came to God. He was also an honest and trustworthy person who would never deceive someone just to go out on a date. So I was sure that her ultimatum would be the end of them. I was wrong. AJ explained to her that he had never believed in God but that he would keep an open mind and attend church with her. True to his word he began attending church, going to bible study and spending time with her family. AJ and Teri eventually began dating and all was right with the world. Their relationship lasted for several months but as often happens with young love they eventually grew apart and went their separate ways.

Surprisingly though his time spent attending Teri's church had not been wasted. AJ developed a spiritual thirst and without conscious thought set out on a personal spiritual quest.

Several months after AJ and Teri broke up he met Samantha. They began dating and he began attending church with her and her family. Sam and her family were Mormon's and they welcomed AJ with open arms. Sam and AJ went to youth group activities together. They studied the Bible and the Book of Mormon. But AJ had just begun his quest and he was not finding all the answers that he thirsted for. Eventually Sam moved on and so did AJ.

Sean who was a mutual friend of ours was Roman Catholic like myself. However while my family had kept their relationship with the church strictly in the pews Sean's family was involved in all aspects of the church. They began inviting AJ to bible studies and to their parish for Sunday mass. Sean and I had begun attending mass with a youth group at our college and AJ was soon tagging along.

After several months of being ministered to AJ with his newly discovered belief in God decided to commit to the Catholic Church and was baptized. Sean's mother and father were his godparent and no one appeared to be happier about this than AJ himself.

However, AJ had not quite reached the end of his journey on the road less traveled. There were still a few surprises in store for our former atheist.

During this period of religious growth AJ was attending the university working towards becoming a doctor. His grades were good and upon graduation he was planning on going to medical school. That was before he met Mary.

With Mary and AJ it was love at first sight. She lived next door to his mother's house and they began spending time together. Mary belonged to a Non-Denominational Christian church and AJ began attending with her whenever he spent the weekend with his mom. Slowly but surely his beliefs once again began to evolve. While his newfound belief in God was solid his roots in the Catholic Church were young and questioning. He began to find himself more at home in Mary's church than his own and soon he became a full time member.

Not to long after AJ joined Mary's church he gave me a call. We met for dinner and had one of our usual debate filled conversations. Before long we slipped into a discussion about religion and the role it had played in our friendship and most importantly in his life. ThatÂ’s when he dropped not one but two bombshells on me. Bombshell number one was that he had asked Mary to be his wife and she had accepted. Bombshell number two was that after much though and prayer he was abandoning his dream of becoming a doctor and going to the seminary to become a minister. After I picked myself off of the floor I congratulated him on his good fortune in finding someone like Mary to share his life with and I told him that I believed he would be a great minister because he had traveled a long and varied road to reach this point in time. And that the experience he had lived through would only increase the empathy he would have for his flock.

That was twenty some odd years ago. AJ is the pastor of a fairly large church in the Midwest. He and Mary are still married and they have four children two of their own and two adopted. To listen to the man today you would never know that once upon a time he was a fourteen-year-old boy who professed to be an atheist. Life is nothing if not full of surprises.