Dag Hammarskjold served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until his death in 1961. He brokered ceasefires, negotiated hostage releases, and managed Cold War tensions that could have ended civilisation. But the most important moment of his life, by his own account, happened on a bus.
An Ordinary Commute
Hammarskjold didn't write about which bus, or which day, or even which year. He recorded the experience in his private journal, "Markings," which was only discovered after his death in a plane crash in Africa. What he described was a moment during his daily commute — sitting among strangers, watching New York pass by through the window — when he became aware, with a certainty he couldn't explain, that his life was not his own.
Not in a frightening way. In a liberating one. He wrote: "I don't know Who — or what — put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal."
The Most Powerful Man's Quietest Moment
What makes this extraordinary is the contrast. Hammarskjold was arguably the most powerful civil servant on earth. He had access to presidents, prime ministers, and kings. He could have pointed to any number of dramatic diplomatic moments as defining. Instead, he pointed to a bus ride.
He Never Talked About It Publicly
The journal wasn't meant for publication. Hammarskjold never mentioned this experience in interviews or speeches. He processed it privately, letting it shape his decisions without performing it for an audience. The man who mediated between superpowers had his own inner negotiation settled on public transport.
What This Means for You
If the Secretary-General of the United Nations can encounter God on a commuter bus, the setting doesn't matter. Hammarskjold's "Yes" happened between stops, between meetings, between the noise of a day that was probably already overbooked. You don't need to schedule an encounter with God. You just need to be open to the question when it arrives — even if you're not sure what the question is.