| My story is simple and uncluttered, probably because my life at that time was the same. I was a hockey player playing the game that I loved at the NHL level, so what more could there be in life? I was confronted with some incidents that placed my happiness on pause and directed my thoughts toward the future.
A friend in Washington D.C., committed suicide and our team had some dicey situations on different airplanes during a two-month period. For the first time in my first 20 years, I was faced with the question of Christmas.
I asked myself, "Is there a God, and if so, how can I know? If the plane crashes, am I going to be with God in heaven or not? Does scoring goals and winning games count?"
A teammate, Jean Pronovost, was the only person I knew who had a spiritual interest, so I asked him about the questions that I had. Pronovost bought me a New Testament and told me to go read for a while and then we would talk.
In those pages I found Christ. Jesus had been a dressing-room swear word, and now He was my hope for the future. I found that Jesus claimed to be the living Son of God and that each human being on this earth had to make up their minds about Him. I understood for the first time that Jesus had died on the cross for me, in my place, so that when I placed my belief and trust in Him I could become part of His family and have certainty of my soul's ultimate resting place.
Jesus knew that I had walked my own path apart from God for many years. My life was not perfect in word or deed, so I could never enter the presence of my perfect Creator without the covering of the perfect sacrifice -- Jesus.
He came into this world to live and die for us. I asked Jesus to be my only way to heaven, to forgive my stubborn sin and to give me His direction and His vibrant life.
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