A Hockey Player Saved

By Harold Smith

I have a story today about a professional hockey player who grew up in Toronto. He learned to skate at a very early age in that city, where hockey was quite popular. He soon made the semi-pros and not long after, became a professional hockey player. In 1955 he married a young lady whose parents were devoted Christians, so this hockey player came under the influence of the Gospel. It wasn't long after, his wife became saved, and the hockey player showed signs of concern, too. He attended all of the meetings he could, but sometimes he would be away playing hockey. It was during the 1968-1969 hockey season that he had the best record in Canada. He felt certain of a good year ahead, even though he was 34 years old. As the season opened, he lifted the paper one day and learned that he'd been traded to another team. The shock was so great, he thought "I'm not going". So he resigned and retired from hockey, and he started an evening college course, and he also was able to go to Gospel meetings. Well, he went to those Gospel meetings and he got really troubled about his soul. One Saturday afternoon, a friend spent two or three hours talking to him from the Scriptures about the Lord. He showed him that wonderful verse in Isaiah, Isaiah 53:6 - "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all". He could see from that verse and other verses that he was lost and he needed to be saved. He was lost and going to Hell, and he couldn't do anything about it. It seemed so difficult for him to be saved, he didn't really know how to be saved. He knew he'd turned to his own way, but he just couldn't grasp the truth of salvation. He was despaired at not being saved and threatened not to go back to the Gospel meetings at all. But reluctantly, he said, "I'm going to go". So he got ready and he shaved, and it was as he was shaving, suddenly he thought of the "all" in that verse. "All we like sheep have gone astray", he said, "I know I'm in the first 'all'", "but the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all". Ah, he saw it in a moment - the same "all" from "All we like sheep have gone astray", is the same "all" that the Lord Jesus died to save! Right then and there, he trusted the Lord Jesus as his savior. He went to the meeting that night, telling people that he'd trusted the Lord as his Savior. Have you trusted Him? Trust Him and be saved!