Professional Hockey And The Bibleনমুনা

“New Testament Verse Helps David Booth Cope with Severe Concussion”

Philadelphia Flyers 5, Florida Panthers 1 (October 24, 2009)

There’s a natural level of shock that occurs when a hockey player is blindsided by an opposing player. But that feeling usually wears off quickly. After all, getting hit hard is just another part of the game.

But for David Booth, the brutal blow to the head he sustained from Philadelphia Flyers center, Mike Richards, was different. Booth, then playing for the Florida Panthers, was knocked unconscious and violently fell face first onto the unforgiving ice. After several frightening moments, he finally regained his senses and was eventually carted away from the rink. It didn’t take long for the team physician to diagnose Booth with a severe concussion.

“What followed was a very tough road,” Booth wrote in an article for Hockey Ministries International. “When you are an active person, halting everything to recover at home for 30 days feels boring and wasteful. Furthermore, I sensed that my life and career would never be the same after this incident.”

That’s when Booth turned to a New Testament passage to help deal with the uncertainty he now faced.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

As he sat out 45 games to recover, pundits and fans continued to talk about the play that is still considered one of the worst hits in NHL history. It took some time for Booth to get back to full strength, but he was healthy enough to play the following season and continue his career for another seven years with the Panthers, the Vancouver Canucks, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and most recently in the Eurasian-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

“Following that injury, I was the weakest I had been since the moment I started skating,” Booth said. “We don’t take pride in our weakness. We take pride in being better than others. However, I now can boast knowing that God’s perfect plan played out in my life. I had to rely on him for my emotional and physical strength. He was and is my source of joy. My value is based on his word, not on the world’s idea of worth.”