Many times I heard the shouts urging me on to victory; many times I left a fight arena with a victory to my credit and with thousands of dollars to add to my bank account. According to the world’s way of thinking I should have been a very happy man. But my shipmates on the U.S.S. Mississippi and thousands of friends and fight fans throughout the country little realized that I was a defeated man—not a victor. How little the world knows of the heart’s longing!
Money and fame alone will not give peace to the heart. I have had both, but they never gave rest to my soul—never!
The records will show that I never lost a fight in the Navy while climbing the fistic ladder to the “All Navy Belt.” I made tens of thousands of dollars in the prize rings of the nation as I fought and defeated some of the “top notch” fighters in the game.
I heard the roar of the multitudes as the victory was acclaimed in prize fight fashion time after time, but only God knew how empty it all was. While the crowds shouted and the press headlined the news of “The Sailor, the Winner,” and while I enjoyed momentarily the flush of victory, still it all seemed empty. I suffered periods of depression which I could not understand at the time. With all the praise of the crowd, still I knew that deep within I had no peace of heart or mind.
The dearest girl in the world to me, my wife, and I often talked about God, and we would each pray. Like children lost in the dark, we would plaintively cry and grope, seeking we knew not what. While we had money, we would often send some of it to a church in Los Angeles, thinking that possibly this act of giving might help us in some mysterious manner; in other words, we were trying to buy peace and rest of heart and mind. It can’t be done.
Six years after leaving the ring, destitute of money (for the dollars had slipped all too quickly through my careless fingers), I found myself walking the streets of Long Beach, California, in great discouragement. My home life was crashing on the rocks that line the shores of sin. My drinking and gambling had broken the heart of my wife, and she threatened to leave me if I did not change.
On this particular day I was recovering from a drinking bout. Someone handed me a booklet entitled, “From Crime to Christ.” After a little hesitation, I opened the booklet and read of Dan McNally, alias Joe Kenny, No. 19294. This man was an ex-convict from the Missouri Penitentiary. It was a remarkable story of deliverance from sin through faith in Christ. The story deeply impressed me, and I determined to learn more of this deliverance from sin. I had to know more!
When my wife came home that evening, I suggested that we should go to a little mission nearby. I shall never forget my impressions as I sat in the mission on the following Saturday night and listened to the stories of those men. One after another, I saw men, most of them ill-clad and destitute of this world’s wealth, stand on their feet and, with a light on their face that made one forget the shabbiness of their clothes, tell of the redemption in Christ. One could not help but recognize the sincerity of the “twice-born men.”
While I listened to the testimony of those men, I said to myself, “If Jesus Christ can save these men, surely He can save me.” Without telling my wife, who sat next to me, or any other, I lifted my heart to God and prayed, “Oh God, if you can save these men you can surely save me, and I pray for Christ’s sake to have mercy on me and save me right now.”
Immediately I knew that a change had been wrought. I could not explain how it happened, but I felt my heart grow light and I knew that a heavy burden had been taken away. I was saved through faith in Jesus Christ at that moment, and I have never experienced the old sense of bondage again.
My wife was quick to follow me to the Lord, and we both found a joy that we had never known before. Today, by the grace of God, we are trying to tell the sweet story of a Saviour’s love to others. Drinking and gambling days are over and gone, for I have learned that the “husks” of this world cannot satisfy the hunger of the soul. The shackles of sin have been stricken from me, for which I praise God and His dear Son—my Saviour, Jesus Christ.