{"id":8601,"date":"2022-12-20T09:25:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T14:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=8601"},"modified":"2022-12-20T09:30:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T14:30:30","slug":"nhl-coach-and-two-time-cancer-survivor-brad-larsen-discusses-gods-greatness-and-humility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/12\/nhl-coach-and-two-time-cancer-survivor-brad-larsen-discusses-gods-greatness-and-humility.html","title":{"rendered":"NHL Coach and Two-Time Cancer Survivor Brad Larsen Discusses God&#8217;s Greatness and Humility"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8607\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8607\" style=\"width: 616px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/12\/brad-larsen-credit-nhl.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8607\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/12\/brad-larsen-credit-nhl-350x234.png\" alt=\"brad larsen\" width=\"616\" height=\"413\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8607\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NHL.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen recently shared an inspiring testimony of God\u2019s faithfulness throughout his life and NHL career. During an interview with the CBN\u2019s\u00a0700 Club, Larsen shared how his life changed after surrendering to Jesus Christ over a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay 22nd, 2011, I gave myself to the Lord! It changes your life, and for 30-plus years in my life, I had zero faith, and I didn\u2019t know who that God was and what that looked like,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo, you build your whole life of this, almost a facade of who you are or what you want to represent. And I\u2019m not that man, you know. I don\u2019t want to be that man anymore. So, change is required. To change, you have to change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Larson, a former hockey player and assistant coach, acknowledged that he is \u201cultra-competitive\u201d and wants to win every game, he practices humility by returning to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/john\/3-30.html\">John 3:30<\/a>, which says, \u201cHe (Christ) must become greater; I must become less.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9cAsMoJj0qs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Larson added that cultivating an attitude of humility is essential on his team,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www1.cbn.com\/cbnnews\/entertainment\/2022\/december\/2-time-cancer-survivor-nhl-blue-jackets-coach-looks-to-god-theres-nobody-tougher-than-jesus\">CBN News<\/a>\u00a0reports. \u201cHumility, again, is a word that keeps coming back. Humility means it\u2019s not about you. And in this world now, in this culture now, it\u2019s really hard to take the focus off yourself. You have the social media, and it\u2019s instant kind of feedback all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI share this with my players a lot; it\u2019s, \u2018Whose opinion matters?\u2019 You got to be really careful about that! Who\u2019s feeding you? And there\u2019s a lot getting thrown at them. Individual results, I need them because guys bring certain skill sets, but it\u2019s always about the team!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Larson also called Christ a \u201ccompetitor\u201d and \u201cthe ultimate warrior\u201d for His saving work on the cross. \u201cWhen I understand what Jesus gave up, what He went through, there\u2019s nobody tougher than Jesus. At any time, He could have brought in the cavalry and made it go away. But He didn\u2019t. It is incredible. When you think about the purpose that Jesus came and did it for. I mean, when you see that kind of love and grace, that grabs your attention!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before knowing Christ, Larson revealed that he had survived two battles with cancer in three years. \u201cI had an athlete\u2019s mentality at that point when I found out I was stage 2, almost stage 3 melanoma, you know, we were very fortunate,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd then a year and a half later, I had testicular cancer going into the playoffs, and it was on my daughter\u2019s first birthday, having surgery and went through radiation. We caught it early. It wasn\u2019t that I was thinking about dying; it was \u2018why am I here\u2019 and to understand, it\u2019s not about you!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone meets God at different points in their life, but it typically happens at their lowest point. When Larsen gave his life to God, everything changed. Everything starts to turn around when you stop fighting God and go with Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen recently shared an inspiring testimony of God\u2019s faithfulness throughout his life and NHL career. During an interview with the CBN\u2019s\u00a0700 Club, Larsen shared how his life changed after surrendering to Jesus Christ over a decade ago. \u201cMay 22nd, 2011, I gave myself to the Lord! It changes&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":8607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111,4,1007],"tags":[1797,1800],"class_list":["post-8601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-inspiring-messages","category-sports","tag-brad-larsen","tag-cancer-survivor"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NHL Coach and Two-Time Cancer Survivor Brad Larsen Discusses God&#039;s Greatness and Humility<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brad Larsen, NHL coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets, recently discussed how God&#039;s faithfulness carried him through his life and career.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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