I'd get the question: "Hey, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
And it was: "An NHL hockey player".
That's all I wanted to do.
I remember just the anticipation... I loved to compete.
I loved the speed of it. I loved to score.
[Mike Fisher]
I grew up in Peterborough, Ontario.
Peterborough was a hockey town, so it was filled with hockey rinks...
balancing that with school and... church and family.
You know, hockey is stats-related, performance-based, and that kind of...
I think carried over, as a kid, into...
just trying to be a good kid.
At six years old...
I was about to go to school and I asked my mom if I could...
ask The Lord into my heart, and...
I still remember where, on my knees, prayed with my mom.
At six it's...
I don't know, like if you really understand everything, and you definitely don't.
But it's definitely a start.
I left home at seventeen.
I was drafted into the Ontario Hockey League, so I went away at seventeen and...
left family and friends, and the security of, kind of home church, and...
I was playing with 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 year-olds...
and I...
I struggled.
I was trying too much to maybe fit in and...
I was focusing for so long on what I can't do.
I can't swear.
Can't drink.
Can't have sex.
I can't do all these things and meanwhile, inside, I'm not...
I'm not focusing on that relationship, it was... hockey took over.
At nineteen...
I get the... I make it to the NHL, I'm making a great salary...
That's... I made it.
Made my childhood dream and everything was great on the exterior, but in the interior...
not good at all.
Yeah, I remember signing my first contract.
I was nineteen years old.
It's kind of a little bit unbelievable.
You know, that should have been... that's every kid's dream,
to sign a contract, and I remember going out that night
to a bar...
gettin' drunk...
making a bad decision, and...
waking up the next morning and feeling like the worst piece of crap
that... I could ever...
feel like.
There was a lot of inside feelings of...
a lot of different things, I was letting people down, I was letting God down, and...
trying to hide.
Trying to pretend like everything was great.
Still go to church, but maybe be hung-over.
Not really into it, but just putting up kind of a facade.
When I did a Bible study with my cousin,
who I was living with at the time, at the age of about 22,
I get to a scripture...
It's Luke 9: 23-25
and it says: "If you want to be a follower of me,
"you have to put aside your own selfish desires,
"shoulder your cross daily and follow me.
"If you try to keep your life for yourself you will lose it,
"but if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process?"
I remember that scripture just kind of...
hitting me, and that was for me...
because I'd...
reached my dreams.
I had money and... everything, and...
thought I was cool and...
just wasn't working, and I knew where the answer...
but I hadn't been looking for it in the right places, and...
through a process of...
just praying and getting in the Word with...
my cousin...
my life was changed, and...
for the first time I remember thinking: "Man, this is...
"this is really...
real".
It wasn't because of... my parents.
It wasn't because...
I was supposed to be in church,
but it became real to me, and...
It didn't happen overnight, but slowly God changed me on the inside, and...
I started to...
not worry about the dollars, but just focus on just pursuing Him and...
slowly, God started to just bring up stuff.
I started to confess...
things in my life that I wasn't proud of, and...
slowly, God just kind of released that.
It wasn't religion anymore, it was...
a real relationship.
And it was awesome.
[Over 14 seasons Fisher has overcome various injuries to forge a notable career in the league.]
[In 2012 he received the NHL Foundation Player Award;
recognizing commitment, perseverance, and teamwork on and off the ice.]
Game day, I still get goose bumps,
thankful to be able to do what I love to do.
I fail.
Definitely. I'm on the back end of my career.
I'm a guy that's kind of not very patient at times,
and I'm a slow healer.
But... I finally figured out that it wasn't just about performing.
It was just accepting His love
in spite of our failures and our mistakes.
That love of the Father is unconditional,
and that's a pretty good feeling... to know how much He loves me.
My name is Mike Fisher, and I am Second.
[I AM SECOND]