Jack Parr
— Peace
Come to Me all of you who are weary and over-burdened and I will give you rest! Put on My yoke and learn from Me. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rests for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
I leave behind with you — peace; I give you My own peace and My gift is nothing like the peace of this world. You must not be distressed and you must not be daunted. John 14:27
May the God of Hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole outlook may be radiant with hope. Romans 15:13
Problems, anxieties and fears come to all of us. And there are just three things that we can do about them: (1) Try to relieve the pressure through anger, profanity, alcohol, drugs, and the like. (2) Bottle up everything inside. (3) Bring all the problems, anxieties and fears to the feet of Jesus and leave them there.
I have spent most of my life employing method number 2.
I had problems at home but kept them to myself. I had concerns in school and anxieties about my athletic career too. But I put on a brave front and said nothing.
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To make matters worse, I was overconscientious by nature. If the pot boiled over on the stove during dinner, I blamed myself for not taking it off the flame in time. If I got a B instead of an A in a subject, there was simply no excuse. And if our team lost a basketball game, the fault was all mine.
Success brought me no relief from tension. If we succeeded, I knew it was not because of my efforts. I tried extremely hard to live a good life. But I was always failing to meet my own high standards.
Long after the other boys had gone home following basketball practice, I stayed on, dribbling, shooting, rebounding. And late at night I'd come back and talk the janitor into unlocking the field house where I'd keep on practicing until 1 or 2 A.M. until I could hardly see the ball for weariness. In spite of this, I found it difficult to sleep. And when I did doze off, I'd wake in the morning as tired as when I'd gone to bed.
The pressures reached a climax in my senior year at college. I was taking a heavy load of subjects in pre-med and my marks were suffering. The chief reason was the long hours of basketball practice. Kansas State was ranked first in the nation in 1958 as we prepared for the big trip to Louisville to compete in the NCAA finals.
Sports Illustrated magazine predicted that if Jack Parr went to Louisville with the Kansas State team, we would win. As it turned out, we lost both games and in my mind, there was only one person to blame: myself.
I went back to college and a short time later suffered a complete nervous breakdown and was placed in a mental hospital. In severe depression and a frenzy of frustration, I tried to commit suicide. I cried out for God but I had made basketball my god and basketball couldn't help me.
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In these black hours, I was visited by a minister from the University. At first all I asked was, "Why did this happen to me? I've always gone to church! I've tried as hard as I know how to be a Christian!" Then, little by little, I began to see the difference between "trying hard" to be a Christian and just "being" one through faith in Jesus Christ.
It wasn't sudden. I had a lot to think out. But in the hospital I had come to the end of my own resources. And this is always the place where Christ can be found — if there is a will to find Him.
I was in the hospital ninety days, a comparatively short period for a nervous breakdown. But Christ was already doing His wonderful work in me as I learned to give over to Him my anxieties about what people would say, my concerns for the future and all the other fears.
I went into professional basketball the year I left the hospital. I played with the Cincinnati Royals and enjoyed every minute of it. When I wasn't on the basketball court, I found myself reading the Bible more and more or discovering some of the rich treasures in devotional literature.
That same year I met the girl I was to marry and realized more clearly than ever how important it was for me to know Christ. I wanted Him to be the head of our family.
Since those trying days in 1958, I have come to know what it's like to lie down thoroughly tired and sleep soundly all night and wake refreshed. The difference is Christ and the peace He brings.
The Bible teaches that Jesus came to establish peace between God and man. The cross became the "bridge" over which men could walk and with their sins left there, enter into the presence of a holy God.
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There is no peace like peace with God. It reaches to the center of your being and changes everything. No wonder Jesus could bid a cheerful farewell to His disciples with these words, "I leave behind with you — peace; I give you My own peace and My gift is nothing like the peace of this world."
Prayer
Dear Lord, I thank You for the coming into this world of Your Son Jesus. I thank You that He lived and died on my behalf that I might experience forgiveness of sins and know a new life, freed of anxiety. Amen.
Jack Parr was an All-American basketball star at Kansas State University; played with the Cincinnati Royals and then worked in the sports equipment business. In 1958, KSU played Kansas and as the game clock ran out, Jack Parr swatted away a shot by Wilt Chamberlain, sealing the victory for Kansas State. Advisory Council, Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
