Faith and Sports: Waiting For A Championship-Patience.

The past month, it has been incredibly difficult to write. It’s a mix of the busiest sports month of the year and a bout of writer’s block that typically finds me right about now at the end of the football season. It’s hard to produce four quality pieces of writing a week for five straight months, especially when you are doing it as a hobby and not being compensated for it. This is an excersize in patience.

I use this site as a living Resume though, so I wanted to share a piece I wrote just recently for my church’s newsletter. It’s one that communicates where I am at right now, while also tackling the topics of patience and waiting for a championship in sports. I understand and respect that not everyone is Christian, and my least favorite type of Christian are those that openly broadcast it, I would never want to force my thinking on anyone else. Just not my style. That said, I just needed to put something out into the world. This gives me an opportunity to do that, please enjoy. 

Patience, patience is hard to teach. Waiting for anything is difficult. Especially if you’re young. I am young, oh so young, as I am constantly reminded by myself and everything around me.

In the church year, this is the time for patience. As we await the arrival of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. That wait is difficult. Christmas is a holiday loved by all young and old. To have to wait for 30 days is a lot of waiting.

It’s also a lot of uncertainty. The wise men came east not knowing exactly what to expect. Only to find a poor baby in a manger. All that waiting, for something that we can’t quite grasp.

I think that’s something we can relate to. So much of the future, for everyone, is unknown. We don’t know what to expect, or if things will change. We as humans are very good at being prisoners of the moment.

I know I certainly am. I have a very hard time thinking more than a month or two into the future because it as all so unknown. I bet that’s how the wise men felt, there was a power shift coming. King David clearly did not mess with this so-called king of kings that was being bought into the world.

The wisemen’s allegiances and roles were likely to change. So much of advent is about waiting. Do you know what else requires waiting, winning championships?

Oh god, does winning championships take time, sooo much time. It might take the Broncos another 30 years to win a title, but let’s not get into the ultra-depressing category in this church newsletter today.

Here is a list of some of the longest current championship droughts in sports.

Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Indians)- 75 years

Sacramento Kings- 71 years

Toronto Maple Leafs- 53 years

Detroit Lions- 50 years

New York Jets- 57 years (They also hold the longest playoff drought in the NFL currently at 11 years, fun fact if they make the playoffs this year, and guess what they might, the Broncos will have the longest playoff drought in the NFL at this7 years, this has been your Broncos sadness corner)

The country of Canada, hockey’s birthplace, has not won a Stanley cup since 1993.

It takes time. Life takes time, I am a 23-year-old who is slowly learning that. I wish life would move a lot faster, I wish I had the answers overnight. I wish I could win a championship tomorrow. But I can’t. And neither can anyone else, it takes time and luck and most importantly patience.