Patience precedes all great things in life. It is only through patience that we achieve anything impressively large, bigger than ourselves, lasting, powerful, or useful. We all want to be a part of greatness, yet not all are willing to endure the patience it requires. Patience is by definition the capacity for waiting; the ability to endure waiting and delay without becoming annoyed or upset; or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties. We live in a world of immediacy. Waiting is not tolerated. If we get annoyed just sitting at a red light, imagine the struggle to wait on the bigger things in life. We can start learning to wait with the little opportunities we have each day like standing in the grocery line, waiting at practice to master a new skill, or sitting in traffic.

Baseball is a game that can be dominated by a pitcher. It seems that no matter how well a hitter prepares for a game, if a pitcher is “on” and executes his pitches, there is really nothing a hitter can do. Many times a hitter will try to “step out” in order to disrupt the rhythm of the pitcher. Or, in other situations where a pitcher is dominant, the hitter may try bunting in order to get on base.

There is a great Peanuts comic strip that shows Lucy about to catch a fly ball. At the last minute, she loses sight of the ball and misses it. Lucy turns to Charlie Brown and says that she is sorry, but the “past” got in her eyes.

It is easy to let past mistakes get in the way of a good performance. We remember what we have done wrong at the worst time in our lives and end up making the same mistakes again. Then we begin the cycle of rehearsing that mishap over and over in our mind.

As a Christian, instead of letting the past get in your eyes, turn your eyes to the present and to the possibility of doing things the right way. Remember, you are a new creation in Christ and you don’t have to keep making the same mistakes.

In reviewing results from New Year’s road races this year, I noticed a few that were prediction runs. Unlike typical road races, the awards in a prediction run do not go to the person with the fastest overall time or for an age group. The winner in a prediction run is the one who finishes with the time closest to what they listed before the race started.

Hockey Chat:  When you’re on defense, one of the worst things you can do is let your opponent stand in front of your net waiting to tip the puck, get a rebound, or just screen your goal tender.  Detroit scored buckets of goals against Colorado in 2007 doing just that and swept them right out of the playoffs.  You cannot let that guy stake his position there.  It takes work to get him away but if you let him stick around, he’s bound to cause trouble.

Hockey Chat:  One of the greatest things about winning the Stanley Cup is that each member of the winning team gets to spend a day with the cup.  They get to have all their friends over to show it off personally.  They get to share the great reward they have with everyone.

“Do you have fire in your belly?” was a question I often heard from coaches. It was never intended as a question, but as a challenge to play harder. Coaches want to know if an athlete has the passion and determination to play with a competitive edge. As an athlete, I never had others’ natural ability, but I did have the fire in my belly—a hustle, grit, and tenacity to get the job done—whatever coach asked of me.