Few people have less control over the circumstances of their lives than young enlisted Sailors, especially ones assigned to a ship, and especially when that ship is on deployment. They describe the resulting confining feeling to me as “like being in a prison.” It isn’t just young Sailors, though, who can feel trapped by their circumstances, and this is one of those aspects of modern life where even self-described Christians live their lives in a secular almost atheist way: we forget that God is in control. Lots of jokes have been made about Jesus “taking the wheel,” but when you can’t control the outcome anyway, perhaps that isn’t such a bad idea. I don’t think it is.
Yesterday happened to be the 94th anniversary of the Boston Bruins’ 1st Stanley Cup Championship. Competition for the cup of Lord Stanley of Preston actually predates the existence of the National Hockey League. The Governor General of Canada for whom the cup is named donated it as an award to Canada’s top-ranked amateur ice hockey club in 1892. By 1906 professional teams were allowed to compete, but it wasn’t until 1918 that NHL teams participated. The Bruins’ first championship came in 1929—only the third year that competition for the cup was the exclusive territory of the NHL, though the cup itself still does not belong to the National Hockey League.
1929 was also the first time that both teams in the final series were American. The Bruins beat the New York Rangers, sweeping the series two games to none. (The best of seven format came later.) The Bruins were also the first team to win all of their playoff games in a season, a record that stood for 23 years until the Redwings did it in 1952.
Before you misunderstand me to be a Bruins fan, I should point out that although Boston had been to the finals seven times more than my Blackhawks (20 vs. 13), both teams have hoisted Lord Stanley’s cup in victory six times, so Chicago actually has a better win percentage. In fact, Boston added another finals loss in 2019, losing to the first time champions St. Louis Blues.
It looked, however, as if the Bruins would skate back into the finals in 2020 for another shot, but then COVID-19 came and no one was sure there would be a championship. There was, but Boston was eliminated in the second round by the eventual champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. This year the Blackhawks will be at home watching the Bruins make another playoff run.
One of the best things about sports is that you never know what is going to happen. It was the first, and is still the best, reality TV. While unpredictability and unknown outcomes makes sports exciting, in our daily lives it can be rather frustrating and cause a lot of anxiety.
It is an odd quirk of human nature that the things that tend to frustrate us most are the very things that we have no control over, and —worse—in our frustration we spend more time thinking about those things, which just increases our frustration. It’s a vicious cycle. I have no control at all over how long this deployment is going to last. I can either get stuck on that and be frustrated, or I can spend my time thinking about other things that I can actually do something about. I might concentrate on how the Blackhawks, though out of the running this year, are a better team historically than any other NHL team that isn’t Canadian (and by “Canadian,” I mean Detroit too). Focusing on the good.
Concentrate your time and effort on the things that you can control, let go of what you can’t, and you will find yourself getting far less frustrated.
LET US PRAY
Lord, we are always trying to take from your grasp the things that we have no power to control. Give us the sight to see what it is that we can change, and the wisdom to take hold of those things and leave the rest alone. It is the only way that we can change anything. Remind us that all things are under Your control because the Earth is Yours, and everything in it, and to You we give glory, thanksgiving, and worship always, now and forever, and to the ages of ages.
AMEN
An Orthodox Priest Abroad 