Lessons from a Losing Season
What Baseball, the Braves, and a Tough Season Can Teach Us About Faith, Hope, and Perseverance
I am a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan. This season, the Braves missed the playoffs for the first time since 2017. The biggest sting isn’t just the losing—it’s the hope and the letdown that came with it. The team entered the year with high expectations and talent, making the disappointment all the sharper.
I was raised in a home where we watched the Braves on TBS. As a kid, I witnessed them dominate in the ’90s and early 2000s: watching superstars like Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. In recent years I saw a return to glory: Freddie Freeman, Dansby Swanson, Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario, Max Fried, Charlie Morton—all part of the core that led us to the 2021 championship.
In Game 3 of the 2021 World Series, Travis d’Arnaud hit a homer off Kendall Graveman as insurance in the 8th inning (a 437-foot blast) for the Braves. That home run has always felt special to me—at the moment I was about to head to the stadium, my middle son, Knox, had a seizure and had to be airlifted. I believed somehow that homer was for him.
But this season, injuries piled up and the team never shook off a slow start. Still, they are my team. I am a fan win or lose. True sports fandom teaches you that allegiance isn’t built on wins—it’s built on identity, community, and loyalty.
As a follower of Jesus, I see seasons of life where things simply won’t go right. If it’s not one thing, then it’s another. Jesus is still in control—but singing victory when you’re at a hospital bedside is hard. Singing praises while you’re struggling doesn’t come easily. Faith means trusting the promise before you see the proof: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
As a Braves fan, I have hope that leadership can turn things around. But even if they don’t, they are still my team. They played their hearts out even when the playoffs were out of reach, going 11-3 to finish the season.
As a believer, I rest in a deeper truth: my victory has already been secured in Christ (Colossians 2:13–15; Romans 8:37–39). No matter how long the losing season of life lasts, I know and believe in the hope secured for me in Jesus. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16–17).
The Braves may win or lose, but in Christ the victory is certain. The future is bright—not because of wins or losses, but because my hope is secure in Jesus.