I wish I’d read this before I took Lucy on her last trip to the V-E-T. It would have made the ordeal easier. Not easy, but easier.

If you’re contemplating having your pet put to sleep, these are some helpful tips. The best advice I can add is to find a new pet, not to replace your lost love, but to be a new place for all your love to go. I recommend rescues, because they’re the most grateful and affectionate.

I have a prediction for the upcoming NCAA men’s college basketball tournament– craziness will ensue.

As for who will win it all, I have no idea. This year, I think there are a number of teams that are deep and talented enough, and I don’t see a runaway favorite.

I predict that some small underdog will pull off the monumental upset of the season over a highly favored big time program. This could finally be the year that a 16 seed knocks off a 1 seed.

I predict that 99% of all the brackets filled out will be all but busted by day two, if not week two. Probably including mine.

I predict that there will be some last second heroics that will leave some feeling elated and some feeling dejected.

I predict that a lot of people will be paying much more attention to college basketball and the aforementioned brackets than to their actual jobs.

I predict that a lot of people will spend a whole lot of time analyzing all the data and statistics, and the winner of the bracket will be the one who fills it in at the last minute and goes completely on gut instinct. Or possibly blind luck.

I feel safe to say that most of these predictions of mine have a good chance of coming true. As for the winner of the national championship, I’d say the team with the most amount of points stands the best chance of winning.

There’s a segment on The Wally Show on 88.7 WAY-FM called Monday School. It’s basically where Wally or one of the others talks about what they learned at their respective church service. It’s like Sunday School, except on Monday. Get it? Ha. Ha.

Anyway, I’ve been mulling over the sermon by Ministry Resident Hunter Melton. I’m about to give my own version of Monday School, although it will be more of my takeaways than the actual sermon itself.

Essentially, the gist is that Moses finally agrees to what God has been calling him to– speaking to Pharaoh on  behalf of the children of Israel to let them go out of slavery and bondage into the Promised Land.

Moses imagines that his faithfulness will be rewarded with favor and success. The only hitch is that Pharaoh doesn’t buy into Moses’ plans and not only doesn’t let God’s people go but makes life harder for them.

We often have the idea that faithfulness and obedience always lead to victory and success. The unspoken notion is that God physically blesses the faith of His people through wealth and good health. It’s known as the prosperity gospel. It’s also not always how God works.

Moses found out the hard way that obedience can often lead to greater hardships. Sometimes, the goal of obedience isn’t as much victory as dependence. Moses learned how to lean on the Lord when his dreams of easy victory evaporated.

God is often more interested in forming our character than changing our circumstances. What looks like defeat might be a preparation for a greater victory down the road. What looks like silence and inactivity on God’s part is God working in secret in places where we can’t see.

The most precious promises of God are often learned in the dark and in the valleys. The  sweetest moments of intimacy with God don’t come in the victories but in the defeats and discouragements.

Sometimes, obedience may actually make our circumstances seem worse off than before, but the difference is that we take our eyes off the circumstances and put them on the God who is always greater than any of our obstacles.

Many in the Bible were faithful to God’s promise even though they never saw it fulfilled in their lifetimes. Their hope wasn’t in better circumstances but in the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

May that be our hope in the days to come.

In case you missed the title of my latest blog post, it’s called “#2,784.” That means that I’ve written 2,784 of these things in almost 8 years.

I’m still not a fan of the word “blog.” It sounds like something that comes out when you blow your nose in the middle of allergy season. But I like the idea of being able to share what’s on your mind, whether it be deep and profound or just maybe what you had for dinner, which in my case was a very tasty gyro omelet from Athens Family Restaurant.

I saw an hour special honoring the late Billy Graham. I believe he stayed true to his calling because he stayed true to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He never wavered from it in the face of changing times and changing opinions. He proclaimed Jesus as the only way to heaven from day one way back in the 40’s to his very last crusade in 2005 to his last interview at the age of 99.

Officially, this is day 17 of my social media/Netflix/Candy Crush Saga fast for Lent. So far, so good. I think I only have 28 more days to go. Then I’ll have a lot of catching up to do on Netflix.

I also heard the Oscars are on TV. I’d much rather watch an old movie on Turner Classic Movies. I’m not opposed to the Oscars on any sort of moral or ethical grounds. I just prefer old movies.

So that wraps up another completely random blog post about a bunch of completely random things. And I still don’t like the word “blog.”

I still remember the first Major League baseball game I ever saw.

It was September 26, 1981 and I was 9 years old. The Houston Astros were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. I didn’t know much about baseball (or at least not as much as I do now), but I knew something special was happening.

A pitcher named Nolan Ryan had held the Dodgers hitless through 8 2/3 innings and was going for the final out and his record fifth no-hitter. When Dusty Baker grounded out to third base, the record was official.

Ok, I didn’t exactly remember all those details. I had a little help from Wikipedia. But I do remember thinking what a great game baseball could be.

I still think that Nolan Ryan is one of the best players ever to play the game– maybe the best pitcher ever. I recently found one of his Astro jerseys on ebay and of course I had to get one.

I confess that I don’t follow baseball as closely as I used to. I’m not as familiar with the players anymore and it’s hard to keep track of who plays for what team with all the free agency and trades.

I can say that once the playoffs get started, I’ll be paying much closer attention. I’ll be pulling as usual for my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals, but I’ll still wear my Nolan Ryan Astros jersey with pride, remembering that first ever game.