This is The End.

     OK, that's a little melodramatic. 

     But it's the end of the Blogspot site. As of today, January 31st, 2018, Act II Ministries is transferring its efforts over to a new and more powerful and accessible website, 

www.act2ministries.net .

      With the growth of our clientele, and the speed at which the Rapture is approaching, and thus the desperate need for saving as many people as we can before the Great Tribulation, we've been led to upgrade to a more accessible website, one that's easily found on the web, and one that we can do more than just write a few notes to you occasionally. 

     On act2ministries.net, we can not only post separate blogs for our Christian entries and our football related information, but there's also a stand-alone store for featuring our novels and non-fiction for download or purchase. In the future, we're also hoping to give you a chance to catch up with what's going on in our local ministry work, and any world events that may give us a clue to how imminent the Second Coming might be. (Spoiler alert: every Biblical pre-cursor sign has already happened. Nothing else has to happen before Christ comes to collect us all, although there are a few things which could happen before the Rapture - resumption of Temple worship services at the site of Solomon's Temple, for example. It won't have to be inside a new Temple, by the way. It might simply be at the Western Wall...)

     In the meantime, this site will remain open for the foreseeable future. I don't know how much of the material from the 2016-18 life of this Blogspot site needs to be transferred over, and if it's just as useful simply to link to it or not. The new site is up and functioning, but there are still bugs and incompleteness in it that I need to continue to work on over the next forever or so. (That's just how websites work, in my experience!)

     We want to thank Blogspot for their exemplary hosting of this site - and not just this site, but its predecessor, God, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, which ran for a couple of years in 2013-15, and the original Following Football website, which ran a bit longer and was folded into Act II when this one started. (They also hosted our community bulletin board site for GPS MUSIC | Jerome back in the days when my late wife and I were trying to make a go of it selling my comps and arrangements on line.) We've been with Blogspot a long time, in computer years, and they've literally never failed us. 

    But it's time to go for broke - step out of our comfort zone and try to reach out beyond where we've been comfortable before. 

    Most importantly, thank you, loyal reader, for sticking with us through thick and thin, through "think" and "thank". We hope you join us over on the new site - and then that you'll join us Up Above, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to pick up His Select Few to save us from the Tribulation the rest of humanity will be forced to bear. 

     We love you.

Coincidence in the books of Esther and Ruth

The two most "random" books in the Old Testament (IMHO) are the two short stories named after their strong, heroic female protagonists, Esther and Ruth. I say "random" because neither of the books "advances our knowledge" overtly, nor do they give us any significant "historical information" as the rest of the histories do, nor, for that matter, do any laws or proclamations come down from on high (except for a key one from a pagan king in the book of Esther which only applies during that story).

In fact, both books are obviously inserted as interludes, for a change of pace in the midst of some heavier material on either side. The book of Ruth takes place at the same time as the Judges ruled over Israel, although no specific year is described in the book; it follows the highly depressing book of Judges and precedes the long history of David and the other Kings of Israel. Meanwhile, Esther takes place during the period of Babylonian captivity, and thus makes a nice change of pace from the failings of the initial forays back to the Holy Land and the long, wordy Book of Job.

Both books are part of the five-book Megillot, along with the preachy book of Ecclesiastes, the semi-erotic Song of Songs, and the somewhat depressing book of Lamentations. Each of the five festivals celebrated by traditional Jewish communities includes a reading of one of the "Five Scrolls"; Esther, for example, is always read at Purim. They're also the only two books in the Bible named after women, for what that's worth.

But here's what I find fascinating about both books: neither of them specifically includes God. 

Oh, He's mentioned briefly in Ruth here and there, but He makes no actual appearances, nor does He play any particular role (except that the laws of the Jewish culture the scenes play out amidst are His). And He literally does not appear in the book of Esther; not once is the Lord's name brought up.

However, the Lord does play a very important role in both stories, and it's the same role He plays in most of our stories as well. It's a much more relatable role, too - I don't know about you, but I've never had God part any bodies of water for me, nor has any prophet ever performed any miracles (and the Lord knows I could use a good miracle cure for my TAM!). But I recognize His appearance in these two books because I see those appearances in my life as well:

The Lord shows up in the books of Esther and Ruth in the role of coincidences. 

Ruth is the daughter-in-law of Naomi, who moved to Moab with her husband Elimelech and her two sons when the famine in Israel got too severe for them. Ruth and another Moabite woman named Orpah (fun fact: this is who Oprah Winfrey was named after, but her mom flipped the letters on the birth certificate!) married the two sons, but both of them (and their father) were killed somehow - Scripture doesn't say, and it's not important to the story. After a stirring speech saying how she won't abandon her mother-in-law, Ruth travels with Naomi back to Israel.

Coincidentally, Naomi's hometown is Bethlehem Ephathrah. When Ruth goes out to "glean" in the fields (pick up after the harvesters, as Mosaic law allows the poor to do), she coincidentally happens to select the field of Boaz, who not only coincidentally happens to be Naomi's nearest kinsman redeemer (well, second nearest, but that's not important right now), but also just happens to be the son of a foreigner himself (Rahab, from Joshua 2) and is thus sympathetic to Ruth's plight. Long story short, Ruth and Boaz end up getting married, having a son, and that son ends up as the grandfather to David, the Goliath-slaying king of Israel and (coincidentally) in the family tree of Jesus Christ.

Esther is chock full of similar "random happenstances" - there just happens to be a vacancy in the king's boudoir, and the young Esther is forced into "auditioning" to be the next consort to the king, which she just happens to win. Meanwhile, her cousin and guardian Mordecai just happens to not only become an enemy to the egotistical right-hand man of the king (Haman), because he doesn't treat him with toady-like deference, but he also just happens to foil an assassination plot on the king early in the story. The push point in the story occurs when Haman decides to do away with Mordecai by getting the king to issue an extermination order to all of "Mordecai's people" (i.e., the Jews), which unbeknownst to both the king and Haman includes Esther as well.

There's an unusually blatant coincidence when Haman gets asked by the king what he should do to celebrate a man who was of great service to the king and had not been properly recognized. Thinking the king meant him, Haman launches into asking for a parade and a robe and the whole nine yards, and then has the rug pulled out from under him when it turns out it was Mordecai the king was planning this for. So in a made-for-sitcom moment, Haman has to do all those things he'd named for his mortal enemy. The climax of the story comes when Esther (having to step up and stop this order to save her people, because coincidentally she became queen for just such a moment) hosts a dinner for the king and Haman where she confronts Haman with her accusation and reveals that she, too, is of Mordecai's heritage. While the king steps out to get the guards to take Haman away, the sniveler tries sniveling to the queen for mercy, and of course just happens to land on top of her, so when the king returns it appears as if he's assaulting the queen on top of his other crimes.

Why do I bring all of this up? Why my sudden obsession with coincidences?

Because for most of us, coincidences are how God manifests Himself in our lives, too.

Look, life in 21st century America - or wherever you're reading this - isn't usually filled with talking burning bushes or folks turning water into wine. But I can testify to the remarkable number of times that God has made a check appear in my mailbox at precisely the time I most needed it, even if I had no idea that a check was en route. I can tell you about how a "hunch" led me to take the scenic way home, and that detour either saved me from a traffic snafu or brought me alongside something or someone I needed to see (or who needed to see me). I've written this very month about the choices of listening material made for me by factors above my pay grade which probably saved my life during bouts of desperation over my failing health.

God isn't averse to doing BIG THINGS once in awhile, even today. Miraculous cancer cures still occur. Donald Trump became president. The Western Bulldogs won the Grand Final.

But far more often, He operates on our scale. Remember, we have a high priest Who was us for awhile. He understands what the power of a small miracle can do for a life.

As my best friend constantly reminds me (her sticky-note is staring me in the face at my desk right now!), Coincidence is just when God remains anonymous.


(But, then again... Who else COULD it be?)

"I don't have a death wish...

...but I'm willing to go Home if I can take a truckload of you Home with me."

Those were Richard Ellis' closing words in his Thursday radio sermon, and they resonated like crazy with me. "I'm tired of this. I'm tired of sin. I don't have a death wish, but I have no objection to going Home..."

And that's how I'm feeling these days. This disease is slowly killing me, and I can't seem to find a way to retire without losing an income source. I don't have all that much time left in any case - either God will bring His Children Home very soon, or this condition will knock me out of the game soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to process how I'm supposed to make it between my cessation of work and the end of the five-month moratorium when the powers-that-govern would finally deign to consider whether or not I'm disabled enough to retire or not.

On top of that, there's the matter of medical insurance to consider. Once I stop working, my medical coverage ceases. Thankfully, I'm not a cancer patient or something else that requires constant medical attention, but I am on twenty pills a day, meds that would cost me about my monthly paycheck each month without insurance. 

I've expressed my frustration with my current teaching position - after a delightful career doing all sorts of good for eager students, I'm spending the last few terms of my career supervising parolees rather than teaching at all. Meanwhile, it exhausts me to do so, and I lose all quality of life with my children or fiancee after a day of teaching, assuming I made it through the school day at all, which ofttimes I don't.

The question becomes, why am I still here? 
However... what if I can't leave?
And...is there any third alternative?

My pointless re-shuffling of the FBS conferences!

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the national playoff system and how unfair the conference set-ups are. Power Five conferences can't decide on whether having eight conference games or nine is the better set-up; Group of Five conferences complain that they can't get a fair shake no matter how many games they play in or out of conference. Should you have a conference title game? Should you not have that "13th data point"?

And most pressing of all: scheduling parity. How can you fairly determine the two/four/eight/sixteen best teams if they play such disparate schedules? If Alabama plays, say, Mercer, instead of a ninth conference opponent, is that fair? Is it equitable for Ohio State and Oklahoma to play an early season high stakes game, knowing that seeing a straight number (or, God forbid, a squiggly one!) in the loss column spells doom for your playoff chances? If UCF or Boise State or any other G5 school has eight or nine games required against other G5 schools in their own conference, how could they possibly play a schedule of comparable difficulty to, say, an SEC or Pac-12 school?

There is a solution. It will never be implemented, and there's no point in even elucidating reasons beyond the single word, "money". But it's fun to consider, so here we go! 

Welcome to the SBAC - the Smarter Balanced Athletic Conferences! I've divided the 130 FBS teams into fourteen conferences of 9-10 teams each. (I tried having 13 conferences of ten, and that may still be the better plan, but I struggled to make the alliances coalesce.) Each conference has at least four Power 5 teams in it, and at least four Group of 5 teams in it. (There are exceptions: one with three P5 but some strong G5 teams in it; three with three G5 teams but several weaker P5 schools.) The travel costs have also been brought back in line - West Virginia is not in a Texan conference; C-USA no longer stretches across the country.

Each conference will play eight conference games, four home/four road. (The ten-team conferences rotate each year which teams fail to play each other.) The other four games on the schedule may contain no more than one FCS school, but because that's the money that allows some of those programs to survive, I don't want to wipe those off the board completely. There are various other restrictions we could add to those non-con games, such as requiring one true road game or ensuring that the G5 schools get real games, but those are for down the road.

Now, eliminate the conference title games. Instead, play a 16-team playoff bracket: fourteen conference champions, plus two wild cards determined by committee (which is how all the other divisions do it anyway). I would allow the other schools with six wins play in bowl games, personally - if you want to call the first round bowl games, like we do now with the CFP, fine. But only eight teams will play more than 13 games in a season now (this season, 13 teams played more than 13 games in the FBS). Four will play 14, two will play 15, and the two finalists play 16. They'll survive. The FCS schools like North Dakota State and James Madison seem to do just fine. 

Without further ado, here are my conference breakdowns:

NEW ENGLAND CONFERENCE: Army-West Point, *Boston College, Buffalo, U-Conn, U-Mass, *Penn State, *Pitt, *Rutgers, *Syracuse, Temple. (5 P5, 5 G5 schools.)
OHIO CONFERENCE: Bowling Green, Kent State, *Indiana, Marshall, Miami-Ohio, *Notre Dame, Ohio U, *Ohio State, *Purdue, *West Virginia. (5 P5, 5 G5 schools.)
GREAT LAKES CONFERENCE: Akron, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, *Michigan, *Michigan State, *Minnesota, Toledo, Western Michigan, *Wisconsin. (4 PF, 5 G5 schools.)
MIDWEST CONFERENCE: Ball State, Cincinnati, *Illinois, *Iowa, *Iowa State, *Nebraska, *Missouri, Northern Illinois, *Northwestern. (6 P5, 3 G5 schools.)
MID-ATLANTIC CONFERENCE: Appalachian State, East Carolina, *Kentucky, *Louisville, *Maryland, Navy, *Virginia, *Virginia Tech, Western Kentucky. (5 P5, 4 G5 schools.)
CAROLINA CONFERENCE: *Duke, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, *North Carolina, *North Carolina State, Old Dominion, *Tennessee, *Vanderbilt, *Wake Forest. (6 P5, 3 G5 schools.)
PLANTATION CONFERENCE: Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, *Clemson, *Georgia, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, *Georgia Tech, *South Carolina, [Liberty upon ascension]. (4 P5, 5-6 G5.)
PANHANDLE CONFERENCE: Central Florida, *Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, *Florida State, South Alabama, South Florida, *Miami-FL, Troy. (3 P5, 6 G5 schools.)
DEEP SOUTH CONFERENCE: *Alabama, *Auburn, Louisiana Tech, *Mississippi State, *Ole Miss, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe. (4 P5, 6 G5 schools.)
GULF COAST CONFERENCE: *Arkansas, Arkansas State, Houston, *LSU, Rice, *Texas, *Texas A&M, Texas State, UT-San Antonio. (4 P5, 5 G5 schools.)
LONE STAR CONFERENCE: *Baylor, North Texas, *Oklahoma, *Oklahoma State, SMU, *TCU, *Texas Tech, Tulsa, UTEP. (5 P5, 4 G5 schools.)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE: Air Force, BYU, *Colorado, Colorado State, *Kansas, *Kansas State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, *Utah, Utah State. (4 P5, 6 G5 schools.)
CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE: *Arizona, *Arizona State, *Cal-Berkeley, Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State, *Stanford, *USC, *UCLA. (6 P5, 3 G5 schools.)
NORTHWEST CONFERENCE: Boise State, Hawai'i, [Idaho], Nevada-Reno, *Oregon, *Oregon State, UNLV, *Washington, *Washington State, Wyoming. (4 P5 schools, 5-6 G5 schools.)

Trying to balance conferences is a futile task. I tried to look at a program's history and potential - for example, the Panhandle conference only has the three Power Five schools, but it's hard to look at FAU, FIU, UCF, and USF and not think that's going to be a powerhouse conference. Similarly, the Carolina conference may have six P5 teams, but Vandy and Wake and Duke aren't exactly powerhouse programs. I'm worried about the California conference doing what the Pac-12 already does - cannibalize itself - but with our playoff format, that won't be as important. Every conference has a rep in the playoff. Simple. 

So, out of curiosity, what would this have looked like in 2017? 

Our fourteen champs and two wild cards might have been (in the order above) - Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Clemson (+Georgia), UCF, Auburn (+Alabama), LSU, Oklahoma, Kansas State, USC, and Washington.

If we went by the CFP committee final rankings, then we'd have these seedings:

#1 Clemson v. #16 Kansas State
#8 USC v. #9 Penn State
#4 Alabama v. #13 Northwestern
#5 Ohio State v #12 LSU
#2 Oklahoma v #15 North Carolina State
#7 Auburn v #10 Washington
#3 Georgia v #14 Virginia Tech
#6 Wisconsin v #11 UCF

...and then do what you want with that tournament. (Here's something to debate, though: Auburn would have been the Deep South champion, right? They defeated Alabama. Would they have to therefore have a higher seed than the Tide? Or would you be ok with the wild card Alabama being seeded higher than its conference champ Auburn?)

But every team has a shot at the tournament: win your conference, and you're in. Local rivalries flourish, balanced schedules raise all boats, and with four non-con games, you can still have your OSU-Michigan rivalry games and so forth.

In a more realistic vein, the argument for an eight-team playoff actually gained some traction in my mind this bowl season for the very first time - I've been a four-team proponent forever, unless you're going to go the route I just went and have it match every other sport in intercollegiate athletics! But if you go to an eight-team playoff, and then guarantee six of the spots: the five Power Five champs, and the Group of Five highest ranked team. Add in the next two best teams, and I'll go for that. It does the essential thing that my system does: it guarantees every team a SHOT at the title. Maybe UCF doesn't beat Auburn, and then Georgia, and THEN Alabama. But wouldn't it be interesting to find out if they could? Some years, that G5 team goes out in round one. Let the Power conferences laugh. But so far in the CFP years, those G5 teams are 3-1. Since the BCS era began, the G5 teams are 7-3 against the big boys in the major bowl games, plus another win and loss when the cowardly BCS committee had two "BCS buster" teams (TCU and Boise State), so they scheduled them against each other so none of their precious major conference teams would be beaten by these undefeated powerhouses. (For the record, BSU beat the Frogs, 17-10, in a hard-fought game that should have scared the other big boys.)

And that is why you're not going to see that expansion for at least a few more years. (The current format is contracted for six more years, by the way.) The money can only be split so many ways before the haves complain about having to share with the have-nots. Just look at the Congressional tax scam bill to see the proof. But if they were subject to the NCAA the way every other sport and every other division was, something like my plan would have been implemented a long time ago.

So, I'll continue to dream of the day when everyone has a fair shot. The teams and even the conferences in the FCS may not be equal, but every team has a chance to win the national title. (Except the Ivy League. They're too good to associate with the peons who keep playing in December.)
Central Connecticut State plays in a really weak league, the Northeast Conference. Their ELO-rating of 55 would be last place in four other conferences in the FCS. But they won the NEC, so they get to go to the national tournament and give it their best shot! Can Troy? Can Toledo? Can Boise? Heck, can UCF?

No. Not under the current system. There are 65 teams in all of collegiate and professional sports which have literally zero opportunity to win its championship. They're all the Group of Five teams in division 1 college football. Every other team in every other sport is at least theoretically eligible to be the champion (barring specific ineligibility issues, like rules violations). Is that fair? Of course not.

Let's give the SBAC a try! Or...at least, let the G5 champion have a shot at the title!

Romans 8:28 may not apply to YOU...

One of the best-loved verses in the entire Bible is Paul's proclamation to the Romans at the end of the first half of his epistle to the believers in that great city. What we call chapters one through eight of the Book of Romans is a lengthy argument for Christ's overcoming of the Mosaic Law - that is, the fact that by coming to earth, leading a sinless life and then accepting our deserved punishment for the many sins each of us commit in our lives, Jesus of Nazareth [the Christ, the Messiah] replaced much of what the Jews of the day followed from the time of Moses forward, meaning the laws specified in the first five books of the Bible (the "Torah", as it were). 

When we accept Christ's sacrifice as payment for our sins, and allow Him and the Trinity (God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to become the Lords of our life, says Paul, we are essentially dying with Christ on the cross (he says this more explicitly in the book of Ephesians, by the way). And once we have died as men and women, we are reborn as children of God. Well, the Law only applies to those who live, goes his reasoning, so we are no longer subject to the Law. 

By the way, this would become a huge issue for Paul as he dealt with the Jerusalem-based Christians, led after a few years by Jesus' half-brother James (who has his own book in the New Testament, by the way). James and Peter and many of the "original" apostles wanted to make Christianity an offshoot of Judaism - and in fact, the Romans saw the Believers as a "Nazarene Jewish sect", generally - while Paul and his followers understood Jesus' desire to bring Him to all the world, Jews and Gentiles alike, without the restraints of the Jewish rites and restrictions handed down on stone tablets. It's what led to Paul's assault upon his arrival in Rome near 60 AD, whereupon he appealed to the Emperor (as a Roman citizen by birth, he had that right), and was eventually shipped to Rome (read the last few chapters of the book of Acts for all of this sometime - it's as harrowing a tale as anything Homer ever wrote!), where he would preach the Gospel for a few years before being killed by Nero for being a Christian *which is all the crime you needed in those days.

Back to the topic of this post.

In the concluding chapter of this argument, chapter 8, Paul tells us that God is always with us, because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, speaking to God for us in groans and whispers when we're not even sure what words to use. Eventually he'll conclude in Romans 8:38-39 with the grand statement that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Before that, however, an even more hopeful statement is expressed in verse 28 - the thought that no matter how terrible something seems to be, it's in God's Hands and so it's going to be all right:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

The essence of the sentence reads, All things work together for good. That sounds wonderful! ALL things that happen, God makes into part of His Tapestry of Life, a tapestry which from verses like Jeremiah 29:11 we know are plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Even if you accept that we may not see some of those positive things until we arrive in Heaven, that's still a wonderful promise! 

But what does the rest of the verse mean? Well, we know that "for those who love God" means "Christians", and "for those who are called according to His purpose" are God's Elect - also, essentially, "Christians". 

So, Romans 8:28 whittles down to, We know that all things work together for good for Christians.

Great. Soooooo... um, what about everybody else? What does God say about you, non-believer?

NOTHING.

There's nothing in this epistle that says that anything "works together for good" for you, or "works together" at all, for that matter. In fact, it's a safe venture to say that to whatever extent things "work together" for a non-believer, it's because Satan or his little buddies are knitting their own little Handkerchiefs of Death, and are stitching in a starring role for you. Yay?

In fact, in the very next verses following his dramatic declaration in 8:38-39, Paul expresses how different the outcome is for Christians and for those who fail to accept Christ as their personal savior - this is Romans 9:1-3 (I'm using the NLT for a change, because it's the clearest on this point):


With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.



Think for a minute about what Paul is truly saying here. 

He understands how incredible what he's saying sounds, because despite the fact that no one ever doubted Paul's truthfulness, he feels the need to spell out the veracity of what he's about to say: "With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness" should be more than enough, but he continues with "My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it", thereby invoking two-thirds of the Trinity in his declaration. Does he have your attention yet?

He goes on to explain, after eight chapters of detail as to why the Jewish Law is a failed method to reach God, to express his "bitter sorrow and unending grief". For whom? For "MY people". Remember, Paul is - or, was - a Jew among Jews, as it were. Listen to him describe his credentials to the Philippians in Phil 3:4-8 →

 If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

So, it's his tribal family he is defending and grieving over - but more than being a Hebrew, Paul is first and foremost a servant of Christ. So, look what he offers to save "his people", knowing full well what it is he's giving up: "I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them."

Not just "cut off from Christ" but an eternity in Hell itself! THIS is how strongly he feels about saving the people he loves! Paul understands the catastrophic consequences of the decision he's making - because he's willing to trade one life (his own) for thousands of lives of his Jewish brethren.



So, let's sum up what we've learned in Romans today:

What happens to the Believers? Let's see: for US, everything in this life, good OR bad, works together to improve our existence here... and then when we die, we get to go to Heaven!

And...what happens to the non-Believers? Well, whatever happens on earth during our lifetime is happenstance (at best), and then we die and spend eternity separated from God in Hell. 

          It just doesn't seem like that tough of a choice, y'know?

Let's move to football for a change...

...Briefly in American, but then we'll dive into the upcoming Australian seasons, which start for both men and women in February.

Against the Vegas odds, the NFC's top-seeded Philadelphia Eagles have made it to Super Bowl LII (or 52, for you non-Roman speakers!) to face the AFC's top seed, the defending champion New England Patriots. Vegas, of course, once again favors the Pats, this time by six at the opening.

ELO-Following Football lists the game as a four-point Patriots victory, and personally I would take the Eagles if you're going to get anything much more than six points. Here's why: in all of the previous New England/Belechick Super Bowls, win OR lose, the game has always ended within one score: 

XXXVI	Feb. 3, 2002	Superdome (New Orleans)	New England 20, St. Louis 17
XXXVIII	Feb. 1, 2004	Reliant Stadium (Houston)	New England 32, Carolina 29
XXXIX	Feb. 6, 2005	Alltel Stadium (Jacksonville, Fla.)	New England 24, Philadelphia 21
XLII	Feb. 3, 2008	University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Ariz.)	New York Giants 17, New England 14
XLVI	Feb. 5, 2012	Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis)	New York Giants 21, New England Patriots 17
XLIX	Feb. 1, 2015	University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Ariz.)	New England Patriots 28, Seattle Seahawks 24
LI	Feb. 5, 2017	NRG Stadium (Houston)	New England Patriots 34, Atlanta Falcons 28

So I'd take the Patriots in a range of three to seven points: if it gets as close as three, bet the Pats, and if it gets as wide as seven, bet the Eagles. 

As for Australian footy, the women start their second season of "big time" AFLW game, in the heat of the late south Australian summer. Last year, the Adelaide Crows won the title by defeating the minor premiers, the Brisbane Lions. This season, the same eight teams will battle in Feb/Mar for the second title, and as one Crows supporter puts it, "We always win our titles in twos!". (The last men's premierships were back to back in 1997-1998.)

In fact, I have Adelaide winning both the men's AND women's titles this season. Here are my projections for a possible order (keeping in mind that Richmond went from 13th last year to a title last year, so anything is possible!)...

AFL Men: Adelaide                       AFLWomen: Adelaide
                       Geelong                                                     Melbourne
                       Port Adelaide                                            Western BD
                       Sydney                                                       Brisbane
                       Melbourne                                                GWS
                       Richmond                                                 Carlton
                       GWS                                                           Fremantle
                       Essendon                                                   Collingwood
                  Collingwood
                  Hawthorn
                  St. Kilda
                  Fremantle
                  Brisbane
                  West Coast
                  Western BD
                  North Melbourne
                  Carlton
                  Gold Coast

Basically, on the women's side, I don't see a reason for Adelaide to fall back, although Melbourne's good enough to overtake them and it wouldn't astound me. Brisbane's loss of Tayla Harris will be a big problem for them, and I don't see them going unbeaten again. The '17 Western Bulldogs had the critical metric indicator of huge growth next year (an abnormally high scoring percentage), so I see great things ahead this year for them, and the GWS Giants have picked up some good off-season recruits and should improve significantly. I just don't see enough growth from the rest to merit predicting anything spectacular from any of them; Carlton is the best of the lot, though. 

For the men, I have many more metrics to go off of, and they all call for Adelaide to be the best of the bunch this year. Port and Geelong are close but don't have the close-knit experience together that the Crows do. Sydney's forecast hopes that the last part of the season is really them; Melbourne's hopes their last part of the season really isn't. GWS keeps losing talent, and it won't surprise me to see them take a step back; it wouldn't astound me to see them make prelim finals, either. As for the number eight-slash-sacrificial lamb spot, I've chosen Essendon on the basis of not just metrics but the gut feeling that they've got that "something" that allows them to win the close ones at the end - and I don't see that from Collingwood (who could very well simply win their last five to close to ninth once they're no longer eligible for finals) or Hawthorn or the Saints. 

As for the rest? Fremantle could very well put it together and make finals - I actually would be less surprised to see them make finals than the three teams right above them. Brisbane will be what Gold Coast was in 2014 or the Giants in 2015 - that young team starting to put it together. How quickly they do is what'll determine their final position, but I'd be surprised to see them go #18 to #8 in one year. West Coast and the Bulldogs are fading fast; North needs another year to put it together, and Gold Coast isn't showing any signs of ever putting it together. Carlton's the enigma - they feel like they're losing ground, not gaining it, and the metrics all agree. But it looks from the outside like something's brewing in blue, and even though I'm no CFC fan, I would love to be wrong with this pick.

Between light and dark, life and death...

It's been a strange dichotomy, my life over the last couple of months. My health is deteriorating, and four times over the last fortnight I've felt the devil pushing me towards closing up shop: pain, disorientation, or other manifestations of an illness I feel like I can't fight any more. and four times the Lord has held my hand and helped me through the trial, reassuring me that there's more to my life still to come that will make it worth staying and fighting through the misery.

And on the other side of the coin, there's an engagement to my wonderful partner Dana, with a wedding and a new home together planned for June. We spent much of yesterday discussing logistics, while at the same time I feel like my insides were trying to tear me apart. It was a miserable feeling: trying to be positive about the future when I can't conceive of making it to the future at all!

On top of all of this, I'm still completely convinced that the Lord's Return is imminent - my expectation is sometime in 2018, but it's God's timing, not mine. So my planning for this year is - well, difficult, to say the least.

Jesus told us to continue our lives "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage," while we await the Rapture. (Mt 24:38) And hey! I could be completely wrong about the timing: perhaps He won't return this year, or this decade, or even in your lifetime! I made the argument in this article why I believe it cannot be very far off, but that's just my opinion. In the meantime, I have the love of an amazing woman who wants to share whatever portion of my life remains with me. Why would I turn that down?

I did, originally. And I'm still not sure whether it wasn't the right response.

In November of 2016, about a week after the election or so, I broke off our relationship for a very selfish reason. I figured that because I wasn't likely to live very much longer, it would be unfair to burden her with my failing presence in her life. But that wasn't my call to make. It's hers. And she's told me time and time again that she understands the situation, and that she'd prefer to be with me and know what I'm going through and help me through it, rather than not know what I was going through and be constantly concerned for me without any way to help. And I knew that feeling - it was how I felt about Melissa for twenty years, while she was out of my life. Dana's a grown woman; she had the right to make her own decisions.

We reunited in February, and I ("finally") proposed last month, on Christmas. And now, I'm the one who is constantly concerned for me, although my fiancee has been very, very good about taking my condition into account. I'm mostly concerned about two aspects of my health when it comes to the wedding, reception, and move to a new home: my constant fatigue, and my introversion.

My fatigue is nearly constant now - just sitting at my desk this morning has been exhausting, which frustrates me tremendously. How can I handle another move from one house to another? (Answer: lots of friends.) How am I going to make it through a wedding and reception? (Answer: I don't know, but we're going to make it as short and sweet as we can.) And what if I have another introversion attack on the wedding day? (Answer: we'll deal with that if it occurs.) God doesn't give us more than we can handle, so if this is God's Will, then I must assume that I'll have the capability to handle it.

But what if it isn't God's Will?

That's where my concern came from last November: I'm not sure at this point whether the Lord is for or against this union. Certainly He brought Dana into my life for all the good that she has done for me, and since it was through me that she came to the Lord, I've done some good for her as well. But every time I introduce the concept into a plan of action, some sort of impediment seems to crop up - my children vehemently object, I fall into horrific pain or dizziness or fatigue (or introversion), and so forth. It seems so blatant that it's a definite message; what I'm trying to get myself to believe is that it's from the adversary, not the Lord.

What to do? I'm going to follow General Patton's advice. "If it's not necessary to make a decision, it's necessary not to make a decision." As long as I'm not overwhelmed by my failing health at any premature point, I intend to go forward with the wedding plans, keep preparing for and awaiting the Rapture, and continue trying to set an example for my fellow Christians and non-Christians; that is to say, living as Jesus implored us to live - in prayer, in the Word, and in my continued quest to fulfill His Great Commission.

Because now, more than ever, it's imperative that we bring as many of God's potential children Home before it's too late.