It’s safe to say that I can’t pick a winner in the NHL playoffs this year. 

In fact, if you want to know which team is going to win a particular round, it‘s best to pick the team I don’t want to win. 

Sometimes you just can’t pick a winner and that’s how I am right now. 

If we were drawing straws, I would draw the short one. I feel if I was flipping coins to see how many heads would come up, right now most of the coins would turn up tails. 

Have you ever had a feeling that something was going to happen and then it did? Well, that’s foreign to me at this particular time.

Do you remember when you were a kid at Christmas and you were hoping, hoping, really hoping for a certain toy to be under the tree for you? Then you got to the last present and you were over the moon because you got just what you wanted? 

Well, that is not happening to me right now, and this feeling that whatever I get behind is going to flop, fizzle or fade is getting to be too much for me.

I kind of want to stay neutral; I don’t want to get my hopes up. I just want to coast along and go with whatever happens. 

With that attitude, you don’t bottom out emotionally. You can stay even-keeled and be unfazed at outcomes. Sure, you miss out on some of the highs, but you avoid the deep lows which are far more difficult to handle.

For me this started with the Toronto Maple Leafs exiting the NHL playoff scene really before it began. … They called it the playoffs but really the first round was to determine who would get into the playoffs. The plus side was that the Leafs were one of the teams battling to get in, while other teams didn’t even get that chance.

But that is a distant memory now. Since then, in every series, the teams I have been rooting for, and hoped would advance to the next round, have fallen flat. 

There have been teams I was glad to see ousted from the playoffs, but often in those series I was hoping for both teams to lose (as impossible as that was).

My latest two teams to go down were Colorado and Vancouver. I’ve never been much of a fan of either team, but I had watched some of their games and been impressed. I thought they were winners.

… Heartbreaks on both accounts: Colorado went down in overtime in game 7, after trading goals with Dallas in the third period. Vancouver – well, their goalie stood on his head keeping the puck out until 6 minutes left in the game, when one eventually got by him.

So who do you want to win the next round? Just ask me, and then go with the team I’m not cheering for. 

Here’s the thing: Life is hard to predict. You can make decisions, follow a direction that you think is best, only to find out it’s not leading you to the place you hoped for. That’s why it’s best to have a guide, a counsellor, someone with insight directing your way. God has given us a directional book in the Bible and He promises to give us the Holy Spirit to guide us through life. Don’t take gut-feeling chances with your life and future. Trust in God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What hope do you have that needs to be given over to God? Leave your comments and questions below.

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