Here is it:
1979 Topps with a 2015 Original Stamp.
I
know these cards have spurred a lot of controversy in the trading card world.
Is Topps ruining old cards or bringing new life to what were probably
never loved cards? As a Brett collector, which looks at every card with a
distinguishing “manufacturer’s” mark as a different entry in the database, I
couldn't help but get this card, especially at the price that the seller wanted
for it.
Now here is my dilemma. Where should I put this card in the
database, under 1979 or 2015? Oh, if life choices were this difficult all
the time, think how much life would be easier. I went back and forth,
finally deciding that since it is a 1979 card, that's were it should stay, with a
notation of the 2015 stamp. For me it really wasn't a dilemma, either
choice could have been right and there really would have been no negative
effects from making either choice. Except maybe from the collectors that despise these
cards, but their beef would have been that I bought it in the first place.
I have been thinking a lot about words & phrases and their definitions lately. I
think the last blog made that clear. Dilemma is one of those words that
meaning has skewed a little of the years. According to merriam-webster.com the
simple definition of this word is a situation in which you have to make a difficult choice. But if you dig deeper in the definition, it really means that none of the choices are particularly beneficial, but the choice still has to be made, that what makes it so difficult. Most days choices
are pretty easy. What to eat, where to go, or paper or plastic (boy, I
must be getting old). In many cases, any choice that we could make, probably
would be a right choice. With dilemma we are always left wondering did I
make the right choice. A lot of times, in the short term, we are left in
a lot of doubt.
Eight
years ago I was left with a big dilemma. My wife and I had an almost 3
year old son and a little girl on the way and our lives got flipped around. I
work full time for the local music store (still do) and worked part time as a
music leader at the church that I was attending. I had been doing it for
two years and to say that my time there at that church was all rosy and cheery,
that would be a lie. That church was going through a lot of problems, and
my wife, who is one of the smartest people I know (I married up), could see it
and if I am being honest to myself, i could see it too. I had a dilemma:
stay there, continue getting paid, hold on to some hope that God had big
plans for the church that he just hadn't revealed yet, and be miserable or get out. Both choices were
painful for me. On one side I was getting a paycheck from them, there are people that
were there that I loved dearly, and I have a family that I need to support or on the other side, lose the money, lose a lot of the
security I had, lose a lot of dear friends, go find a new church and for the first time in my life not have
a church family. I decided to go with the first choice. I decided
to choose the decision that seemed the most logical. I'm a logical
thinker and try to make most of my decision very logical without putting much
emotion into it, sometimes this drives my wife crazy. But looking back, I made this decision strictly by emotion. "I can't lose
this money!" "What will happen to my family?" "Will we be able to eat?" "Will we be able to pay rent?"
All of these questions I answered emotionally and, looking back, very
selfishly. You see, there are two people that I never consulted about it.
One is my wife and the other more importantly being God. I
tried to hide the stress that I felt I was under from my wife (I am not a great
actor, so it wasn't hidden very well) and it put a big stress on our
relationship. But more important, I had turned my ministry into a job,
instead of turning my job into a ministry and left God completely out of all
decisions, because I wanted control of my life and my outcomes, no matter who
it may hurt. Well, as I have said in previous posts, God has a way of
sometimes taking the reins and screeching you back in the direction that He
wants you to go in. I use to say that I was relieved of my duties at
the church, but now I say that God put it in the hearts of those elders to fire
me, because He had bigger plans for me that did not involve that church.
God has done a lot of refining me over the last eight years.
I am nowhere close to being done, there still a lot
of imperfection. By God's grace and His discipline I look more
like him now than I did 8 years ago.
You might
have scratched your head with the title of this blog. I can't remember who said it, but "when life give you dilemma, make dilemonade."(Corny,
I know) If you are in Christ, there is a possibility that the
dilemma that you are in is strictly a time of God's refinement on your life,
that he is bringing you through a time of purification making you more like
Him, and it is called the Refiner's fire for a reason, usually there is some
pain involved. The only way to survive it, even if you
don't physically, is to know who has the "living water" and
bring sweetness to the sourness of life.
Well it's
late and tomorrow is church with the family that has been a part of my family’s
life for the last eight years. So it is time for this guy to go to bed.
Good night!
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