Study of Job 13:18

Now that I have prepared my case,

   I know that I would be vindicated.

 

The newest version of the most popular baseball cards came out this week. I collect Astros and their cards from this set. However, it looks like the costs of the cards I like has outpaced my understanding. The lone Astro’s Rookie Autograph in the set is going for over $150 already with eight days left and one of the prospects is over $400 and my budget for either was going to be no more than $100 for the lot. I feel like I can do math, but my mind is boggled.

‘Prepared my case’ was also ‘ordered my cause’ and ‘laid out my case’. ‘Now’ was also ‘indeed’ or a change in case to ‘I am preparing’.

‘Would’ was also ‘shall’ and ‘will’. ‘Vindicated’ was also ‘in the right’.

My brain tells me that some day I will be able to buy these cards for less than they will be bought right now. Of course, I have been waiting for cards from 20 years ago to pop up at low prices, and it doesn’t happen very often. Baseball cards is just a hobby, and the idea is to have fun for less than you are willing to spend, but I think it also shows me that other things that are expensive right now are not worth buying either.

One of the concepts behind making changes to your house is whether you will be able to recoup the costs when you sell. The counter to that is that maybe you will enjoy the change enough to justify the cost itself. We bought the pool and both hot tubs on this basis. We enjoyed them or are, and that is why we spent the money.

The best thing about my baseball card collection is that I do not do it to impress anyone. Yes, I have at least one card worth more than I paid, but on the whole it has been about the experience and not so much the value or the popularity. JR Towles and Mark Appel have key spots in my collection, but neither of them, for all the hype around them, are worth much now. Not to mention Jacob Nottingham who even fewer have heard of.

The funny thing about Job today is that for however right he may have thought he was, and for however justified by his reward for God for suffering so, in the end, he still was a sinner like the rest of us. In all my want to follow God, I fall short and have to continually ask for forgiveness. I know I sometimes get things right, but even so pride in myself is still missing the mark. Job had some pride, but don’t we all?

Written 5/10/24, Posted 8/8/24, Job 301