Frankenpod
My tripod broke. I have a DSLR camera and love photography (thanks, Dad), so I’ve had the same tripod for a while – quite a while to be exact. I sort of fell in love with it. It’s very sturdy, full size, has every feature you could ever need, is almost infinitely adjustable, and so on. The problem was that roughly a month ago, a locking mechanism on one of the legs cracked. The result was a leg that was not dependable and a tripod that could not be relied on to support my camera. Thus started my search for a new tripod.
Ebay is the catchall of replacements for everything old. True to its reputation, I found the exact tripod – new in box no less. I ordered it and it arrived on Monday. I opened the box, and that’s when the disappointment began.
One of the legs of the new tripod was cracked in the same place as mine had cracked. Further, the baseplate you mount onto your camera was missing for the new tripod. I had a “new” tripod that had the same problem, and worse.
Never one to give up and undaunted by sketchy fix-it schemes, I came up with a solution. I replaced the cracked leg on the new tripod with a good leg from the old tripod. Second, I removed the whole head assembly on the new tripod and again replaced it with the old assembly that had a workable baseplate. I now have a “Frankenpod”, but it works correctly, albeit a bit worn in some places.
What does this have to do with us or with policy? I find that I often feel like that old tripod – a bit broken and in need of repair. I expect a “silver bullet” to fix all my problems, but it never seems to happen that way. Instead, God takes parts of my life that are old, worn, and just not right for His purposes, and He replaces them with something new. I end up being a mishmash of new and old parts that have seen a lifetime of use, but God knows what He is doing. He’s using a fallen person to fulfill his role/purpose in this life.
This is often also like policy work. We can craft an elegant bill that addresses an urgent need, only to find out that parts are just wrong or have been left out. Then the process of rewriting, amending, problem solving, etc. begins. In the end, we do have a workable bill; in some sense, a “Frankenbill”. However, the final bill we’ve created is far better, stands a higher likelihood of making it into law, and will ultimately serve the people of North Dakota in a superior way over the coming years.
The danger in all this is to hang onto that old tripod or old life or broken bill. It feels comfortable. However, none of them will ultimately serve the purposes for which they were intended, and in fact, may cause significant harm.
It’s hard to let go, no matter how broken something is, but God promises to fix it. Let Him work on the broken pieces, no matter how skeptical you may be. In the end, you may deem it inelegant, but it will ultimately fulfill its purpose. We are all in some way Frankenpods, but that’s OK, as long as we are fulfilling our purpose in God’s grand plan.