the stars in Koh Kong, Cambodia on any other night
You do not have to sit outside in the dark.If, however, you want to look at the stars,
you will find that darkness is required.
The stars neither require it nor demand it.
- Annie Dillard
This is an introduction to Philip Yancey's book, Disappointment with God. Just received it from a dear friend as an encouragement. The implication is that God is there. He's always there. It's just that we need to learn to listen to the Spirit speaking to us, to shut out the chaos of the world and be attentive to that gentle whisper...
Conflict
Just a quick one about some verses that spoke to me and my current situation.
"When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." - Deut 20:1-4
This tells us that the battle is not ours to fight; it is the Lord's. We shall then have no fear, for how can the Lord lose any battle?
"When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace." - Deut 20:10
This verse spoke to me about my situation with my previous housing agent. Very summarily, what happened was that we had paid our rent regularly every Tuesday, and this was without fail till the end of our lease after 52 weeks. However after 49 weeks, the agent emailed us to say that they'd claimed our bond and we could stop paying rent. Of course I had to react to this for two reasons:
1. It looked bad on us to have our bond claimed. Since there was no ground for any claim, we had to defend ourselves from this.
2. If the bond sum was supposed to cover the remaining rent like the agent said, they had collected an extra $340 from us which we needed to get back from them.
There's other issues like the agents' incompetence and not picking up the phone and defecting on inspections etc etc.
Rather than fire off all my ammunition trying to make the agents look bad, my letter to the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) laid out the bare facts, objectively, and I made an offer to settle the matter simply (an offer of peace). This was to be the merciful act.
"If they refuse to make peace and the engage you in battle, lay siege to that city." - Deut 20:12
Since that letter, the RTA tried to call the agent and even left messages, to which the agent has brazenly and boldly ignored. The RTA has given us a form to apply to a higher tribunal for dispute resolution. The tribunal would have investigative powers. Further review will allow us to go to higher tribunals with more powers.
Time to lay siege then.
The caution is then in Proverbs.
"Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city."- Prov 16:32
This comes because I'm balancing between my father's instructions and apparent mercy. My father's instruction is to strike while the iron's hot, and give the agents no time to defend themselves (not to worry, since I have plain, non-defensible evidence). His intention is to go all the way in this and, after retrieving our money, continue to paint the agents in a bad light so as to deter future business to them and deal their credibility the fair blow.
Mercy, however, would be to retrieve what is ours, and leave the agents alone after that.
My ponderance is: is it up to God to deal with the agents? Or is it my place, since I'm a tenant, to shed light upon their unfair practices and bring it to the tribunal's attention? I would be the first tenant in the history of their dealings to actually bite back and take action rather than bow my head under their oppressive abuse of their contracts.
And the story continues...
