Last week, a long-standing dispute between our condo complex and the developers ended. After 5 years of embroiled emotions and disagreements, we accepted the best settlement offer to date, although it is far from adequate.
The main reasons a small majority of homeowners decided to settle:
*Developer Defendants have proven their ability to delay every step of the way as long as they can
*This would be the last offer before the Appellate Court's verdict, 12-16 months from now
*This was the best offer we received
*To fund another trial, homeowners would front the cost ($1-2k/unit)
*Unknowns about the judge and jury for the next trial
*Potential appeal of next verdict - thus delaying any winnings perhaps another 5 years
*Possible required payment of Defendants' legal fees
The hardest pill to swallow is not that it will cost us $10-12,000 for special assessments. It's not that we've lost 3 years enmeshed in the U.S. legal system with little to show. It's not that our property value decreased or that the best system in the world does not always produce justice.
It comes to this: the clause in the settlement deal that expunges the public record of these grievous misdeeds, injustices, and frauds. Those found guilty do not carry any evidence of infringements and violations of our trust. The stains of these years are erased and beyond a check, no evidence remains of the shady deals and cosmetic fixes.
The pain is still new and the repercussions are still unknown. I cannot extend Grace to these people who betrayed our trust in order to pocket profit. I don't know if I really ever can, but I know that God covers over my stains, my heinous offenses...
Today, all I can be is Thankful, because I cannot be Gracious. By His Grace, perhaps some day.
(Matthew 6:25-34)
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
So, I choose to not worry today.
Interesting that the passage you quoted is one that has been on my mind for a number of weeks, as I too am struggling to make the choice to NOT worry, to NOT be afraid, to trust the direction God has given me and to step out in faith to follow it.
ReplyDeleteAnd grace takes time. Sometimes lots and lots of it. And that's okay. Because we learn and grow along the way. When we finally, by God's miraculous working and flowing through us, are able to extend grace, we experience anew God's grace to us--and it's a beautiful and amazing thing.
For what it's worth, I am sorry for the injustice. It most definitely isn't fair or right or good.