Cursed is the One who Trusts in Man

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This is the verse that has been running through my mind like a digital alarm that I can’t seem to mute. Cursed is the one who trusts in man. In Spanish “cursed” is translated maldito. Damned.

Today was the last day for local municipal campaigns. Roads were blocked. Political parties were engaged in their last ditch effort to garner votes. A lot of “favors” were given, received, or promised.

As some of you may know, we’ve been engaged in a rather lengthy (over a year and a half) and frustrating endeavor to get several basic services at our church property. Because of the nature of this process I haven’t published a whole lot here on this blog, but have written many of you emails, asking for prayer.

I was sharing with a friend several days ago that one huge advantage we have in this whole process is that we as a group haven’t gotten dirty. We haven’t done anything illegal. We haven’t sold out our principles in all of this, haven’t made an under-the-table agreement, manufactured an apocryphal document or dealt in doubletalk. Indeed, we are an anomaly.

We have been encouraged to become more involved in the political process, and indeed I have personally done so. But to a point. What do we want? Simply that the law be fulfilled. That basic services guaranteed under the constitution be provided. All we want is water and electricity.

I received a phone call today, and then a text, saying that the municipality has now agreed to install both water and electricity. Elections are this Sunday. Will the promises made today extend to after these heated elections, when we find out who the next demigod, otherwise known as the municipal president, will be? I hope so.

But in the process, I personally have learned something that perhaps I knew before, but that I know experientially now. I am going to do my best to put what I learned into words. It might take a few paragraphs.

There are voices out there, voices offering a quick solution to your problem, wanting you to take short cuts, to not wait, to not wait. But there is something extremely godly about waiting, because it implies trust, at least the kind of waiting that is supernatural.

It’s like walking past a really big dog, and being scared by him, but then realizing he’s on a leash. There are lots of dogs in the neighborhood, some yippy ones that just aggravate and some that come close to you, trying to provoke you, or perhaps tempt you, but the decision is yours as to how to react.

It is like when a storm is coming, and then hits. There is wind, and lightning, and hail, monstrous thunder that seems to shake the whole universe. But you are in your house, and there is warmth and light, love and friendship. And in the morning, all of that noise and chaos from the night before makes the grass greener.

I must mention something else. In the midst of a world that is corrupt and generally self-seeking, God often provides people that for whatever reason genuinely and sincerely help you. I praise God for those people, and pray that they may know fully His great grace that He freely offers.

In juxtaposition to the cursed, dried-up little desert shrub, the man who trusts in the Lord is like a tree, with plenty of water. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but the whole story, of course, has not yet been told. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

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