I have a problem, and I want a solution: SOLVING PROBLEMS GOD's WAY!. Marco Liporoni

the first defeat, the neighbor’s attorneys realized the legal mistakes they had made and started a new case against us in the Land and Environment Court of Australia.

      Four more years of battles and court audiences, dozens of reports from two Geo-Tech Engineering companies (they actually found out that our site was sitting on rock), Environmental companies (we had to prove that no endangered species would be affected), and other experts. A large amount of money wasted.

      I do not know how we managed as a family to sustain this battle for so long. However, thanks to GOD we did! It is in times like that that we know that GOD is a present help.

      The psalmist David describes well how I felt: “Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within. I am scorned by all my enemies and despised by my neighbors - even my friends are afraid to come near me. When they see me on the street, they run the other way. I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot. I have heard the many rumors about me, and I am surrounded by terror. My enemies conspire against me, plotting to take my life.” [Psalms 31:9-13 NLT].

      I wish I had, at that time, the same faith and confidence as David: “But I trusted in YOU, O LORD: I said, YOU are my GOD” [Psalms 31:14], and that I had held to this promise: “Wait on the LORD, and keep HIS way, and HE shall exalt you to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it” [Psalms 37:34]. For this was exactly what happened at the end of a five years battle: “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yes, I sought him, but he could not be found” [Psalms 37:35-36].

      At the end, Thank GOD the case was judged in our favor once more. Again the neighbor was ordered to pay costs. However this time he went bankrupt, lost his home, and moved away. As a result of their bankruptcy, he was legally not obliged to pay our costs, and we bore the responsibility for paying all the costs for the attorneys, engineers, experts, and everything else.

      One may ask, “Why did you engage in this legal battle”? Had we not done what we did, we would have lost the case and would have been liable to pay all the costs for the other party; end up with a much bigger debt; and not be able to build in the block of land. Why? Because if one does not defend oneself in the courts, then one is subject to the decisions of the judge based on the story told by one’s opponent (originally the neighbors’ attorneys built a case that seemed to have some grounds – but at the end proved to have none).

      There is no true justice in this imperfect world. You have to pay to prove your innocence. The law allowed this neighbor to run two court cases against us over a period of five years, causing us so much stress and debts, and at the end he ran into bankruptcy and away from all the costs he inflicted on us and was ordered to pay for. Ten years later we are still suffering with the financial consequences of that.

      As a result of all the stresses I went through and did not managed well as I should have, I was left with a stress related allergy to pollen (hay fever) and to cold air (an unknown disease that causes rashes and itching on my skin when exposed to cold air). One upsets me in summer and the other in winter.

      They are not big health problems, but like a thorn in the flesh it is something that is obviously there, it comes occasionally and spoils my enjoyment of some of the little moments of life. It is a nuisance that appears at times to challenge me.

      Where was GOD when it was hurting?

      Well, HE favored us in many occasions and I do not believe that we could have stand such a huge stress and long trials without HIS favor, protection and providence.

      We were favored by the many professionals engaged in defending us. We were favored in the final legal decisions before the courts.

      Even though I had to borrow money to pay for the accumulated legal costs of five years of fighting in the courts, GOD never failed us. We were not in lack. “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want¹ any good thing” [Psalms 34:10; (1) Hebrew “ḥāsēr”: to lack; to fail, be abated, decrease, to fail, to have lack, want].

      In 2001 GOD also opened the doors and the finances for us to buy our first home, which was a sort of compensation for the emotional losses we were going through. I must say that my wife also deserves a fair share of the credits, for her prayers and faith (perhaps GOD gave us the house because of her).

      My marriage was also under constant pressure during this time of legal battles and stress. However, GOD protected us and kept us together when the enemy fought hard to break us apart. In the end we developed an appreciation for all the goodness GOD provided us and learned to “do the best we can with the best we had”.

      Perhaps my problems are dwarfed and humbled before your own problems.

      However, through those problems I gained experience and a new lease on life. The ambition I had before has been replaced with a sense of balance and perspective. Even though now at occasions I feel frustrated and discouraged with the problems that have stricken me and accumulated over time, my faith in JESUS CHRIST and my relationship with HIM keeps me going and gives me peace: it has become a motivation to live, and a sense and direction in my life when nothing else makes sense.