Health Care, Health Insurance, Economics and the Bible

The Health Care debate has a couple of lies that swayed a lot of people toward supporting it. Here they are, as far as I have seen in my experiences in the doctor's office and working in the health care field:

1. There are poor people dying in the streets and their homes because they don't have health insurance!
I work at a hospital where I treat homeless people on a weekly/daily basis. They can't pay for the care they receive, but they receive it nonetheless. If someone dies from lack of care, it usually means they ignored their symptoms and didn't call for help.

2. Everyone needs health insurance! It's a right!
No, they don't. No, it isn't. My parents talk about going to the doctor only a few decades ago; they didn't have health insurance and they paid less than 10 bucks for a visit. When I was between college and working back home, I had no insurance; I got a cash discount for my doctor visits. Maybe the answer is for fewer people to have health insurance rather than more, that way prices aren't so artificially inflated. And why should we consider health insurance a right? Health care, yes, but as far as I have seen it is already a right (see previous paragraph).

3. If rich people possess something, poor people like me should have it too.
I'm astounded to hear Christians saying things like this. Here is my response.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. - Exodus 20:17

Envy. This is one of the main reasons for our current whining about "economic equality," and we need to stop it. Do you envy your neighbor's insurance coverage? Then stop it. Furthermore,

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For it could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me." - Matthew 26:8-13

That sounds insensitive! And this, just one chapter after Jesus told his disciples that "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." What is he talking about then? Priorities. The poor are important, but Jesus is more important. Our relationship with Him is what influences our relationships with everyone else. And pertaining to our current strides to equalize rich and poor, realize that there will always be poor people. We can't just go and make everyone equal, as history shows, because there will always be the king(s) at the top; the wealthy equalizers of everyone below them. What shall we do with the poor? The same thing we do with all of our neighbors; love them and give generously.

Finally, this.

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. - 1 Timothy 6:6-7

Paul, the writer here, died by execution. He lived a simple but hard life full of things like shipwrecks, snake bites, beatings and imprisonment. He was content. What about us? We all need to seriously step back and check our attitudes.

Attitude is Everything, Almost...

These words were given to me by a patient in the hospital, who was about to undergo his third open-heart surgery. He wrote them on a piece of scratch paper, and said he wanted me to have the note before he went into surgery.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home, yourself.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have. And that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.

Double Blacks, Fear and the Like

Last week I had the joy of going skiing with my friend Karl, who flew out here for the week. As it turned out, we skied with a friend of Karl's, a friend of Karl's friend, and a ski patrol dude who was a friend of Karl's friend's friend. It was a great group to ski with; very talented, but understanding of my limitations also.

I didn't enjoy having my abilities pushed to the limits but I didn't want to spoil the fun, so I followed along as best I could. We skied through acres and acres of tight evergreens, cutting new lines through the deep powder. When not skiing in the steep forest, we would be zig-zagging down immense mogul fields. It was intense; more challenging than I thought I could handle, at first.

The second day was the breakthrough. One of the guys really wanted to ski a double black run, and everyone chided in enthusiastically at the idea. I did too, but outwardly. Silently, I wondered if I would be able to use my new insurance card at a local hospital. Nonetheless, the group started moving down the hill, and I with them.

(Karl skiing down the mountain)

I can't explain exactly how it happened, but I didn't fall on the 35 degree vertical moguls. I stayed on my feet through the trees and all the way to the bottom of the mountain. And I enjoyed it. The previous day of anxiety; falling down, getting back up, and pushing myself, paid off. I moved with rhythm through the moguls (not great rhythm, but workable); my skis started going where my mind told them to go.

It's an everyday battle to push myself to do what needs to be done. Comfort only makes things worse. But truly, whenever I am challenged and work hard through it, the payoff is sweet. The ski trip was another reminder of that, and of my need to ditch my fears about a lot of things.

Speaking with Authority.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Optismism or Escapism?

Before I start in, let me say that there have been a bunch of things worth writing about in the month's time since my last post. Unfortunately those things didn't make it to the internet. Things have been rolling along here though, and I will make an effort to keep up more regularly with this for those who read it (like my mom).

There is a popular song on country radio right now called "Outside My Window." It's very catchy, and I've caught it running through my head once or twice. The other day I stopped and thought about what the song is saying, with these words:

Outside my window I hear a church bell ringing
Nobody fighting over what hymn they're singing...
Outside my window I see a flag that's waving
Hands joined together, everybody celebrating...
No wars no more, just a big rainbow outside my window

At first listen, this song seems pretty chipper and hopeful. At second and third listen, you might begin to wonder, What window is this person looking through? And after that, you begin to realize that this song will probably not be a lasting memory. Why? Because it doesn't really say anything. Oh it's great that everyone gets along, holds hands and sings together outside her window.

But the window isn't real.

An earthquake hits Haiti; a hurricane hits the Gulf coast; people die from heart disease, diabetes, cancer. Cars crash; teenagers get pregnant and abort. The list goes on indefinitely.

This is the condition of the world that we live in. This is reality. Evil exists in the world, and you can see its effects everywhere. The weight of it all makes a song like this seem out of touch at best, a denial of reality at worst. Songs that acknowledge evil (like country music is typically known for) are songs that we can relate to, because they accept reality for what it is. And with that, they have credibility to say something about it. But a song, or lifestyle, or faith that denies this reality is one that has nothing to say at all.

Okinawa

Recently I have been watching the World War II documentary by Ken Burns called The War. It is an excellent, compelling look at America's involvement in the second World War. Tonight I learned about the battle on the little Pacific island of Okinawa. When all was said and done there, more than 12,000 American men were killed in the battle; more than 60,000 were wounded.

It takes a bit of time to stop and understand the immensity of what was sacrificed in just one battle. Being the age I am, I rarely think of death. I guess I assume that I'll get old and wrinkly someday, stay that way for a few decades, then die peacefully in my sleep. But I'm sure a lot of the men killed in WWII had the same idea before they found themselves in the theater of combat.

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

A look at death is a sobering thing, and rightly so. But I think we ought to face up to our own mortality, with the hope that we will indeed realize our mortal state. Thus our need and desires for the eternal.

The Box

A few months ago I was winding up my job at a pharmacy in a small town. One of the things I ended up doing was tidying up the basement of the building. It was a job that could be considered menial, but I actually enjoyed digging around and finding some old, interesting things amongst all the clutter.

One day I found a plain cardboard box. I brushed the dust off and opened it, and inside were a bunch of old artifacts; papers, maps, and slides from trips to Europe and Asia. There was an envelope from the Dept. of the Army, a gospel of John, and a picture that said "The Ship I Sailed On." I opened the gospel of John, and inside a printer's note advised: "Read this book fifty times." I bet they don't print that instruction anymore, I mused.

I knew that I needed to return this box to its owner, one of the original pharmacists who built the store there. So I called him on the phone and he came to pick it up a couple of days later.

"It's a treasure," he said.

He recalled some of the memories of the things inside the box: working with Norwegian hospitals in Korea, taking trips when he was young. He talked about days gone by; even about his mother's death, and began to tear up. He thanked me for calling him, then took the box home to continue exploring the things inside.

It made me think, What's inside my Box? What kinds of things will I look back on when I'm old?