Our Personal Story About Health Care

as some of you may have heard, my wife was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  it is rare for young woman to have breast cancer, but we are committed to beating this thing and growing old and cranky together.  we welcome and appreciate your prayers for the next few months.

but i want to say a word about health care, from a very personal standpoint.

as committed political centrists, carol and i have been divided on the health care issue.  we felt everyone should be able to get cared for, but know that some people are not willing to care for themselves,  making it harder and more expensive for everyone else.  we knew that more people needed access to health care, but also knew that health care itself was broken.  we had conversations about the topic, tossed ideas back and forth, but ultimately didn’t really feel convicted one way or another.

until this week – let me give some context:

i left my position as a pastor of a church in virginia at the end of may, but Open Door Presbyterian Church graciously extended my health insurance until the end of july, when my insurance would begin with my current denomination.  this was an act of sheer generosity…but may end up saving my wife’s life, and our financial future.

had they not done that, had there been a gap in coverage even for a period of one month, carol’s breast cancer would have been identified as a pre-existing condition and would not have been covered by our insurer.  she would have been a young mother of two, a wife of a pastor, fighting breast cancer without insurance.  she would have had to fight two battles: yes, against cancer, but also against a host of issues that should never be on the mind of someone trying to overcome this disease, questions about the quality of her care, and the financial impact that the best care would have on our family and our daughters.  and in fact, our current insurer was NOT going to pay for any surgery or treatment, that is until we provided the proof that our insurance had been continuous and shoved it in their faces.

we are not deadbeats, sucking the care system dry with false claims or careless lifestyle.  we have been vigilant with our health, and vigilant about always providing health insurance for our family – in fact, i had to turn down a pastorship because they were not willing to provide health insurance for my family.

BUT ANY SYSTEM WHERE YOU AREN’T COVERED FOR SO-CALLED “PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS” BECAUSE YOU DROPPED HEALTH CARE FOR THE BRIEFEST OF MOMENTS IS FUNDAMENTALLY INHUMAN.

so, i have seen the light: health care reform needs to happen.  health care in its current state is an amoral legal/medical machine that has very little to do with “care” in the least.  it is an industry that fulfills its legal and financial requirements, rather than its human and moral ones.  universal health coverage and reform are good first steps in fixing the system that is supposed to fix us when we need it the most, especially the dread pre-existing condition clause.  it should have the backing of every american, but especially that substantial subset of americans who claims that their neighbor’s good is as important as their own.

don’t listen to those who fearmonger about government intervention in health care, and Palinesque “death panels” – they can’t be any more frightening than the actuaries that the insurance companies are using to make sure that only $.60 of every dollar we spend on insurance actually goes to caring for our health, the rest going to pad their pockets.

don’t think that this would never happen to you either, that your insurance will never fail you when you need it most.  because believe me, you never know when you will find yourself just about to be ground in the gears of a machine that doesn’t give a rat’s ass that your wife’s life hangs in the balance – God knows that i didn’t think it would happen to us.

support health care reform now, for the sake of all uninsured…which might be you someday.

and to Pastor Paul Kim and the elders board of Open Door Presbyterian Church – thank you, a thousand times over.  your small act of generosity has become a wellspring to my family in a very dry time.

Winter Break

hi everyone,

for personal reasons that i’ll explain at a later time, i’m going to be taking a break from doing the devotionals for the next two weeks, and will re-start in january.  thank you for bearing with me, and we’ll be back in isaiah in just a little bit!

peter

12.0.09, Isaiah 41:8-10

⁸ “But you, O Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
you descendants of Abraham my friend,

⁹ I took you from the ends of the earth,
from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Break In Case of Fire

I’m not going to share very much today, nothing especially insightful – I’ve had a difficult day.  But one thing I will share: most of the days of our lives, we don’t find ourselves in the midst of tragedy or catastrophe, and so the promises of God, his faithfulness, his power that we find here seem out of place and overkill.  We don’t really know what to do with them because the circumstances of our lives aren’t really that difficult.

But there inevitably comes a time in every person’s life where they do enter into a difficult season, a season which makes them despair of life itself.  And it is in those moments that these promises of God, so poetic and abundant and seemingly excessive, are just enough to help you get through the day.

It reminds me of the caution they print on the glass casing of fire extinguishers: “Break In Case Of Fire”.  I am finding that the fullest power of Scripture can only be discerned in the midst of the darkest times in life.

12.7.09, Isaiah 40:28-31

²⁸ Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Strong For The Weak

As stated in the previous devotional, chapter 40 and following are the comfort chapters, where Isaiah provides encouragement for Israel.  But strangely, a good deal of this chapter seems to focus on the power and grandeur of the Lord, how nothing can be compared to him, that even the waters in the hollow of his hands cannot be measured – a wonderful image!  But how exactly is this supposed to be encouraging for us?

It is comforting because this power and might and wisdom is not just arbitrary and random, like an exceedingly rich person who doesn’t know how to spend his money fast enough.  Instead, it has a direction and bent, that God is powerful for the weak.  He is mighty for the weary.  In this, we realize that God is not just powerful, but that he is a Powerful Intercessor.  And that is a huge source of encouragement for us, to know that this enormous wisdom and power does not just exist, but actually works for us in our times of weakness and weariness.

And additionally, we again remember our calling from Ephesians as imitators of God.  We too have power and resources and wisdom – nothing in comparison to God, and overflowing from Him, but it’s there nonetheless.  This power and resource should not be random and ill-used, but like the power of God, should have direction and purpose.  We too are called to be strong for the weak!

Questions

1. When have you felt weak or weary in recent days?

2. What would it look like to “hope in the Lord” during those moments in time?

3. Do you know of anyone who is weak and weary around you?  What would it mean to be strong for them and their sake?

12.04.09, Isaiah 40:1-5

Comfort for God’s People

¹ Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.

² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.

³ A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD ;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

⁴ Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

⁵ And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Our Great Comforter

And so begins the next section of the Isaiah, which proclaims Comfort for the nation of Israel.  For those of you who have labored through the previous 39 chapters of Isaiah, this feels like something of a relief, doesn’t it?…after all the prophecies of doom and condemnation given previously.  If that is how we feel about it as readers of Isaiah, imagine how the people hearing the prophecies of Isaiah at that time must have felt – these words would have been an enormous comfort to them in a time of great tumult!

And notice how this promise of comfort and peace begins: that sins will be paid for, a prophecy of a voice in the wilderness preparing a way for the Lord, God’s glory being revealed, and humankind literally seeing God – these are all signs that point to the coming of Christ, for it is through his ministry that sins would be atoned for, and through his incarnation that God’s glory would be revealed, and in seeing Jesus, we see God!

You see, true lasting comfort and peace begins with Christ.  What Christ brings in his ministry cannot be imitated by any job, spouse, or house – forgiveness from sins; a restored relationship to our Creator; a hope for the future; a family in the present.  So if any of us need comfort in our lives right now, we need look no further than Jesus – our Great Comforter.

Questions

1. Are you in need of comfort for anything in your life?

2. How does the ministry, presence, or person of Christ provide that comfort for you?

3. As we are also called to imitate Christ, is there someone who needs comfort?  What can you do to provide?

12.02.09, Isaiah 39:1-8

I usually don’t do this, but this is a response submitted to the last devotional by one of my former SALT students, Jeff Pan, that definitely adds some helpful insights – thanks Jeff!

Envoys From Babylon

¹ At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. ² Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

⁴ The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: ⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. ⁷ And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸ “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

A Golden Opportunity

“I think chapter 38 sheds important light on this passage. In chapter 38:4-6, God promises Hezekiah:

“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.”

And sure enough, by the beginning of chapter 39, we see that God has fulfilled the first part of his promise and healed Hezekiah. Thus, it is incredible that Hezekiah does not trust God to deliver on the second part of his promise (to deliver Israel from Assyria), instead trusting in a potential alliance with Babylon . I wonder if Hezekiah thought that an alliance with the Babylonians would be God’s way of delivering Israel. If this was the case, there is certainly a lesson here for listening closely to God and not trying to fulfill his plans by our own means.

Secondly, Hezekiah misses a unique opportunity to be a witness for God. In verse 1, Isaiah tells us that the son of the King of Babylon came to visit Hezekiah to see Hezekiah’s miraculous recovery with his own eyes. However, Hezekiah is so focused on showing off Israel’s resources to this potential ally, that he misses the opportunity to witness about God’s healing work in his life and about God’s greatness generally.

I wonder if I do the same thing sometimes when I’m faced with someone I really respect or someone who I really want to impress. Religion is generally regarded as a taboo topic for polite conversation and as a result, I find that I often try to avoid talking about my faith when I’m trying to make a good impression. However, I wonder how many opportunities I have passed up to be a witness for God when it really counts.”

Questions

1. What are the most difficult situations you find yourself in right now?

2. What are some of the more amazing things that God has done in your life?  Does the memory of these moments change your perception of your difficulties?

3. Have you ever missed an opportunity to testify to what God is doing in order to make a good impression with someone?

4. How can we blend a respect for other people’s perceptions, with an honesty with the works of God in our lives?

11.30.09, Isaiah 39:1-8

And we’re back!  We’ve moved into DC and have finally gotten our internet hooked up.  Thank you for your patience!

Envoys From Babylon

¹ At that time Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. ² Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

³ Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.”

⁴ The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: ⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. ⁷ And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

⁸ “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

Missed Understanding

This is an interesting passage that I had to read a few times to understand.  Hezekiah shows off all the valuable treasures to the Babylonians (not quite the world power they would become), and Isaiah prophecies that those same Babylonians would sack Israel and carry everything off to their land.  And Hezekiah’s response is hilarious:

“Good!“

And true enough, in the future, the Assyrian threat that we read about throughout this book would be replaced by the Babylonians, who would defeat Israel and send many of their people into exile.

For me, this leads to a couple of different ideas – first, that it is very, very important to make sure that we allow God’s voice to be louder than our own internal voice.  Hezekiah’s priority as king was peace for his nation, and after being threatened by the Assyrians only shortly beforehand, he is even more desperate for peace than ever.  But he is so desperate for peace that he no longer listens to God – he hears only his inner voice telling him that political alliances are more important than trusting in God.

We are not kings under duress and don’t fixate on political peace.  But we have our own agendas that we often thrust upon God – relationships?  Job?  And we try to fit God into our agendas, rather than the other way around.  The problem is that if we do this, we run the risk of missing something critically important that God might be trying to tell us.

This passage reminds me of something else – not to be quick with Scripture.  Hezekiah is not a bad man at all, and is recognized as one of the few faithful kings of Israel, for which God rewards him.  But I think part of Hezekiah’s response is born out of impatience, a kind of, “Oh yeah, good good, whatever” response where he really wasn’t listening carefully.

We run that risk as well, being sloppy and flippant with the Word, and not really being attentive to what it is trying to tell us.  I know that I run that risk even with this devotional, trying to produce messages three times a week – there is this temptation to do it quick and generically.  But I, and we, must resist this urge, and take our time with the Word, because there is an abundance that it has to offer each of us.

Questions

1. Have you ever been guilty of trying to force your agenda upon God?  What was that agenda?  Do you ever find yourself doing this repeatedly?

2. What is it about this agenda item that makes it so high on your priority list?

3. How would you describe your devotional life in the Word?  How would you describe the amount of time and effort you put into your devotional life in the Word?  Is there any correlation between the two?

No Internet until Wednesday, sorry!!

11.18.09, Isaiah 37:23-35

²³ Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!

²⁴ By your messengers
you have heaped insults on the Lord.
And you have said,
‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its pines.
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.

²⁵ I have dug wells in foreign lands ^[c]
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’

²⁶ “Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.

²⁷ Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched ^[d] before it grows up.

²⁸ “But I know where you stay
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.

²⁹ Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.

³⁰ “This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

³¹ Once more a remnant of the house of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.

³² For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

³³ “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria:
“He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.

³⁴ By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,”
declares the LORD.

³⁵ “I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”

Now It’s Personal

As the story continues, Hezekiah pleads urgently to God to save Israel from destruction at the hands of the Assyrians.  And on behalf of God, Isaiah confirms that the Lord will save Israel, and He does so at the end of the chapter, in a miraculous, mysterious way.

But what strikes me about this passage is God’s response to the threats of the Assyrian king – if you remember, the Assyrians threatened the Jews with destruction, and cited their past conquests as proof of their power and resolve.  This seems like a political conflict between two nations, but in verse 23, it seems as if God takes this very personally, that this threat is a threat not against Israel, but ultimately, against the sovereignty of God Himself.  And because He does take this personally, his response is swift and overwhelming.

I think there are two ways to take this passage: as an encouragement, but also as a warning.  First, it is an encouragement to remember that God does take up our causes personally.  It is easy to fall into the mis-perception that God is distant and only works indirectly with us.  But this is not the God we see here, but instead, a God who very personally takes up our causes and our defense. like a Father protecting his children from harm.

But it is a warning as well.  Often, we live our lives our way, doing whatever we think is right without giving thought to God.  And we do this more freely under the mistaken belief that God doesn’t care as long as He’s not directly involved.  ”I’m just living for myself and doing what’s good for me, or what feels good, and that’s not sinning sinning.”  But we should be very careful with this line of reasoning, because like the King of Assyria, we could be very mistaken as to what God is willing to overlook, and what he is not.

Questions

1. What burden are you carrying that you don’t think God cares about?

2. What does it mean or look like when God takes up our causes personally?

3. Is there something that you are doing that seems harmless enough, but may dishonor God more than you think?

11.16.09, Isaiah 36:8-20

⁸ ” ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! ⁹ How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰ Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD ? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ “

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

¹² But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?”

¹³ Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! ¹⁵ Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

¹⁶ “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸ “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

The Language of Fear

Another wonderful aspect of narrative is how small occurrences reveal deeper insights to us.  For instance, this messenger from Assyria gives an ultimatum to Israel – “Submit to Assyria, or be destroyed; nothing, not even God, can save you from our might”.  I think all of can imagine being intimidated, and even seriously considering such an offer.

But what is striking about this offer is the language in which it is given – the Jewish leaders ask the Assyrian to speak in Aramaic so as to not intimidate the local people who are listening to them, but the Assyrian goes right ahead and repeats his threats in Hebrew, even promising them mercy and blessings in addition.  He totally does this on purpose in order to heighten the fear of the Israelites, and make it more likely for them to cave into that fear.

I think that even to this day, fear knows how to speak our language, how to assault the weakest sections of our armor.  For those of us who don’t like uncertainty, the fear of unemployment or the future or anything vague and unsettled will have a more damaging effect on us, and make it more likely for us to lose our trust in God and take the easiest way out.  And whatever our fear happens to be, any threat to that particular aspect of our lives is all the more dangerous and effective.

Practically, there are a couple of ways to face and silence our fears.  First, we must know them.  As hard as it may seem, we must know what makes us most afraid, what thoughts makes us quail in terror.  And once we know what our fears are, we have to face those fears in light of the reality of God’s power, his love, and his wisdom.  For when we look at our fears through those lenses, we begin to realize that our fears, no matter how intimidating they might have seemed, are really very small relative to God.

Questions

1. What, when you think about it, are you most afraid of?

2. Why do you think you are most afraid of that particular thought or prospect?

3. How does the character or the power of God as revealed in Scripture affect your fear?

4. How does your personal experience with God affect your fear?