I try to think of myself as an apple tree. Time is not linear, it moves in circles. Come spring, I will bloom again.
Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life
It is unfortunate that not everyone has equal and affordable access to heath care in our day. I believe that this grieves the heart of God because every person, regardless of location and finances, are God’s children. He loves each one and expects us to make available to each one, the same opportunities for healing and ease from suffering. Beloved, as we do, more people will realize the kingdom that Jesus is ruling over.
I thank God for hospitals that churches have founded such as St. Mary's in Huntington, West Virginia. Let’s make make these healing facilities available to all people in our day.
Dr. Tom Dannals in Huntington, West Virginia, is on a mission to do everything he can to bring better health to that city. West Virginia leads the nation in heart disease which is the number one killer in the United States.
Most heart disease is preventable and can even be reversed through proper diet and exercise. Dr. Dannals introduce the city to the Dr. Dean Ornish program of heart disease prevention and reversal. Dr. Dannals also founded HealthyHuntington.org along with founding and directing the annual Marshall University Marathon, half marathon and 5k held on the first Sunday of November every year. It’s a wonderful marathon with a stadium finish.
Through these processes, Dr. Dannals is using his life to bring healing to that city and is saving countless number of lives from the grip of heart disease. God is using Him. People are being touched at their point of need.
According to an article published by WebMD Medical News “Top 10 Causes of Death Worldwide” the top two causes of death is heart disease and stroke. Doctors tell us that the main causes of heart disease and stroke are genetics, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise and stress. Genetics are out of our control, but we can eat healthier, exercise and guard our heart from the stresses of our journey. We need to look at what the Bible says about guarding our heart from the stresses of our journey and specifically look at something Jesus tells us concerning this.
In John chapter 13, Jesus is spending time with His followers in an upper room just prior to His crucifixion. Jesus predicts Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial and begins to prepare them for His death. You can detect the heaviness in the room as these followers begin to try to comprehend such news. They had left everything to follow Jesus – jobs, homes, families. They left everything to follow the person they thought was going to set up His Kingdom and rule on earth and deliver them from the Roman oppression that in itself was heart wrenching and depressing.
Jesus senses the heaviness, the depression, the anxiety, the worries, the stress and He ministers these words: (John 14:1-3 NIV) ""Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. {2} In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. {3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." In these words, Jesus gives us the cure for a troubled heart.
Do not let your heart be troubled.
We live in troubling times. There are wars being fought and genocide taking place. There are terrorists. There are famines. There are earthquakes. There are increasingly more severe and frequent natural disasters. It is like Jesus said it would be prior to His return (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21).
Many things that are happening bring stress. When devastation occurs in our day it is because of a destructive, life destroying devil and not a loving, life giving God. Jesus said (John 10:10 NIV) "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
In the midst of all that is going on around us, we must not let our hearts be troubled. It’s a command given to us by Jesus. Jesus not only gives us this command in John 14:1, but He also gives us the methodology of keeping our hearts from being troubled.
We are to place all of our trust in Jesus.
Jesus said (John 14:1 NIV) "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me." The only way we are going to keep our hearts from being troubled is to place our total trust in Jesus. We must constantly remind ourselves that He is the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep. Jesus said (John 10:11 NIV) "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
King David knew how to trust the Lord. David said (Psalms 23 NIV) "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. {2} He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, {3} he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. {4} Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. {5} You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. {6} Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."
Beloved, to keep our hearts from being troubled on this journey that we are on, we must place our trust in the Lord. Jesus will see us through whatever comes our way as we fix our eyes on Him and follow Him.
We are to forget the past and look beyond the present.
Some people allow their heart to be troubled by living in the past. Others are so consumed with present trials that are overwhelming. We must put the past behind us and look beyond the present in order to protect our hearts from being troubled. Jesus said “(John 14:2-3 NIV) "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. {3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
Beloved, no matter what you have gone through in the past and no matter what you are going through now, you have a bright future. Jesus is preparing your eternal home and He is coming back for you. That is the very next event on God’s agenda. All Bible prophecy up to that point has been fulfilled. Jesus is returning for the beloved. God’s Word says “(1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NIV) "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. {17} After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. {18} Therefore encourage each other with these words."
Beloved, be encouraged with these Words today! God is not against you. He is for you! Jesus is coming to rescue you! Keep following Jesus on this journey from earth to glory! Keep your eyes fixed on Him and keep your hearts from being troubled!
Sometimes we forget that our spiritual journey involves a downwardness. There are some who attribute this downwardness to direct attacks of Satan or lack of faith. In doing so, they bring much harm to those experiencing these downward periods.
We must always remember that Christ revealed the downward aspect of the journey when He left the realm of glory to come into our world and show us how to live and how to die. As Christ followers, we follow Him even in the downward periods of our life knowing that glory is ahead of us and the best is yet to come.
Thanks to my friend Milton W. Kliesch for this video clip of Parker Palmer talking about his spiritual journey that has included 3 bouts of clinical depression. He refers to a downwardness of the the journey in which he has learned much.
My daughter is a pre-med student in college working to be a pediatrician. She wrote the following on health care and gave me permission to share it with you here.
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Health care: The controversy of the moment in the United States
by Kelsey Johnson
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -The Declaration of Independence
Health care: The controversy of the moment in the United States. With all the rumors and accusations flying around, it's hard to know what's true and what isn't true. Most Americans would agree that health care reform is needed, but no one seems to be able to agree on how to accomplish it so nothing gets done. Obama's administration has proposed health care reform; however, it has received tremendous opposition from the Republican party. With about one-third of the population living without insurance at some point in 2007 or 2008, Americans cannot afford to continue being petty and uncompromising ("Health Insurance Coverage"). It's time to get down to the facts and put aside political parties so that we can work towards a solution to the growing health care crisis.
Some facts about health care are:
62 percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses. Nearly 80 percent had health insurance ("Health Insurance Costs").
The United States spends more money on medical care than any other industrialized country, yet it performs worse on nearly all measures of health care quality and health outcomes ("Health Care Quality").
Out of 19 industrialized countries, the U.S. ranked last on deaths amenable to health care, which are deaths that could have been prevented with timely and effective care ("Health Care Quality").
Overall, seniors pay about 22% of their income for health care costs despite their Medicare coverage ("Overview of the U.S. Health Care System).
80% of the uninsured are hardworking Americans who are employed or come from working families ("The Case for Universal Health Care").
More than half of the uninsured postponed needed medical care due to financial concerns ("The Case for Universal Health Care").
One third of uninsured Americans reported that they were unable to fill a prescription drug in the last year because of the cost ("The Case for Universal Health Care").
As a result of difficulties accessing health care, the non-partisan Institute of Medicine estimates that the uninsured have an excess annual mortality rate of 25%. This increased mortality translates into 18,000 excess deaths for people between age 25-64 per year, which is of comparable magnitude to the number of people in this age group who die each year from diabetes, stroke, HIV, and homicide ("The Case for Universal Health Care").
The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care (defined as a basic guarantee of health care to all of its citizens). ("The Case for Universal Health Care")
Creating a universal, public financed plan would save $1.1 trillion over 10 years ("The Case for Universal Health Care").
Why does there need to be health care reform? Quite simply, everyone in America should have access to affordable health care because our country was founded on the basis that everyone is equal and should have equal opportunities; however, the health care industry does not treat everyone like equals. The facts are clear: No matter if you're insured, uninsured, young, elderly, working, jobless, whatever, most people feel the strain of health care. Americans are choosing to go without needed health care because they simply cannot afford it, which leads to unnecessary deaths. Just as we do everything possible to prevent unnecessary deaths caused by homicides, suicides, drunk driving, etc., we need to work with the same fervor to stop unnecessary deaths caused by inequalities in health care. Without proper affordable health care, the majority of Americans?both insured and uninsured?will not be able to obtain their constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Now that it has been established that health care reform is needed, why isn't health care reform happening? The number one reason why change isn't happening is due to the arguments between political parties. Recently I read two articles in Time magazine that discussed this problem. Accurately stated by Joe Klein, a lot of Republican politicians ".make precious few substantive arguments but oppose health-care reform mostly because passage would help Barack Obama's political prospects" (par. 6). In the case of health care, Republicans would rather turn a blind eye to inequality and allow the majority of Americans to suffer than support democratic legislation that would help a democratic president. The republicans have resorted to lies and deception to discredit the democratic health care plan. An example of this would be when ".Sarah Palin raised the remarkable idea that the Obama Administration's attempt to include [end-of-life] issues in its health-care-reform proposal would lead to ?death panels'" (Klein, par. 1). The connotation of the word ?death panels' is that a group of people will get to decide who lives and dies; however the purpose of so called ?death panels' is ".making end-of-life counseling free and available through Medicare" (Klein, par. 3). All this means is that ".an independent, professional authority figure." will help counsel the elderly about making plans and act as power of attorney if no one is predetermined to be one (Klein, par. 3). Joel Stein brings up a very interesting point when he admitted that ".we already have death panels; they just prefer to go by the name insurance companies. Some people get rejected by the death panels because of pre-existing conditions, lifetime-spending caps or drug co-payments they can't afford. Others die because they are freelancers and don't have insurance, so they don't go to doctors" (par. 2). Of course, not all Republicans agree with opposing the democratic legislation just because of political loyalties; however, instead of standing up for change, they choose to remain silent. Klein acknowledges that "until recently, the Republican Party contained a strong moderate wing. It was a Republican, the lawyer Joseph Welch, who delivered the coup de grace to Senator McCarthy when he said, ?Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?'" but Klein then poses the question: "Where is the Republican who would dare say that to Rush Limbaugh, who has compared the President of the United States to Adolf Hitler?" (par. 8). Instead of refusing to support legislation proposed by opposing political parties, Republicans and Democrats need to be willing to compromise and to work together to come up with a solution for the health care problem.
Kao-Ping Chua brings up a compelling point when he declared that ".the United States treats health care as a privilege, only available to those who can afford it. In this sense, health care in America is treated as an economic good like a TV or VCR, not as a social or public good" ("The Case for Universal Health Care"). Should a person be punished with sickness and suffering just because he or she cannot afford health care? I think not. It's time that America stops arguing about health care and starts reforming it. Does it really matter if it was a Republican or Democrat who wrote the health care reform legislation? Just as long as the change brings about equality in the health care system, it shouldn't really matter who suggested the change in the first place.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2 ESV)
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