I have to chime in on Healthcare

I've decided to chime in on the healthcare debate because I know that everyone is anxiously awaiting my uneducated opinion. Yes, I really don't know what I'm talking about here, but that doesn't stop me from having an opinion (just like most of you).

Healthcare is a tough one because no matter how you do it or how much money you throw at it, in the end, everyone dies - and nobody wants to die. The ideal situation, where everyone gets the latest treatments with the best doctors for free is just not possible. This makes healthcare choices not so much about right and wrong as about bad and a little bit better than bad. That is a tough sell, because 'a little bit better than bad' can still be picked apart and criticized even though it is better than the alternatives.

So here are my thoughts:

• People need healthcare insurance. I mean everybody. If you don't have it, you are just trusting that if something really bad happens to you, everybody else will chip in and pay for it. That's not a good system.
• It's ridiculous that if you are not on a group plan and you have health problems, you are out of luck. It will be this way as long as the system is based on the profit of insurance companies. These companies have no incentive to do anything different. Competition is fine and good, but it won't fix the fundamental problem that insurance companies don't want to compete for the people who are already sick!
• Another problem in my mind is that we don't have any price competition with the medical care itself. When was the last time you chose anything medically related based on price. We generally don't even think about it.
• Everyone that is afraid of government involvement (and rightfully so) needs to realize that the government is already involved. It's called Medicare. Don't you think that all the private insurance companies are basing what they cover on what Medicare covers? So right now, you have de facto control by the government over your health care, like it or not.

I don't see any way around the government being greatly involved as much as it pains me to say it. It is what a great majority of the rest of the world does including many places that have better healthcare (overall) than us.

I think the plan needs to be universal (required for everyone). A person can opt out only if they have other health insurance.

We need a plan where people have to pay a percentage of the bill so that we, the consumers, put price pressure on the system and make wise choices on how often we visit the doctor, what tests we have run, etc.. I don't trust insurance companies to do it well, and I don't trust the government to do it well either. (I'm still upset about a tv show I saw many months ago where wealthy elderly people were going to the doctor weekly at government expense just because they needed someone to talk to. If they got two visits a year, and then had to pay 50% after that, I don't think they would do it as much. )

I kind of like the idea that the percentage you pay is based on income. (The richer you are, the higher percentage of the total cost of services you pay). This view treats healthcare more as a fundamental right, than a privilege or reward for working hard. I think I agree with that view.

One final thing ... I have no idea how we should pay for it!

What is 'Freedom from sin'?

Lately I've been thinking about this whole idea of 'freedom from sin'. I'm not sure I've ever understood it before, but I'm getting there now.

The problem is that Paul tells us in Romans we have it, but a cursory look at our lives tells us we don't. I'm not perfect, and don't really see any way I ever will be. And by the way, you're not either. So what in the world is Paul talking about when he says we as Believers are free from sin?

This question led me to a fundamental error in the way I view the world. Even though the Bible clearly teaches that we are in the middle of a battle, I generally view my life as at peace. This causes big problems, because freedom means very different things in the context of peace versus the context of war.

Think about it like this. In a peaceful context, freedom of the USA from another nation means that the USA would do exactly what they want to do when they want to do it. However, in a context of being attacked, freedom means something very different. It means they continue to fight the battle. The USA is likely being harmed by the other nation, and is likely not doing exactly what they want to do when they want to do it ... but as long as they are still fighting, they are still free.

At peace, freedom is marked by the alignment of heart or will, and action. At war, freedom is marked by a fight.

In the same way: in a peaceful context, freedom from sin means that I would do exactly what I want when I want. My heart or will, and my actions would align. I would be perfect. However, when I'm being attacked, freedom from sin means that I continue to fight. I am likely being harmed by the attack, and I am likely not doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it ... but as long as I am still fighting, I am free.

When Paul says 'we are free from sin' and at the same time says 'I do what I do not want to do, and what I want to do, I don't do', he is not trying to confuse us. When we believe in Jesus, and yet continue to sin, we do not need to feel that our theology contradicts our experience. While we are on earth, fighting against our adversary (the devil), our freedom results in a fight. When we get to heaven, and have no adversary, our freedom will result in perfection.

The Lord's Prayer

Acts is getting boring ... Paul is so predictable: share in the synagogue, share in other spiritual places, make tents, heal people, see many join 'The Way', almost get killed, leave because of persecution, come back to encourage believers, constantly mentor new leaders, and then repeat.

So I'm moving on for a day to another thought ... a thought about where Jesus might have said something that ties it all together, some words where he might have given us some condensed view on how to orient our life. My mind drifted to the Lord's prayer, and the more I thought about it the more it made sense. I've always viewed it as instructions on how to pray, but never taken it to the next step. If it is how we should pray, it would also logically be how we should orient our lives before God. Our communicating with God should be a reflection of real life ... not just pretty words.

In short, the prayer orients life this way: 1) God's nature, 2) God's purpose, 3) Our nature, 4) Our purpose. The order is important. If you skip steps by putting our purpose before his or our nature before his, life doesn't make sense. Also, if we put purpose before nature, we get screwed up. But, in this brilliant order, everything makes sense.

So here it goes ...

First, God's nature:

Our Father who art in heaven ...
We must start with the fact that God exists, that he was before us, that he lives in the heavens which are the air around us. His presence is here, as near to us as the air we breathe and the sky we look at. If we don't know this, there is no use in moving on.

Hallowed be thy name ...
Second we must know that God's nature is to be glorified. Life does not make sense unless we realize it is all about God. Everything is about his honor, his name, his glory. This seems contradictory to a loving God at first, until you realize 'who else would you want God to be all about?'. Being primarily concerned with His own glory is the most loving thing he could do for us, because He is himself love.

Then God's Mission:

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ...
His mission is to expand his kingdom (the place where what He wants done is done) in the lives of men and women. It is to see men and women transformed into the people he designed them to be, and at the same time to see this transformation spread across the face of the earth to people everywhere.

All of that and we just now get to us! Our Nature:

Give us this day our daily bread ...
Just as God's nature is to be self-sufficient and glorified. Our nature is to be dependent. We are very needy. It is so clear that life can not possibly be about us. We also see that physical needs matter on this earth.

And forgive us our trespasses ...
Just as we are dependent physically on food. We are dependent spiritually on God's forgiveness. It is interesting that our spiritual nature is summed up by forgiveness. We so easily want to turn that into something else.

And finally, our purpose:
As we forgive those who trespass against us ...
We finally get to our mission. Our first mission is to take the love and forgiveness of God and to join in His mission by expanding where his will is done. We do this by showing love and forgiveness to others.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ...
The rest of our mission ... to be transformed individually and corporately into His will - to be delivered from evil.

So that's it. I don't know if it will help you, but it has helped me. Jesus was so simple. When we are confused, we can go back to this, pray it, but more than that, we can use it to reorient our life step by step to the orientation that matches with the way things really are.

Ralph Winters on culture and faith

I came across this quote by Ralph Winter while surfing the net.

"One of the most important functions of the missionary movement is to continually rescue the faith itself from becoming lost through institutional and cultural evolution and absorption.... That process of trying to make our faith understandable cross-culturally has in many different but vital ways pumped back into the home church a constantly renewed sense of what is, and what is not the [gospel]... Unless we become as serious about rediscovering the true faith in contrast to the assumptions of our own culture, we will trumpet an uncertain sound wherever else we go"

This is the most significant thing that I experienced personally while living overseas. Like it or not, our faith and our culture get very intertwined and we begin to confuse the two. Look no further than all the people out there who confuse patriotism (the desire for success and prosperity for the USA) with following Jesus (the desire to see 'His will be done'). Living in a different culture (even for a short time) reveals what is foundational and what is cultural. (BTW. the US is not foundational to the gospel. It's not even in the Bible. :) ) If you have not travelled internationally on a trip where you get to interact with the local people and with God, you should. Careful though, it will mess you up (in a good way). You will never be the same!