Health Care Reform

Some questions and comments reflecting on health care reform -- #hcr --

Some comments and some questions, none of them intended to be political even though they reflect on and about a political issue:

  1. If I take health care and turn it into real he chat, I have reformed it. Too bad I didn’t improve it. Or deliver on its promise and purpose.
  2. Most of the time I forgot to pray.
  3. I am amazed to witness a political majority going against the will of the citizen majority. Now to see on what else they defy and withstand the will of the people.
  4. The bill barely got enough votes to pass. Four fewer and it would have failed. For such sweeping, generational changes…oh, never mind.
  5. I am still kinda stunned that anyone would vote for and thus put their name to legislation without at least reading it first. I’m guessing the majority of those who voted for it will eventually be surprised at something they supported.
  6. Why does it take so long to kick in? Because it really isn’t about health care. It’s about kidnapping the health issue to expand control…and test the limits of the tolerant populace.
  7. Will any court have the integrity and spine to rule against it?
  8. More alarming to me than actual passage of the bill was that they seriously and publicly considered not voting for it directly. Such a disposition bodes no good for the country nor for the rule of law. We are in greater peril than I realized heretofore.
  9. Do they know better than the people? Quite possibly.
  10. Who gets exempted from having to abide by it? And what’s the significance of that?
  11. How does it treat the most vulnerable?
  12. It’s been six days since passage of the bill and about four since President Obama signed it. As a result of this bill, who has health care now that didn’t then?
  13. What are the unintended consequences?
  14. And perhaps more importantly, what are the hidden intended consequences?
  15. And what’s with the provisions in it that have nothing to do with health care?
  16. Maybe it would have been better to take all that non-existent money and plowed it into Social Security before it finishes collapsing. Too late. Oh well.
  17. Christians, a message for you: God is the Sovereign One. That hasn’t changed. And never will. Keep your trust in Him and fear not. Set your affection on things above. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And pray.

What Do You See?

I’m prone to see the ominous dark clouds of the gathering storm. Storms, really — religious, societal, political, military, cultural, financial, spiritual.

I also notice the diminishing space as the dark tunnel’s walls close in at an alarming, hope-crushing rate.

Then yesterday morning I saw the January 6 entry on our day-by-day For the Love of a Friend flip calendar:

A great deal of what we see
still depends on what we’re looking for.

Oh my! 😳

I went back again and again to have another read.

And below the above quote, this from Psalm 39:7….

But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.

How easily I forget! 😥

Last night I read this comment by Crusoe:

I think you can see much farther
through a tear
than you can through a telescope.

(No, not that Crusoe; rather, the one in Flight of the Eagles, the first book of the Seven Sleeper Series by Gilbert L. Morris.)

Oh, and another clarifier: tear above is the kind that comes out of our eyes.

So…I am thankful for all these reminders. And for the hope I have in Jesus Christ.

Christmas Gifts

The Birth and Reception of Jesus

Have we become misdirected in our gift giving?

God freely and generously gave His best to those who had never given Him anything of significant value. God even gave His best knowing that most would give nothing in return. We have become conformed to the world in our Christmas-time gift giving. Has the time arrived when we should come to an agreement in our churches and in our families that we will give their gift and their card to the needy instead? “And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same” (Luke 6:33; see also 14:12-14).

(Written way back in 1992 sometime.)

Above all, love God!