If I were to offer you a plate of rocks to chew and eat, it probably wouldn’t seem very appetizing. If I put a plate of your favorite food next to the rocks, and told you to choose which you wanted to eat, the choice would be easy.
Scripturally, that is what God has done. He has laid out two choices. The first if full of great things – blessings that are exceeding, abundantly above all we can think or imagine. The second choice is death and curses. It is an easy choice, and yet we all find ourselves time and again choosing death and curses.
It doesn’t make sense to me.
We have been discussing this in a Wednesday night bible study that I attend with my husband. Several of the folks started groaning about how difficult is all is for them. I wanted to know why. If you know the Giver and you know that what He offers is better, then wouldn’t you always choose Him?
After the last class, I was able to come up with example after example of how “easy” it is to choose God, but it didn’t get me any closer to understanding why we struggle with the choice.
As far as I can tell there are really only three reasons we don’t choose God:
1. We don’t know Him.
2. We don’t believe Him.
3. We don’t care about Him.
It’s understandable that if we don’t know Him we wouldn’t choose Him. Humans are creatures of comfort. We will often go with what we know even if it isn’t the best that is available.
It’s hard to imagine that we might know God but still not believe Him, but this is why relationship is so important. Spending time in His word (continually putting it in our eyes and ears and hearts) will bring us to a place where we don’t just know Him, but are comfortable and trusting with Him.
The last one seems to be the most anti-God, but in reality we all live in this moment at some point and time – even after we have accepted Christ as our Savior. Basically, every time we choose our will over His, we say that we care more about us than about Him.
I don’t know if I’ve come to any definitive conclusions, but I do have one thought. The choice is easy. Making the choice is just not all that simple for most of us.
October 29th, 2007
Health Insurance has gotten ridiculous in price. Thirty years ago, what you pay per month is probably about what you would pay per year. For families (or even individuals) who are self-employed, the premiums can cost as much as the mortgage. That’s just wrong. Health Savings Accounts could be the answer to this injustice.
In the past, insurance was designed to cover “catastrophic” events (much like car insurance or home owner’s insurance today). It did not cover the daily needs of patients and therefore patients were much more aware of what things cost and how they spent their money. You wouldn’t find someone going to the hospital for the sniffles because they didn’t want to have to pay for that visit. They would wait until the office opened on Monday.
When you work for a company that provides health insurance, you don’t thing about how much the premium costs. The company pays for a portion of your premium and it’s just considered a “benefit.” How much more beneficial would it be for most of us if that money was used the way we wanted it to be used.
Health Savings Accounts are a new way to take back control of your health care. Every year you can put a certain amount of money in a savings account – tax deferred (that means the government doesn’t get a piece of the pie). You can use the money for medical expenses (like doctor’s visits, prescriptions, etc), but only for medical expenses. At the age of 65 (the time when the government has determined that you can retire) you can then access the money without any tax penalties. It is similar, because of this, to a retirement account.
There are some restrictions – of course. You have to have a “catastrophic” insurance plan in place before you can set up a health savings account. The idea is that you will use the money that would have gone to a traditional insurance premium to pay for the catastrophic plan and to fund the HSA.
The Health Savings Account will probably be the best choice for our family. Because of past complications, we are through with the maternity coverage; over all, we are about as healthy as a crew can be; and to get a decent premium for our family I have to choose an insane deductible anyway.
It will be interesting to see how many others choose the HSA over the next few years. As people become more educated about insurance and choice, I think that the numbers will continue to rise.
October 29th, 2007
