CS Lewis

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a conference on CS Lewis, and the main speaker was his stepson, Douglas Gresham (the guy in my profile photo... one day Edward will appreciate having met him!) I haven't had time to post all the things I want to about what I heard and learned there. I don't know when I will... so I just wanted to throw some snippets out there that really stuck with me.

The first is from one of the other speakers, Jill Briscoe, a delightful elderly British lady who was a small girl in WWII. Her description of the gospel, as she heard it for the first time, was "God came down the stairs from heaven, put a baby on a bale of hay, and set the world on fire." This might be one of the most beautiful and powerful descriptions of the gospel I've ever heard. It will stick with me for the rest of my life. The incarnation changed everything. Another was her description of spiritual warfare and the reminder that Satan hates us, our families, our friends. Hates. Her encouragement was for us to use the spiritual weapons given to us to make Satan and his demons sorry they ever started this whole business. Both those things she said were such amazing reminders that we are at war. The Christian life is one of future peace, but of temporary violence. It's easy to get lulled into just wanting to be safe all the time and that is just what Satan wants.

In speaking of the nature of grief, Mr. Gresham put it beautifully that the grief we feel over earthly loss is a testament to how much we loved that person and what that person meant, and it's nothing to be ashamed of, and very often, it's all we have left of the person who has died. Another good reminder that "happy" isn't the only option for a Christian.

On a non-deep level, Mr. Gresham told us that his mother and stepfather had 2 Scrabble editions, and the way they played was that they combined the letters and boards and could use any word in any known language, real or fictional, as long as they could prove it existed. How awesome is that?

models of inefficiency

Last October, when we found out I was pregnant, we had been searching for months for an affordable private health care plan that covered maternity. (They don't exist). Our last resort was that we were going to join Medi-Share. For me to join they required x-rays and a sign-off from a doctor that my scoliosis does not require any kind of ongoing treatment. We were just getting ready to see if my old orthopedist office had the records after all these years or get new x-rays when we found out I was pregnant, which means Medi-Share wouldn't cover me, and neither would any other insurance company. We tried all the government programs but we made too much money. (Those of you who also work at ICS will know how laughable that statement is.) So we paid for my pregnancy and birth out of pocket, with lots of prayer, love, and financial support from our community of friends and family. Before Edward was born, William, who is on Medi-Share, got all the info on how to add our son to his coverage. We couldn't add him til he was 21 days old and they don't cover retroactively, which was fine. William got the paperwork going and in as soon as they'd let us. He called to make sure they received it before we had Edward's 2 month checkup and that's when they told him they don't cover well-checks or immunizations. Apparently no-one thought this was pertinent information to divulge until after they had our money. While this was all going on, we had tried again for Medicaid since I'm now working part time and we're much closer to the poverty level than before. We were denied. The reason? We own our cars, payment free. We qualify only for medically needy, wherein we would have to pay our entire month's combined salary EACH MONTH before we get any help. We've applied for Kidcare, which is our last shot at getting our baby any kind of health coverage. We should find out soon if we get it or not. Our doctor told us we could go to the health department to get Edward's immunizations for free instead of paying out of pocket, so we tried that. The health department opens at 7:30. Last Friday we went at about 8:00 and they had filled their quota for the day and wouldn't give any more. There's a mad rush right now, the lady explained, because of back-to-school. So we got up at 6 on my day off to get there extra early this morning. We stood in line for an hour, slowly moving into the building. The workers were handing out the papers you have to fill out to get your shots, and right as it was our turn, the lady in charge announced that they were done for the day and we all had to leave. No matter that we were here on Friday, and they even recognized us, no matter that we'd been waiting for an hour, no matter that we needed a different shot than everybody else there. They give a certain number a day and that's it. This is government health care. This is not the solution to the problems we've been having. I was, to put it mildly, less than gracious upon being told I couldn't get my baby vaccinated today. Again. If this is the future of health care, then God help us. It didn't help my mood to see other families that had been waiting pack up in a brand new Escalade and a Lexus. Really? You drive an Escalade but you can't afford health care? Bull-something I won't say because my mom is reading.
If I wasn't working or if William and I weren't married or if we had debt on our cars we would have no medical bills. That is not an exaggeration; it's how government health care works. If I was getting my groceries and health care paid for by the government, why would I want to make enough money to get to where I am now, just barely making it each month and unable to get shots for my baby? Why? And the answer is not to expand government care so then we can all go stand in lines, hoping the government will be able to hand us what we need today. No one should have to do what I had to do this morning, and will have to do again until we luck out. I don't want that to be how all health care works. The government has created a broken system that perpetuates dependency, laziness and entitlement and now they are trying to fix it by making it an even bigger beast. I hate this but I don't have a solution. I just know that more of something that is crappy is not the right answer.