--Gordon R. Dickson, American author
I wonder how often Jesus has said the same thing?
Put plainly, if our study of God's Word is an intellectual journey void of real-world application, it's a false journey that does not please God. Time and again the Holy Spirit tells us that it is the "doing" of God's word that is important, not the hearing. Are you ever struck by situations in your life that cause you to come face-to-face with a principle, and you're put in a position of having to decide if you'll live out what you've claimed in theory? That happened to me today.
This last Sunday, my husband co-taught a Bible class based on Jesus' "sermon on the mount," and this particular lesson was all about deep integrity. Jesus calls us to be people of such integrity that there's no oath or swearing we can add to our words that would make them be any more meaningful. In class they read from Randy Harris' book, "Living Jesus" about a question Randy poses his students every year. We all like to say that we are honest people and wouldn't lie, but Randy challenges us to see if we would stick to that when the stakes are high. Here's his scenario (and I'm paraphrasing it here):
Imagine you are a college senior in the last semester before graduation. You are an accounting major and seemingly have everything lined up perfectly; you have a fiancé ready to marry you after graduation, you have a job offer with a reputable firm, and everything seems to be falling into place. The only problem is, you find out that you are short one class in Literature of all subjects! The registrar fits you in to the last class available on classic American literature. All semester long you plod through books like The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird. You've read each one and done well on the tests. The final book assigned is Moby Dick -- all 800+ pages of it. And it's all about whaling. You are from a small farming town in Kansas, and the thought of reading about whaling - especially with the semester winding down and all of the graduation ducks lining up - is just more than you can bear ... so you read the Cliff's Notes and watch both Moby Dick movies. You feel confident that you can answer any question on the final regarding any question the professor could throw at you about Moby Dick. But to your shock, when the final is handed out there is only one question to the whole exam: Did you read "Moby Dick?" Your Literature grade - your credits necessary for college graduation - which are needed to land that good job and be able to marry your waiting fiancé -- that all rests on the back of one question. Did you read "Moby Dick?"
What would you answer?
According to Randy Harris, year after year 95% of his students say they would lie on the question. (He also wonders how many of the 5% lied about the fact that they would lie.)
Today I had an appointment with my rheumatologist - the specialist who coordinates the bulk of the care regarding my very rare autoimmune condition, Behçet's Disease (BD). Because my disease is so rare - the most common figure I hear is that there is somewhere between 10,000-15,000 people in the United States with that condition. (For comparison, the football stadium at my alma mater - Boise State University - currently holds 34,000 people.) Last spring I started receiving infusions of a chemotherapy drug called Remicade to treat my BD, but because Remicade is not labeled by the FDA for use with BD, my insurance company revoked the coverage and I had to discontinue my infusions - therefore losing the benefits I had already gained in just 3 treatments. In my appointment today my doctor talked to me about some of my options - but sadly, there aren't too many out there. (The next medication we're looking to start is Enbrel, which would be a weekly injection I would give myself in the muscles in my abdomen.) The same problem exists with every medication - there is no such thing as a medication labeled by the FDA for Behçet's. Most insurance companies will approve "lesser" medications in a situation like this, when valid use can be assumed for conditions similar to those on the label. However, the more expensive the medication gets the more incentive the insurance company has to deny the claim - and considering that each Remicade infusion costs around $20,000 (and I'd get an infusion every 6 weeks), they have a lot of incentive to deny me! To fully understand the benefit of these medications you'd have to fully understand the devastating effects of a chronic autoimmune disease like BD, which is not something I'll get into in this post. Suffice it to say it is a life-altering disease, which steals away much quality of life from those who have it and the loved ones around them. There is no cure, and few adequate treatments.
So here's where it gets sticky: my rheumatologist suggested that he simply write into my chart a diagnosis that I don't have (such as Rheumatoid Arthritis) - one that is already on the label for the medications we are considering - so that I could be approved, receive the medication, and better control my symptoms thus improving our quality of life.
What would you answer?
This reminds me all too much of the warning we find in the book of Job:
"Be careful, do not turn to evil, for you have preferred this to affliction."
❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖◆❖
No comments:
Post a Comment