For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
~John 3:16
For several weeks, I felt a little off kilter; I didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t feel well. I attributed it to busyness, good stress, and brutal seasonal allergies. Then I noticed I was getting winded when I walked. When I couldn’t get my breath after climbing the three flights of stairs at work, which I had done several times a day for months, I thought perhaps I needed to give my primary care doctor a call the next morning.
That plan changed. Quickly. When I woke up the next morning, I was extremely winded and felt awful. When I took my blood pressure, I realized I was near-crisis. I knew I needed to get medical attention. I considered waiting until the urgent care center opened, but decided with my symptoms, they would send me to the ER - via ambulance. So I drove to the ER. While I felt lousy and out of breath, I had a perfect peace.
I walked into an eerily quiet ER and thought “great, it’s not busy. I’ll get this looked at and be quickly on my way. After all, I have plans for the day.” I described my shortness of breath and high BP to the triage nurse, then he asked if I had any chest pain. I replied I didn’t have pain, but I felt chest pressure because I couldn’t catch my breath, which I was pretty confident was caused by my whacky BP. Apparently, he didn’t give my diagnostic opinion any consideration, because before I knew it, I was in the back surrounded by medical staff with a dozen things going on simultaneously. It reminded me of the time I volunteered in the church nursery and was given a cup of dry cheerios: I was ambushed by crawling babies.
Slowly, my BP numbers began to inch downward. I was not pleased when the practitioner told me I was being admitted for further testing and observation. While I knew it was necessary, I prefer to be on the periphery of excitement, not the center, or cause, of it. There were tests, tests and more tests.
As I lay strapped down during a heart CT scan, I started to ponder the what-ifs? What if there was something wrong with my heart? What if it was serious? What if it required expensive medication and treatment? What if my insurance didn’t cover these tests? What if this visit depleted my emergency fund? What if...? I stopped. I needed to take my thoughts captive. God is my provision, continually.
Thankfully, all my tests results were good and I was released to the care of my primary doctor. Apparently, I have inherited my family’s hypertensive genes. And thankfully, the medication seems to be working. I didn’t realize how poorly I had felt for so long.
Last night, I decided to log on to my insurance website and view the posted claims. I confess the charge amount I saw caused me to catch my breath. I had already paid my hospital admittance deductible, and hesitantly scrolled down to see how much more I would have to pay. Glory! My portion was zero! I owed nothing else. The insurance covered the difference.
And then I realized…what an amazing object lesson on Good-Friday eve.
I had acquired an enormous debt, a sin debt. (Romans 6:23) Yet, because I am a Christ follower, and know Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, I have met my deductible. (John 3:16) Jesus paid my debt balance.
Jesus is more than my insurance policy against Hell. He is my assurance of hope as I walk out my days on this earth. (Hebrews 11:1) Even more, He is my assurance of a glorious eternity in His presence when I die.
On this Good Friday, if you do not know Jesus personally, I pray you will do a heart check and get your Assurance policy in effect. Be prepared. We never known when our plan for the day will drastically change.
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