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Gratitude in the Age of Entitlement

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I received notice today that our Health Sharing Ministry Christian Medi-Share had approved a $55000 bill from UT Southwestern for the first phase of my radiation treatments

What this means is my expense will now be shared with Medi-Share’s 200,000 members.

Medi-Share is NOT insurance. It’s a sharing ministry. I pay to support others and they pay to support me when we all need it.

None of us is as strong as all of us.

I can’t imagine a better example of this. As of today I estimate my total cost on this cancer journey to be well in excess of $100,000. Between wacky provider pricing, discounts etc you literally have NO IDEA what you’ve signed up for when you really need care. It’s so messed up.

When I checked in for surgery I asked “how much is this going to cost”? The answer was “would you like to speak with a financial counselor?” Oh and please sign this form accepting full responsibility for yet undefined and un-described liability.

Thank you sir now you can proceed to this life saving surgery that you need.

Wait! What have I signed up for? I have no idea. Would you buy a house for some unknown cost? A car? Anything? Nope. Yet this is exactly what we do now when we get healthcare under duress.

All I can say is thanks be to God for the protective layer of insurance and medical sharing ministries like Medi-Share.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

I am so grateful I don’t know where to start. Maybe I’ll start with tomorrow.

Legacy by Design

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In September, the first week of treatment I attended “XCentric” which is a super-cool event put on by “EO” or the Entrepreneur Network that I belong to.  The location is moves around and this year it happens to be in Dallas. Me and 500+ other “misfits” who start and run businesses get together, network and hear some amazing stories and speakers.

This year’s event is about “Legacy by Design”.   I’ve always been a fan of “Lifestyle Design” and other proactive ways of planning.  

This year one of the speakers told the story of his wife’s inoperable brain tumor, which is basically inaccessible due to the location, meaning they don’t know if it’s benign or not.   He told the story of how this changed his “lens” and his life in a pretty dramatic way.   

We also heard the story of Bradley Callow, who was to be our keynote speaker who was fatally shot tragically a few weeks earlier.  Needless to say, we all now are thinking twice about our “purpose” and our “legacy”.

Life is short.  It’s a gift.  Get over yourself and accept it.

Bingo.   I think I know now that this story needs to be shared – however it ends.

What I will say is I’ve made no secret of this journey.  I post regular updates on Facebook and the EO community has been amazing and supportive.