Dealing with Injustices

Philippians 4:4-7 ESV

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

Dentist, Insurance, and Rent

 

I don’t know about you, but often the Lord will give me a real life situation to go along with my time of devotions with him. My husband and I live on Social Security and we have Medicare (our medical insurance), both of which we paid into in our working years before retirement, and for the purpose to support us in our retirement years. So this was money we earned over the span of 50 years which, again, was to provide for our support now.

 

So, the point of saying all of that is to say we don’t have the kind of income we had when we were working for money, and we don’t have the kind of medical insurance we had then, either, so funds are much more limited now. And then with the increase in the cost of living, with gas prices and food prices and rent now soaring, our budget is even tighter than it was. We can still pay our bills, so that is not an issue, we just don’t have much extra.

 

So, all of that was to lead up to this. Back in January of this year my husband and I both had dental work done, which we were able to pay for with the assistance of our insurance. The insurance paid his but not mine, even though we had the same exact work done. To make a long story short, I and my dentist office have been going back and forth with my insurance company since February for they kept saying they needed more information.

 

And every time they asked for more information, we gave them what they asked for. But then today they called and said they were closing the claim because they didn’t get the information they wanted. So, I called, and they denied that we had had these back and forth conversations and that they had sent the pile of mail that was in my lap. They had no record of any of these conversations so they were denying payment of the claim. Wow!

 

Now, before I made this last phone call I spent some time in prayer because I already did not want to make that phone call in the worst way. I do not like dealing with insurance companies. So I prayed that the Lord would go before me and prepare the way, and he helped me through the entire conversation, I believe. And maybe this is going to turn out to be a blessing in disguise, I don’t know. My dentist office is going to resubmit the claim, so we will see.

 

At the same time, we had been dealing with our apartment management overcharging us as though we had no contract with them, which we did, but which they had failed to put into their system. But I think that has finally been resolved, and it looks like we have the right figures now, but these two financial situations were hitting us at the same time, and we don’t have money just laying around, so we can’t afford much extra expenses.

 

Do Not Be Anxious

 

I was at the point of tears after getting off the phone with the insurance company today, which I can attribute some to female cycles, so I talked my husband into taking a walk with me, and that helped. And we just got back a few minutes ago, and then I sat down to write, and then I saw that the passage of Scripture said, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” How appropriate! So fitting!! It made me smile!

 

I am glad that I prayed ahead of my conversation with the insurance company, and I was aware of the Lord’s presence with me in the conversation, yet still it did take me back a bit when she said they had no record of any of these communications back and forth between us and the insurance company over the past 3 months. She suggested our dental office call them again, and so I said, “okay,” and that ended the conversation.

 

I am at peace now. I know God is in control. I am not worried and I wasn’t worried in the conversation with the insurance, just troubled by the fact that they had no record of our communications. But I might have been worried if I did not pray ahead of time. I knew I must. I know the Lord is allowing these situations to take place for a reason, to teach me to trust him more, to pray before difficult conversations, and to not let these things get to me.

 

Honestly, when I called the dentist office afterwards I wasn’t upset. I was confused by how all those communications could have just disappeared as though they didn’t happen, but I was cheery in talking with our dentist office lady, who is a friend of ours from way back. And I do believe God has this all under control, whether we end up having to pay what we should not have to pay or not. I know I have to accept whatever outcome may be.

 

But I do like this translation which says, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” The word actually means “equitable, yielding, fairness, gentleness, and reasonableness.” I spoke with fairness and reasonableness, explaining my situation, and why the insurance should pay for my dental work. I didn’t get nasty. I spoke with common sense and with sensibility and levelheadedness. There was no rational reason for them to reject my claim nor to discount all these communications, which did surprise me.

 

So, it is okay to challenge things that are wrong, and to speak reason into situations which are not reasonable. Gentleness does not mean weakness. It does mean controlled strength. You aren’t being mean by addressing situations which are wrong or unfair or unjust. We just have to do it in a way that shows our trust is in the Lord, and that we trust him with the outcome, and we must not get hateful and nasty when life is not fair.

 

And if it doesn’t go the way we had hoped or the way that is fair there has to come a point where we yield and we just hand it over to the Lord to work it all out and we just have to rest in him. And sometimes that means paying for things we should not have to pay for. But God will provide. He does not promise us that life will always be fair. In fact, he promises us the opposite. He promises us that we will face injustices. So, we need to be at peace.

 

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

 

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Search me and try me, Master, today!

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,

As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Wounded and weary, help me I pray!

Power, all power, surely is Thine!

Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Hold o'er my being absolute sway.

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me!

 

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