Day 10: Necessities and Niceties

I have known poverty in my lifetime. I have known it well enough to know I don't want to live in it again.

And I have known wealth. Wealth that those IN poverty would consider substantial, though in reality I have always considered myself somewhere in the middle class range of society. Either lower middle class, middle middle class, or upper middle class, but always somewhere in the caste of middle society.

I once heard a message from Andy Stanley about being rich, and I realized that I am actually rich. '

I know this because I have clothes in my closet I haven't worn in over a year. I have blankets in that same closet that I am saving because they have sentimental value, though I have never one time used them to keep warm.

I have a room in my house that I only use to eat in twice a year.

I have a bedroom in my house, fully furnished, that no one sleeps in (except an occasional adult child who hangs out at the house a little late and decides to spend the night).

I have a car that sits in my driveway 6 of 7 days of the week. That car has an extra set of car seats in it.

I have food that expires in my pantry.

I am, indeed, rich.

But man, yesterday, I really learned the value of good insurance. And I felt deeply for people who can't afford their medication. Our insurance company has changed at work, and when trying to get a prescription filled, we were told it would be $400! We can't afford that. And we are rich (based on the description above). What do people do that need their medication and can't afford it?

Fortunately for us, it was an insurance mistake and our medication was only $50 (the same $400 medication!) It's ridiculous is all I have to say. Ridiculous. Does it really cost that much to make, market, and distribute medication?

All that to say, I am grateful that we can afford the necessities, and even a good number of the niceties. I need to remember that.