What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? –Micah 6:8
Through the course of a conversation with one of our regular morning coffee drinkers, we discovered that he had lost all of his prescription medications. He didn’t come to us asking for help or assistance. It just came up in everyday conversation about life.
Our staff have seen their share of injustice when people are unable to access the healthcare that they deserve. We heard our guest’s offhanded comment and felt that this was one of those times.
The man had worked to remedy the situation on his own but had gotten absolutely nowhere despite his efforts. The system is convoluted. Nothing works the way it should. There are biases that impact certain people’s care. It is situation that the Sozo Health Ministry has seen much too often, but having seen it before, John had an idea about how to assist the man in sorting through the mess
John went to the pharmacy with the man and together they worked with the pharmacist to figure out what prescriptions the man couldn’t live without, what replacement medications could be ordered, how much of it would be covered by insurance, and where to go from there.
It took time and work on everyone’s part, but eventually they had things sorted out. Unfortunately, there were some replacement prescriptions that wouldn’t be covered by insurance. The man didn’t have extra money on hand to cover this unexpected expense, so John offered to have the Health Ministry assist with it.
The man felt badly. He said he hadn’t wanted John to have to pay anything. He’d just wanted help getting the mess sorted out. He didn’t want to be a charity case. But that’s just it. John wasn’t there to treat the man like a charity case. He was there because he wanted to see justice done in an unjust situation.
That same sense of fighting for justice is what motivates a lot of us who are involved here at Patchwork. I think there is room for even more of it in the world today.
Justice not Charity
