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For those of you who have read my blog for sometime, you might recall when I posted “Approaching The Gap” and “In The Gap“. Well, last week I finally got out of the gap. I am no longer stuck in what some refer to as the donut hole in the medicare system. I have now reached catastrophic coverage for my medicare part D. For any of you who know how this works it tells you something about how much I have spent on my medications this year already. The biggest advantage of being out of the gap is that I will now pay what I think is nearly nothing for them. Back when I was approaching the gap, and especially when I was in the gap, I looked forward to when I would be out of the gap and reach catastrophic coverage and most of my cost would be covered.
Of course given that I had written about this in the past I again got to thinking. Catastrophic coverage may be available in medicare part D, and it may be available with your insurance company, but it is not available with God. You see, catastrophic coverage is when you have reached a limit and then something or someone kicks in to cover the rest. God doesn’t have a catastrophic coverage plan. You see, there is no spending what you can, doing as much as you can, then counting on God to do the rest. He is either covering it all for you, or He covers none at all. There is a gap between us and God. Each of us have to choose whether we will allow Christ to cover that gap or if we will attempt to do it on our own. In the end, when catastrophe strikes, those who count on what they can do to bridge that gap will find their coverage insufficient.
With medicare the rules are simple, you spend so much you reach the gap. Spend so much more and you are out of the gap. With God the rules are simple as well. We all have a gap, Christ died to cover the gap and ensure we had the coverage we needed. We can not cover this gap ourselves, it is impossible. For those that believe Christ died to cover them catastrophe never really strikes, for death allows us to be where we have looked forward to being, with God. For those who attempt to cover the gap on their own death is a catastrophe for they discover their coverage was insufficient, and Christ’s coverage is no longer available to them.
If you are attempting to cover the gap on your own, by being good or doing good, consider what a catastrophe it will be when you discover that is insufficient coverage. Consider what a catastrophe it will be when you die and Christ’s coverage is no longer available to you. Sufficient coverage is available to all, through belief in Christ and the coverage He gives us on the cross. The coverage is available to all who call on His name and believe that He has died to bridge the gap between us and God. If you believe that only Christ gives us sufficient coverage and have not yet called out to him to accept that coverage, do so now. You do not want to discover you have insufficient coverage when you need it.
For those of you who read my blog regularly, you might recall that back in December I wrote about signing up for my medicare part D coverage. How I would be, for the first time, Approaching The Gap. Well, I’ve done it, I’ve reached the gap! Believe it or not I have already managed to reach the coverage gap for medicare part D by just the 3rd month of the year. Not a shock to me at all, as I knew I would reach it this quickly. I also know that the next two months I will be paying not a small amount for my medications because I will be fully in the gap for 2 months.
I am glad however this is the only gap I will be in! For instance, I don’t shop at The Gap. I also don’t like rock climbing, so there is little chance you will find me in a gap between two rocks. Since I had braces as a teenager there are no gaps between my teeth. Most importantly, I am no longer trapped in the gap that existed between myself and God because I accepted the coverage Christ offered me on the cross to cover the gap. So the next 2 months I will pay for my medications in the gap, while remaining thankful that Christ paid my penalty so that there would no longer be a gap between me and God.
Today I did something I never expected to at the age of 39. As if it wasn’t bad enough my mother in law could tease me about being on medicare. Today I was able to call her and give her a really big laugh. I signed up for my medicare part D prescription drug coverage. Which program did I choose? The AARP plan, that’s right, the American Association or Retired Persons. At 39 I have AARP medicare Part D, and I chose that simply because it was the best plan for me and my medications, not for any other reason. So allow the teasing to begin.
For those of you who don’t know how medicare part D works, there is something called THE GAP! This is when you reach your maximum allowed coverage pay out and you pay for all of your medications. This is also known as “the donut hole”. So I am now in phase 1, or approaching the gap, and not looking forward to it! No one on medicare part D does. If however it really was about donut holes, it might not be so bad, maybe that’s why someone coined the phrase “donut hole”, so it wouldn’t sound so bad. Wouldn’t it be nice if everything bad in life had a name that made it sound better. Now once you reach the gap, you can eventually bridge this gap, by paying enough in the gap to reach the next phase, called catastrophic coverage. At the point part D kicks back in, and you are nearly fully covered.
So after I signed up, I had this term “The Gap” stuck in my head, and I thought to myself “in reality we are all approaching the gap”. This gap has to do with the gap between us and God however, and for some of us the gap has been bridged, and for others it hasn’t. Why is that? The gap has been bridged with the required payment, however, like medicare part D, we must sign up to get the coverage, it isn’t automatic. The coverage is provided by Christ who died on the cross for us, and that death pays the penalty needed to bridge the gap. That gap is caused by our sin, and we must confess that sin and admit our need for the coverage to receive it. Problem is, not every one is willing to admit their sin, they like to call sin different things, give it nicer names or ignore it all together. Unless someone admits the gap exists, confesses their sin, trusts in Christ to bridge the gap through His death on the cross, the gap will remain.
I know the gap exists, but for me the gap has been covered, Christ has covered it for me. Only in Him can it be covered. Unlike with medicare part D, we cannot pay enough to bridge the gap on our own. If Christ has not bridged the gap for you ask yourself if you desire for the gap to be bridged. I encourage you to do so by going to the Lord and recognizing that the gap exists, admitting that your sin has created it, and trusting in Christ’s death to bridge it.