{"id":2816,"date":"2023-07-20T07:35:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T11:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2023-07-20T07:36:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T11:36:49","slug":"lifting-burdens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/20\/lifting-burdens\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifting Burdens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.
 
Sometimes a small group with a small amount of money can make a very big difference. 
 
John Jackman is the pastor of Trinity Moravian Church, a congregation of about 75-80 people in a ramshackle neighborhood in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  He and his flock have long tried to be on the front lines of those serving the poor.
 
They just never dreamed they could help lift the crushing burden of medical debt from myriads of households. 
 
Nearly one in ten Americans wake up every day facing medical bills they cannot pay.  They may be unemployed or without decent insurance.  Maybe the care they received was out of network.  Perhaps they\u2019ve simply been clobbered by one medical crisis after another.  As the financial obligations become overwhelming, \u201cpayment due\u201d notices pile up.  Then come threatening voice mails.  Debt collectors may even go to court to authorize the garnishment of wages or the impounding of an automobile.   
 
Medical debt can feel like a dark cloud that will never disappear.   
 
Jackman and his congregation heard about an opportunity to drive some of those dark clouds away.  They opened an account with RIP Medical Debt, a not-for-profit initiative founded in 2014 by two former debt collectors who figured out a unique way to bless struggling people.  RIP purchases bundles of outstanding medical debt at auction, basically for pennies on the dollar.  Then they forgive those debts<\/em>.    
 
Here\u2019s how it worked for Trinity Moravian Church. 
 
The congregation was asked to make contributions to help eliminate the debts of total strangers.  Jackman hoped for $5,000.  The church came through with $15,000 instead.  RIP took that money and went to auction, where they were able to purchase almost $4 million of medical debt in their community.  RIP then generated letters to each of the households that were on the hook for that money, delivering the good news that their financial obligations had been purchased and forgiven.  In an instant, their medical debts were gone.   
 
Because of Trinity\u2019s gift, at least a thousand families received that staggering news.  
 
Jackman reflects, \u201cWe\u2019ve undertaken a number of projects in the past, but there\u2019s never been anything quite like this.  For families that we know cannot deal with these things, we\u2019re taking the weight off of them.\u201d
 
According to a recent podcast of The New Yorker Radio Hour<\/em>, RIP has abolished almost $9 billion of indebtedness, helping over 5 million people nationwide.
 
How is this possible? 
 
Allison Sesso, the CEO of RIP, calls it \u201cthe strange economics of debt.\u201d  When medical debt collectors have made every realistic attempt to extract payments from individuals and families, they don\u2019t have many options.  There will always be patients, realistically, who will never be able to write that last check.  Portfolios of medical debt, therefore, may end up on the debt market, where such bundles trade at steeply discounted prices.  At least the collectors can walk away with a little something.   
 
Typically, debt purchasers will then try to go after the dollars themselves.  But they have another option.  Like RIP, they can write a thousand miraculous letters that say, \u201cYour debt has been abolished.\u201d 
 
Sesso points out that RIP is \u201ctotally blind to the attributes of those in debt.\u201d  In other words, they don\u2019t target particular names, ages, or ethnicities.  If a household has incurred more medical debt than 5% of their total income, and if they don\u2019t qualify for subsidies, they\u2019re candidates for RIP\u2019s intervention.
 
Churches, individuals, and socially responsible corporations are pursuing this new opportunity.  And, touchingly, so are a number of those whose debt has been forgiven.  Having received grace, they\u2019re eager to \u201cpay it forward.\u201d 
 
Followers of Jesus believe something like this happened at the cross. 
 
Grace<\/em> \u2013 God\u2019s unexpected, unearned, undeserved favor \u2013 was traded straight up for the world\u2019s cumulative sin debt.
 
By God\u2019s grace, the weight of the burdens that have always threatened to crush our lives \u2013 the destructive habit, the broken promise, the squandered opportunity, the bitter memory, the deep regret \u2013 was lifted forever.
 
But what makes grace so amazing is what happens when we actually receive it.
 
We\u2019re free to go and help unburden others in Jesus\u2019 name. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Sometimes a small group with a small amount of money can make a very big difference.  John Jackman is the pastor of Trinity Moravian Church, a congregation of about 75-80 people in a ramshackle neighborhood in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  He and his flock have long tried to be on the front lines of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-generosity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2819,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions\/2819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}