I received a text from Janice today. “They did not have approval for my medicine.” Janice requires long-term immune globulin for an immunodeficiency and my office had forgotten to update her insurance approval. I apologized for the mistake and her wasted time.

R.I.P. “Rest in peace” is usually reserved as a benediction for the dead. But it is the living who need restful sleep, and for one in 10 Americans, this is only an elusive dream. As sleep evades, the mind becomes a strategic battleground and the pillow a daunting beachhead.

It was October 1997 and I was spending a semester studying abroad in Australia. I was at a church service, where a group who had just returned from a trip to Namibia was speaking. I listened to their presentation and was struck by how “meaningful” it all seemed, and how, by contrast, what I was doing (studying civil engineering) was not.

A nasty rumor is going around, and it is my goal to squelch it! It seems many in the church today have been led to believe that one can be a follower of Jesus Christ without being fully devoted. Do you buy into this rumor? Can you make only a partial surrender to Christ and simultaneously sing “It Is Well With My Soul?”

We were seated in a large circle, each with our spouse, sharing family war stories so that we might hold them up to the Lord-physicians, dentists, physician assistant, medical student, resident in obstetrics. Linda shared her story and then concluded before we prayed, “We have our struggles-but we are struggling well.”