When you are enrolled in Medicare as I am, you are encouraged to get a “FREE” wellness checkup with your doctor once a year.

Free? Medicare premiums were deducted from my paycheck for most of my working years. Now that I’m retired, a monthly premium is deducted from my Social Security check, and I pay an additional premium for my Medicare Advantage plan. So it ain’t free.

Anyway, the wellness thing consists of a two page questionnaire basically asking me if I’m well. Then I go to the doctor’s office, where he reads my answers, agrees with my conclusions, and pronounces me well.

I really like my doctor. He’s a very pleasant and caring young man (he’s also very competent, but that’s supposed to be a given, right?) We usually have a nice chat, then we schedule for next year. He did order some blood work today, and one test which I shall not name because it involves some very unpleasant prep work. (Let the reader understand.)

I do something like a wellness check with my car too. I take it to the dealer, ask them to change the oil and do an overall safety check. This they did a couple of weeks ago, and I was presented with a reasonable bill for the oil change, and a two page list of recommended repairs totaling about $1,500 not including a new set of tires. I’m getting a second opinion tomorrow.

There’s one more wellness checkup I do, and this one is absolutely free. It’s the checkup I do every morning with my heavenly Father. I read His word first, asking to be guided in the truth. God speaks through this word: encouraging, warning, teaching, comforting, and directing me. Then I speak back to him; adoring, confessing, thanking, and asking. The Spirit oversees the whole conversation, and produces in me the desired result (God’s, not mine.).And by His grace and mercy I am pronounced “well”.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalms 139:23-24 (ESV)